Life Advice from Racers

My two cents:

Prioritize. Figure out what you're looking for in a job, and list those from most important to least important. Honestly, it sounds to me like the top of your list is 6-figure salary. Power to you, but that's not the top of my list. I like to feel good about interacting with coworkers and customers on a day-to-day basis, like to feel a sense of accomplishment, a sense of pride in my work. Money is about #4 or 5 on my list. Once you've got that list, compare it to where you've worked already; how do your old jobs measure up? Maybe your goal should be to amass a nice fat bankroll (as previously suggested) and go find something really enjoyable to do at a lower pay grade.

I'm 22, make $50k/year as an engineer, married, no kids, two dogs, lots of crappy old car projects. I got started racing this spring. My thought is this: if I had to spend $30k a year on racing 1) I wouldn't be racing and 2) my wife would KILL me and use that money to buy horses. To me, racing is racing. Get into something affordable if you're really that hung up on how expensive it is. Autocross a Miata, drive for a ChumpCar or LeMons team, buy a shifter kart, whatever. There are entry-level racing options.

Welcome to the board.

Figure out what your personal values are and live your life with integrity to those values - you're the only one who has to live with yourself so you might as well be someone you like. If it's money fine. If you want to balance it with experiences - that's even better in my book.

Some mentioned insurance/finance...you mentioned you have no problem facilitating a client making a poor life decision - maybe you should stay out of businesses where people might depend on you to have their interests in mind.

I would "settle" for the 6-digit income (which is damn good in the US unless you live in NYC/SF) and not work so hard, but that's me, and I'm the kind of person who really enjoys free time. You sound like a bit of a workaholic compared to me - maybe you're just a person who has trouble occupying their own free time, nothing wrong with that.

I see you also said you can't "take a swing and enjoy it." Well try doing that. I dunno about you but I don't get a lot of enjoyment looking at how much money I have in the bank. Spend the money on something you enjoy, you can afford it.

I make so much less than you I'd be embarrassed to hint at how great the difference is, and I have 2 fun cars and compete with both of them, no problem. Once you have the car, autocross doesn't cost much more than online sim racing, it's very cheap.

I think you need to have more modest salary expectations if you'd like to go to another field of work. Most places, you need to get in on the ground level, prove your worth, then you can move up the chain of command, with the appropriate increase in pay. Other than that, sales is only place where you can land a bigger salary just by being good right off the start, and that is hardly a sure thing.

It seems you have workaholic tendencies, and might be well served to create your own business, especially since "selling" doesn't seem to be a problem for you.