There is an article over at money.com on when it pays to take a pay cut. This struck a chord with me immediately because of the large monthly cut I have voluntarily taken to try and make the websites my full time job. According to the article, these are the times when taking a pay cut may make sense:

The new job is in an area where the cost of living is lower and your money will go farther

When you need a break.

I don’t really fall into any of these groups for the reason I chose to take a large pay cut, so I would also add:

When you see the potential for much larger earnings in the long run.

This is often a difficult one to express to others. I know this from experience close to home. My wife thinks that I’m crazy and we’ve had many a “financial disagreement” (ie - argument) over the subject. This usually comes about toward the end of the month (oh, look where we are? - doesn’t that seem appropriate ) when money is tight and she knows if I would spend my time doing other work, the monthly budget wouldn’t be tight at all.

We’ve bridged this issue by my agreeing that I will bring in a minimum amount of money each month which means I do need to spend a few days each month working on auctions. Still, it can cause a lot of problems when on person can’t see the other person’s vision. This is even compounded to a greater degree from others looking from the outside or when you switch from a job that pays well that people understand to an area that pays a lot less and with which people aren’t familiar.

While I see very little risk in making this move (I can always go back to what I was doing before this if it doesn’t work out and the value of the sites will have grown, produce a better monthly stream of income and be more valuable), trading a larger salary for a smaller one goes against the common sense of many people no matter what the underlying reasons may be.