The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: JeffS on August 14, 2016, 05:37:10 PM
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Hello all,
This isn't a case study, but some background helps. I am currently 23 with the current expenses: $550 rent, bills included, $140 a month for insurance, $50 a month for my cell phone (tried using the cheaper $35 plan but I spend a lot of time on my phone), and I budget about $200 a month for food between myself and my wife, who is a student. I have a dual associate's degree in aircraft maintenance and my powerplant license. If I go back to school and take a couple of refresher classes, I can get my airframe license and make at least $20,000 more a year in a different job. I work 5 days a week, 11 or 12 hours a day and 8 or so hours on Saturday and have the option to work an easy 6 hours on Sunday. If I work as many hours as I can, usually around 70 hours a week, my annual pay is around $56,000 a year. Take home is close to $40,000. Without all of that overtime, it's a measly $29,000 gross pay. The worst things about working aviation are the hours and usually having to move to make more money. I believe Delta mechanics top out around $110k a year after 5 years, but that's about as good as it gets for an aviation mechanic. Since I work in fuel tanks, it's something that is a little hard to branch out of and it's fairly hazardous. So, I've been contemplating switching to something easier on the body and less chemical heavy.
I have $18,000 in student loans I'm starting to work on, but I estimate that'll take a year to pay off if I pay $1,500 a month. Oh, the current commute is rather annoying, 24 miles one way. Traffic isn't so bad at 4 in the morning but coming home around 5 in the afternoon sucks. I want to move over to IT or maybe business management. Maybe even engineering but that would be hard to do with my current hours. Any advice and questions are appreciated.
Thanks,
Jeff
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Working 70 hour weeks to make $56,000 isn't a great situation, and you'll hate it more if you and your wife decide to have kids.
I know nothing about your work so this question may be stupid: does it facilitate you apprenticing in a better-paying trade, like being a welder, or an electrician, or a machinist?
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Ideally, with some more experience I can move to a higher paying job, but I need at least three years experience. She still has another year of school and kids are another few years after that. From what I understand from the guys who have been in aviation a while, it's not a very forgiving career. Lots of layoffs if you're in a good job or you're just in a job similar to mine. I'm sure there's better aviation jobs out there, but specific aircraft experience is usually preferred.
Edit: my current job tops out at around $17 an hour without moving into a management or lead position, of which there are few