There's a third way. Think about maximizing salary to effort ratio instead of total salary. It might be the case that lower position has better ratio. Quiet quitting where people do bare minimum not to get fired is essentially this theory put into practice. You want to avoid a situation where you're rich but too stressed out to do anything with that money.
This is me, within limits of course. I work on 90% contract, having 10 weeks of paid vacation and sure as hell try to use that to the fullest.
Life is too short to focus on stuff that would lead to deep regrets later. I dont know about you guys but focusing all the time on money and career certainly feels like one, IT engineering is too successful to really have the need to behave so, so it becomes a choice.
I do focus on those but in short bursts and them coast the results for long time. Ie push through some boundary (lengthy acquiring of property, planning and realizing big reconstruction, naturalization process for me and family etc). I never grokked the 'completionist' mindset as a default one, its endless toil and unhappiness in big corporations.
I feel this is easier if you treat day jobs almost as a side hustle and have significant hobbies and life elsewhere. It’s more difficult if your career heavily overlaps with what you love doing (e.g. software), except the career comes with unwanted things like politics, promos, managing others, etc.
