‘I ditched banking to run a bookshop – and happily took a 75pc pay cut'

Telegraph

25-02-2025

What is the biggest pay cut you've taken in your career? Email: [e-mail].
The prospect of working in finance had never filled Sarah Dennis with joy. But as a maths graduate, accepting a 12-week internship – and then a graduate job – at the investment bank, UBS, felt like the done thing.
'I started in operations, before moving into back office logistics and then into risk control, where I was able to use my maths skills more,' explains Dennis.
'I worked with good people, the work was challenging, and it enabled me to have a nice lifestyle, though it was never particularly exciting.'
Dennis has since traded in her 'nice lifestyle' to own and run a couple of charming bookshops in the Cotswolds. She earns much less, but for her, the switch has been worth it.
It's a move that goes firmly against the grain of standard career progression, where workers jostle for the next promotion and pay rise.
The drive to earn more money is especially sought-after against an economic backdrop of high inflation and increased living costs, regardless of the job satisfaction that comes with it. In fact, the assumption tends to be that it's nigh on impossible to have both a job you like, and a salary you're satisfied with.
Yet a report from British think tank, The Resolution Foundation, showed that although workers in poorer households remain less likely to be satisfied with their job, and more likely to have an insecure employment contract, good pay has become less of a priority for all workers.
When asked about what they considered to be the most important aspects of work, an overwhelming majority of low-to-middle income and higher-income workers emphasised liking the work they do, having job security and having good relationships with colleagues and bosses.
Notably, for both low-to-middle income and higher-income workers, 'good pay' ranks far below these job considerations.
This is supported by a January 2025 study from the recruitment agency, Robert Walters, which found that 60pc of professionals are willing to stick to a lower-paying job if it offers flexibility, rather than switching roles solely for better pay.
So, what's it like to be in love with your work, and not care about making stacks of cash?
'I asked myself – why wasn't I doing a job that made me happy?'
Dennis had tried to leave her career years before she eventually cut ties.
Eight years into her role at the investment bank, she told her boss she was ready to try something new. The response was an offer to move to New York.
'Just after the financial crash in 2008, I went to lead a team tasked with recreating the entire stress testing framework,' she explains.
It was challenging, and although her New York life was great and she was earning more than £125,000, she kept thinking: there must be more to life.
Then her father died from pancreatic cancer in his mid-60s. He'd always had plans to travel when he retired, and it made Dennis question everything.
'Why wasn't I doing a job that made me happy?' she says. 'So I quit my job, put everything in storage, and travelled around South America and Southeast Asia.'
During the 11-month trip, Dennis began thinking seriously about making a career out of books, which had been her eternal happy place.
'I came back and worked at Waterstones to check that bookselling wasn't some weird romantic notion,' she explains. 'To build up some capital, I went back into finance and withdrew my US pension pot – I took a tax hit, but it was worth it.'
She bought Mostly Books in Abingdon in 2017, followed by Borzoi Bookshop in Stow-on-the-Wold, in 2021.
With some savvy planning, Dennis ensured the huge drop in earnings – to roughly a quarter of what she was making in New York – didn't come as too much of a shock.
Before leaving banking, Dennis set herself up with a manageable mortgage and a modest deposit on a house, and used travelling on a shoestring to reset her attitude to personal finances.
'I also spent six weeks working with a charity that helps Peruvians find microfinance deals, which reset my ideas of what I needed to get by,' she explains. 'Although I still do what I want, within reason, I have to think about money more than I ever used to.'
Dennis splits most of her time between the two bookshops, and the business is always front of mind.
'I'm lucky now, because I have a strong team of 11 staff, so I can take a day off if I need, though that's not very often,' she says. 'It's a tricky time for retail generally, so we have to work really hard.'
Although she recognised that working for a big corporation offers some form of security, her time in banking showed that risk is around every corner. And, for her, the positives of bookselling far outweigh the negatives.
Now 46, and surrounded by a supportive network of other independent booksellers, Dennis adores her work.
'I love the customer interaction, especially talking to kids about books,' she explains. 'The ongoing relationships we develop with regulars is lovely and it's always exciting to meet authors through our events.'
Christmas is her highlight of the year, when she resorts back to basics by 'running around offering recommendations and selling books', she says. 'It's all so satisfying.'
'I work hard for the money I make'
Tony Wolstenholme is soon to mark his 50th year as a beekeeper, which has included working as an educator and mentor to other beekeepers, developing his own hives and selling honey products.
The former Naval weapon engineer now keeps hives at The Langley Hotel in Slough and manages apiaries by Virginia Water and at the country house of Fort Belvedere.
With the physical toll, threat of climate change, and other wildlife interfering with the hives, none of it is easy money for Wolstenholme, but aged 85, the passion for apiculture keeps him hooked in.
'I work hard for what I make, but at the end of the day, I feel I'm contributing to our ecology, which is pleasing,' he says.
Wolstenholme has always enjoyed the autonomy of his beekeeping – a key factor for ensuring job satisfaction, according to the Resolution Foundation – which he began in the 1970s, when a period of high inflation prompted more widespread interest in self-sufficiency, including the practices and benefits of apiculture.
