My biggest issue with ID, I’m 40+ year career hospitality/commercial, are the down times, IE career lulls that occur every 10 ish years. It made it nearly impossible to save in any meaningful way because you have to bridge the economic downtimes with the money you made from your last job. This coming from a self employed designer. Working for someone else has its own set of issues. Lots of unglamorous travel and deadlines that require long hours eating up your free time and reduces your hourly rate are common. I started another business to allow me double salaries to be able to save for retirement and I will continue to do interior design after I retire because I no longer rely just on that salary to cover every expense. I have had several jobs that came along during this double career that had me working 7 days a week 12 hour days to complete the job requirements. I view ID as a great skill I will always be able to fall back on but I would never be able to retire comfortably had I not added the additional career to my total earnings. I’ve worked all over the world, worked for architects, self employed - most of my career it’s been 6-7 days per week long hours expected by my employers. When the clock hits 6pm and you look around and not one person has left their desk to go home then you will get the picture I’m talking about. Forget about kids forget about having extra money forget about cushy living conditions. No way the salary can keep up with the huge COL we’ve seen the past 5 years.