Quit a High Paying Job Because I Hate It?

Summary

The Ramsey Show Highlights: “Quit a High Paying Job Because I Hate It?”

Date: June 20, 2026
Host: Dave Ramsey (with Financial Advisor co-host)
Format: Caller Q&A, under ten minutes

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Episode Overview

This episode tackles a recurring modern dilemma: Should you quit a high-paying job if it leaves you unhappy, even if the alternative means a significant pay cut? The hosts, Dave Ramsey and a Financial Advisor, guide a 29-year-old mortgage officer through his struggle with work-life balance, toxic company culture, and dreams of a new career. The discussion explores career transitions, the risks of running away from a bad job, and strategies for making big life changes without sacrificing financial stability.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Caller’s Situation

• Mortgage loan officer, ~29 years old, making ~$250,000/year (all commission, little job security)
• Increasingly miserable due to toxic, work-first/family-second culture, overwork, and lack of fulfillment
• Feels company is "best in terms of technology" but culture has "gotten worse in the last 12 months" [01:22]
• Concerned about starting a family and being present for his future children

Exploring the Real Issue: Work or Environment?

• Dave Ramsey: “Is it the work or is it the environment in which you're doing the work?” [00:58]
• Both hosts push the caller to evaluate whether the job itself or the specific company environment is the core problem
• Dave challenges belief that only this company offers high income in the field:
  “I am not buying the fact that you can make $250,000 at one company and you can't work normal hours and work for good people and have a better balance... I don't believe that.” [02:04]

Considering the Trades: Electrician Apprenticeship

• Caller has a family friend encouraging him to become a union electrician apprentice
• Apprenticeship would start at $21/hr, rise to ~$42/hr in 5 years
  (Journeyman salary: estimated ~$130,000/year at the peak, possibly more as a foreman)
• Would be a five-year process, and would still represent a substantial pay cut vs. current earnings

Hosts Question the Logic

• Dave Ramsey: “Because this one company that you work for sucks and so now you're going to go be an electrician?” [03:09]
• Financial Advisor: Questions if this is about running to something or fleeing from something, expressing doubt about such a dramatic change given the caller’s financial skills and earning power

Financial Check-In (Real-Life Numbers)

• $15,000 in checking
• $25,000 emergency fund
• $115,000 high yield savings (set aside for wedding, house down payment)
• No debt

Core Advice: Don’t Confuse Company Woes with Career Field

• Dave Ramsey:
  “I think you've convoluted the career field as being horrible with the company as being horrible. And you need to separate those two things first before you make this decision.” [07:46]
• Financial Advisor:
  “When you're clearly really good at something and you're clearly very gifted at it, it's hard to then say, but you're not going to do that. You're going to go to this.” [08:02]

“Escape vs. Journey” – The Real Motivation

• Both hosts pick up on the desperation to exit, not a thoughtful path forward: “This smells like an escape rather than a journey.” – Dave Ramsey [08:23]
• Emphasis on avoiding the “false dichotomy” that the only option is either staying in a toxic company or radically changing fields

Concrete Steps Forward

• First, leave current company and seek similar roles at firms with healthier culture
• Re-evaluate job satisfaction in a new environment before abandoning industry
• Only then consider a more drastic career shift—and if so, leverage existing talent and possibly look at business ownership within a new field

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Dave Ramsey:
  “You don't, you already don't have faith in leadership. Why are you listening to anything?” [02:46]
• Dave Ramsey:
  “You have painted the best possible scenario for a union journeyman electrician and it's gonna take you five freaking years to get back to half of your income.” [06:48]
• Financial Advisor:
  “He doesn't have to choose between this and that. There are some other routes he can go through before he can.” [08:43]
• Dave Ramsey:
  “It's a false dichotomy that the only way to be happy is to completely leave everything that you're doing.” [08:48]
• Dave Ramsey:
  “This is like they have wounded you so badly that you're willing to jump into a pit of acid to get away from them.” [06:26]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:06 – Caller describes situation and discontent
• 01:03 – Identifying that environment, not work, is the real issue
• 02:04 – Dave Ramsey challenges belief that only this company offers high income
• 03:09 – Exploring the electrician apprenticeship option
• 04:19 – Caller shares financial status and life plans
• 05:27 – Details on electrician apprenticeship path and pay
• 06:48 – Dave and advisor challenge the logic of a dramatic pay cut for a career change
• 07:46 – Advice: Separate company from career field before making drastic moves
• 08:23 – Framing the dilemma as “escape vs. journey”
• 08:48 – Encouragement to consider alternatives and avoid false dichotomies