Reading any books he could, and sharing a hive and equipment with a neighbour, Wolstenholme found himself to be genuinely interested, and took a basic assessment course at a local agricultural college to get started.
'Membership to several local beekeeping societies led to a position as an education officer, building a syllabus for a beginners' course and teaching it on Saturdays,' he explains. 'I learned a lot, and soon enough, I was going around the world with what started as a bit of a whim.'
He's attended three international Apimondia conferences in Ljubljana, Dublin and Kyiv and acted as the Russian interpreter for the head of Ukraine's Beekeeping Research Institute, as well as mentoring England team members for the International Meeting of Young Beekeepers.
Now though, Wolstenholme remains busy tending to his hives. Combining his hourly earnings from Fort Belvedere and Virginia Water, and earnings from honey sales to The Langley, Wolstenholme earns around £3,000 a year, and is supported by his military pension.
'I used to keep [bees] in Windsor, by the Thames, but as the years have gone by and climate change has developed, the water has risen,' explains Wolstenholme. 'Not long ago, the Thames went up by a metre in just 24 hours and the hives were inundated.'
He lost five colonies, and the equivalent of £1,500, prompting a move to areas of more protected, drier land.
Loss is a normal part of beekeeping though. Deer roaming the grounds of The Langley knocked over one of his hives, causing a swarm of wasps to hoover up almost eight kilos of honey, plus pollen and wax. He's lost hives to hungry mice, the near ubiquitous parasite varroa, and of course, variations in climate.
While the lows are low, the highs are euphoric. Wolstenholme likes being outdoors, and enjoys the beautiful surroundings in which he keeps his hives. For him, it's a very mindful practice and he enjoys watching the bees.
'I spot them arriving with pollen on their legs, which are all different colours or I see a bee doing a waggle dance, which tells other bees exactly where to go to find food,' he explains.
'Seeing a Queen has laid an egg in every single cell in the chamber frame, or bees filling it with honey, capping it all with wax, I always think: goodness me, what perfection.'
The shift to a more fulfilling career
Making the switch for greater work happiness is a path many British workers are considering.
Research conducted as a result of a collaboration between Careershifters and Phoenix Insights, Phoenix Group's longevity think tank, found that nearly half (48pc) of 40- to 65-year-olds are open to changing their careers, with 67pc identifying greater fulfilment as a likely outcome of changing careers.
However, financial concerns are a major barrier for this age group, with a quarter (26pc) citing worries about their living costs or personal finances.
'Career changers come to us because they want to find a more fulfilling career, and some take a pay cut to do that,' explains Natasha Stanley, head coach at Careershifters, an organisation that provides career-change courses and workshops.
'Social priorities seem to be shifting, with many coming to us because they're putting their health, relationships and sense of self over traditional conceptions of 'success' like status and a chunky pay packet.'
Andrew Smith, from Shropshire, wishes he'd made his career switch earlier, but like many in his position, the change was prompted by a major life event.
For 15 years, he and his business partner had been running a company that designed and manufactured components and products, utilising underused space in British factories. However, the credit crunch hit and much of their client base took the design and production of goods in-house.
Although the pair were able to sell off most of the componentry and get out with enough funds to last a few years, Smith experienced what he calls 'the oldest story' in the book.
'The moment I stopped working, I became ill with cancer,' he explains. 'I had chemotherapy and a huge operation, so I found myself in my late 50s, incapable of working.'
In 2011, Smith began volunteering at Kettle's Yard, a house gallery in Cambridge that he'd been visiting regularly since the 1980s.
'The place has such a calming atmosphere,' he says. 'Jim Ede, the curator and founder, had been through awful things in the First World War and when he was setting up Kettle's Yard 40 years later, wanted it to be a sanctuary for people who had been through trauma like him.'
Two years into volunteering, Smith took on a paid role as an invigilator.
'A more appropriate title is 'host',' he explains. 'There are no information labels, so I offer information and anecdotes about the collection – if visitors express an interest, of course.'
He also cares for the plants in the house, many of which derive from original cuttings from the 1950s. To him, the role is 'enormous fun,' and in particular, he loves researching and discussing the furniture.
There are 62 chairs at Kettle's Yard, and probably five works of art to every chair, amounting to hundreds of details and stories, but somehow he manages to remember them all.
'I watch as new colleagues, many of whom are quite young, come to do this job and quickly become engulfed with interest,' says Smith. 'The more you look, the more it becomes endlessly fascinating.'
He notes that it would be hard to live on a visitor host salary alone, and several of his colleagues work multiple jobs alongside. Smith manages as his pension was more generous than he thought, and aged 73, he plans to continue working at Kettle's Yard as long as he can.
'My path has followed my father's – he was a farm labourer and then in 1970, he was offered a job as a groundsman on a golf course,' explains Smith. 'I'd never seen him so happy.'
The happiness that can come from a lower-paid job is something many stressed out workers dream of – but many simply don't think they can make it work.
'In just the last decade, Britons have lived through a recession, a pandemic, and rising costs of living,' says Stanley of Careershifters. 'They've seen how fast their financial situations can change, and taking a salary drop (very understandably) feels risky.'
Her advice to anyone considering moving to a lower paid role or sector is: 'Always test your assumptions before allowing them to paralyse you – you'd be surprised what's possible.'