Where do you go at a certain point in your career as a reasonably high earner? While I appreciate it's a privileged position to be in, it seems to be a road of diminishing returns in Ireland.
I'm mid 30's and earning 130 to 140k in current role, couple of days wfh, some travel, some irregular hours but overall it balances out fairly good and has decent variety for now. I don't see any pathway to earn significantly more without huge effort in my career (Engineering).
Senior Management roles, difficult to land and not very appealing for very little gain, would be difficult to see ever pushing much beyond a 160 or 170k going that route without being exceptionally driven/political/lucky. I earned slightly more in my previous company but I was doing way more hours and travel which impacts family life, even an additional 5 to 10 hours a week is huge as your midweek just becomes 100% work and you pay 50% tax on the difference so what is the point?
At the same time it's difficult to accept no personal/career growth for the next 30 years or becoming very complacent. It's also the case that 130k doesn't feel like it used to and it's difficult to see wages rising to meet current cost of living pressures.
Interesting to hear other peoples perspectives in similar positions? Do nothing? go the career route? or look at side business (don't have a clue what though) options to diversify and maybe become less dependent on primary career in the future?