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Summary Takeaways

• Unhappiness at work doesn’t necessarily mean the entire career field is the problem; be wary of tunnel vision after a negative experience
• Massive career changes should be made thoughtfully, not in reaction to miserable environments
• Test less drastic changes: Find a healthier company in the same industry before cutting earnings in half or more
• Don’t let desperation drive your decisions—ensure change is a journey toward something meaningful, not just a flight from pain

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This episode offers a practical, reality-check conversation for anyone struggling with toxic work culture and contemplating big life changes. The advice balances empathy with financial wisdom—encouraging listeners to plan assertive but measured steps toward a happier, saner work life.

Transcript

[Dave Ramsey]

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[Caller]

Trying to figure out if I'm losing my mind from wanting to walk away from a high paying job and start all over and something new that pays quite a bit less. At least a start. So I'm in a financial sales position right now. It's almost all commission, so I average around 250,000 a year. And I know I'm blessed to be in a financial position I'm in, but for the last couple of years I found zero fulfillment in this job and I've been pretty unhappy. The culture is very much like work first, family second. And there's not a whole lot of job security. We're really pushed to work past the schedule hours, work every single weekend and it's really starting to affect my relationships outside of work. A financial product, mortgage.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so you're a mortgage underwriter

[Caller]

Officer. Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

A loan officer. Yeah.

[Financial Advisor]

Okay, so is it the work or is it the environment in which you're doing the work?

[Dave Ramsey]

Now why can't you do that somewhere else that has reasonable culture and reasonable hours and makes a little less? And it's actually not the actual day to day work, it's the environment and the hours and the lack of and the bad priorities that's driving you crazy, right?

[Caller]

Yes. And I've had quite a few workers or co workers that have left and went to other companies in the industry and ultimately pretty much every one of them comes back to the company we're at because they said this is really the best company in terms of, you know, technology and stuff. But the culture has been like this and has really gotten worse over the last, I would say 12 months. And what I'm worried about mainly is over the next couple years I want to be in a position where I'm starting a family and I look at my co workers and I see them really struggling to keep up in the job and you know, be there, be present for their families. And I just don't want to end up being the parent or.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, but again, again, I am not buying the fact that you can make $250,000 at one company and you can't work normal hours and work for good people and have a better balance to what you're doing at a different company and make 150 to 200 at a different company. I don't believe that. I think your co workers have given you a message that's not true. As if there's one place on the planet that this whole thing can Happen and it works and everywhere else it doesn't work. Bull crap.

[Caller]

Correct. Yeah. And that's the, that's really the feeling that, you know, we get from leadership.

[Dave Ramsey]

I don't care what leadership told you. You don't, you already don't have faith in leadership. Why are you listening to anything?

[Financial Advisor]

So what, what, what opportunities have you been looking at?

[Caller]

Yeah, so we have a family friend who's an electrician in our area and he's been trying to get me to, to be an apprentice for quite a while now.

[Financial Advisor]

Why that's so a completely different.

[Dave Ramsey]

Because this one company that you work for sucks and so now you're going to go be an electrician.

[Caller]

He doesn't know anything about my, my

[Dave Ramsey]

job, so why would he even ask?

[Financial Advisor]

Yeah, we're talking about you. Why would you do.

[Dave Ramsey]

I mean, okay, I'm an electrician and I know a guy that is a mortgage guy who's obviously making a lot of money. Maybe, I don't know, it's a quarter million dollars a year. Why would I even talk to that guy about being an electrician? That's just strange.

[Caller]

Yeah. He knows I've always been interested in working with my hands and I ended up just kind of falling into this job through an internship in college. And it was always supposed to be, you know, I'll do this for a couple years and then move on to something else.

[Financial Advisor]

How old are you?

[Caller]

I'm 29.

[Financial Advisor]

And how long have you been doing the mortgage broker deal?

[Caller]

About eight years.

[Financial Advisor]

Eight years. Okay, so you're looking at this going, man, I fell into this job. This is not what I intended to do. This is not what I set out to do. I need to stop this train and I need to get on the path that I really want to be on.

