<prompt> Human: Right now I make a pretty good living at my corporate office job. Its a very stable job in that I know I have a very low chance of being laid off and there will always be work for me to do. Since I graduated from grad school, Ive been able to aggressively pay off a good chunk of my 100k student loan debt which are fixed at 7.9. However, Ive been pretty unhappy with the job itself for months. What originally attracted me to this role was the aspiration of being part of a creative team that aspired to induce positive changes in a large corporation. That dream has been slowly dying as my team members departed as a result of layoffs or attrition. Since I started, Ive lost 14 team members. The work I do is not challenging, but there is so much to do I often have to spend my nights and weekends working. Much of my time in the actual office is spent on the phone speaking to people that lack competence or do not inspire me. Moreover, the company just relocated to a new office, thereby tripling my commute time from 30 minutes to 90 or more.I was recently offered a great job doing exciting new work with more opportunities to learn. It is with a smaller, not-for-profit organization closer to home. It is a one-year contract with full salary and benefits, but the salary is 25 less than what I make now. This means I would have to curb how much I put away for student loans, contribute less to my 401k, pinch more pennies, and continue not adding to my savings. While Im excited about the new job, Im not sure that, as a not-for-profit organization, if they can come up with a suitable counter offer. If I took this job, would this paycut could hurt me and my career in the future? Would I be shooting myself in the foot?EDIT: To answer some questions in the comments... I have been at my current job for 1.5 years. I have a masters degree. And yes, my job is more secure than other team members who have left because 1 - I am not in a high enough rank to be laid off for political reasons and 2 - the particular projects I work on are funded by a third party and extremely lucrative for my company. They are desperate for more resources of my type to support the work that keeps coming in.  <response>: Stepping away from the financial aspect:You spend about 14 of your waking life at work, and a good deal of your non-work time thinking about work, or in your case, working. Put the money aside and think of your happiness. If your overall happiness take having less money into consideration is greater at the new opportunity then go for it. Theres not much worse than feeling like you have to keep a job you hate. Simply put, you dont need to keep the job.After one year, if youre not kept on, find a new job. Knowing that the deadline is coming, it might not be too difficult; as you know to start looking well in advance. 