[Caller]

Correct.

[Financial Advisor]

Understood. Okay. How are you doing financially?

[Caller]

I'm good. So I have, in my checking account I have about 15,000. I do have an emergency fund with about 25,000 in it and a high yield savings, no debt at all. I'm very, very fortunate there. And then I have a high yield savings with about 115 that was supposed to be for hopefully a wedding here in the next year or two and then a down payment on a house and that sort of stuff.

[Financial Advisor]

Okay, so you're getting married in the next year. Any kids?

[Caller]

No.

[Financial Advisor]

Okay, listen, I do think that you should do work that matters to you, work that you feel good about. It's all about how can we get there and is there a way that over time we can create the Same value. Because the hard part for me is to know that you were worth $250,000 in the marketplace and then to go down without the horizon of being able to meet that, that peak again, that would bother me personally. If it doesn't bother you, that's okay. So tell us about the electrician. What's the route, what does it look like and what do you want to know from us?

[Caller]

No problem. So it would be a five year apprenticeship. It would be a union electrician. So I'd start at about $21 an hour in five years. When I make it through, I'd be a journeyman. Right now the pay is about $42 an hour. But that would just be my base pay. Doesn't include like any fringe benefits or anything on top of that, like health insurance money going into a retirement account. When I do the math, working the same amount of hours I'm working right now, which is 55 to 60 a

[Dave Ramsey]

week, you don't want to work that.

[Financial Advisor]

So we can't compare it to that.

[Caller]

Correct. You're right. So it would be a pay cut at the five year mark. If I, you know, make it through the apprenticeship, I'd be sitting around about 130 a year as a journeyman.

[Financial Advisor]

And that's kind of the peak.

[Caller]

Correct? Yep. Unless I would move up to be a foreman and so on.

[Dave Ramsey]

And you really hate this company.

[Financial Advisor]

I think so too.

[Dave Ramsey]

This is like they have wounded you so badly that you're willing to jump into a pit of acid to get away from them.

[Financial Advisor]

Yeah. How do you know that? You'll love being an electrician to the tune of a hundred thousand dollar pay cut

[Caller]

that I don't know for sure. And that's what scares me the most. And why. Why I called in to get your guys's advice on this. I know I don't.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'm not buying. I think you're running so hard away from something that you're not looking carefully at what you're running to. So if I were gonna advise a 29 year old who made $250,000 a year, who's in a toxic culture and he knows how to sell. I'm not against the trades. I'm a fan of the trades. Okay. But you have painted the best possible scenario for a union journeyman electrician and it's gonna take you five freaking years to get back to half of your income.

[Financial Advisor]

Yeah. Could you not?

[Dave Ramsey]

And that just not. It's just not logical.

[Financial Advisor]

Could you not go to another mortgage firm first and test that out and go, okay, like, this is good. Cause Dave's right. You're clearly good at what you do. And generally it's.

[Dave Ramsey]

I think you could make 160, 180,000 day one somewhere else, working normal hours and not being spit on every day or whatever's happening over there and then

[Financial Advisor]

see how you feel.

[Dave Ramsey]

You've got to get away from the place. I'm not disagreeing with that. But I think you've convoluted the career field as being horrible with the company as being horrible. And you need to separate those two things first before you make this decision.

[Financial Advisor]

It's hard to me when. And you'll probably be able to put better words to this, but when you're clearly really good at something and you're clearly very gifted at it, it's hard to then say, but you're not going to do that. You're going to go to this. Do you know what I mean? You've got that talent and that gifting for some reason, I don't know, that's.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's hard to walk again. This smells like an escape rather than a journey.

[Financial Advisor]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

And it just doesn't smell right. And so you ask our opinions and we've given a whole three minutes of thought to your whole life. Okay. So it's not really fair to you.

[Financial Advisor]

Well, he doesn't have to choose between this and that. There are some other routes he can go through before he can.

[Dave Ramsey]

I think it's a false dichotomy that the only way to be happy is. Is to completely leave everything that you're doing. I would start by leaving the company that you're in and then see where that takes us first. And then I would decide from there. And then, is there another way that I can do electrician and own a company that is electricians and so forth. That puts us. How are the Ramsey show in the books? We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of peace, Christ Jesus. Create your free every dollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your life.