Context: I live with my family in a very rural, very poor town. I work in public service and am the head administrator of my department. After taxes and expenses, I have $15,733.42 a year I can save. Recently, a job opening has opened in a slightly larger but still quite rural town nearby. The job is a less prestigious position (I would be manager, not administrator), but the pay will be from $44k to $48k (before taxes). Going off my estimated expenses (which were pulled from national averages in some cases and, therefore, have room for trimming), if I were to start at the $48k level, I would be able to save $15,772.89 a year, $39.74 more, and begin to pay for a house on a ten year loan (see breakdown below for the "ifs" about that).
However, I don't know if this is the more badass choice. I graduated from grad school in 2013 and have only been in my current job six months. I originally planned to work here for three to five years then start submitting again, but living with the family can be frustrating, especially since they want to pool our funds, preventing any of what I earn to go into more than a Roth IRA. I want a job in a more engaging location at the 60-80k level. However, given the problems of long distance job applications and the lack of networking options, I don't know if its worth trying to hold out for such a position while my money does nothing.
Of course, living with the family gives me a LOT of free time to job hunt as well as limited expenses and a guaranteed safety net in emergencies.
Long story short: I could move and, if things go perfectly, start investing and owning a house but it would be in a town and job that are much less than what I want, or I could stay, stuffing my money under the mattress, taking the gamble of getting the position that I really want.
Now, them numbers!
Current Income: $$17,064.96 after taxes, all from my administrator job.
I also have an online tutoring job that I would probably give up if I took the new job; however, it is very new and I still have no students, so its income is irregular and currently not known (I'll make 15/hour but don't know how many students I'll have).
Current Expenses (Yearly):
- Car - $175.38 (This includes gas to drive to work, doctors visits, and maintenance)
- Haircuts - $30 (Yeah, I know, this is a free facepunch. I get them done professionally because my family does not believe in doing it yourself and I'm a wimp. I am trying to reign this in.)
- Health - $240 (This includes doctor's visits and medicine)
- Insurance - $785.16 (Car: $660, Life:$125.16)
- Misc- $101 (This includes car tag [26] and membership to my field's national organization [75])
- Total - $1,331.54
Currently Saving:$15,733.42 per year.
$5500 goes in an IRA. The rest, as I said, is in the bank.
Expected Income: $48,000 before taxes. Estimated to be $32,670.04 after taxes.
This is the best case scenario. The position is $44-$48,000. However, if the offer is too low, I'll turn it down.
Expected Expenses (Yearly):
- Car - $175.38 (I hope to bike to work but the town I want to move to is tricky. It's roughly three miles from the epicenter to any major area, but real estate within the city itself is limited. So what my biking situation will be is unknown. For that reason, I'm leaving car unchanged.)
- Clothing – $1,000 (A national average. One I'm sure I can beat.)
- Fees - $101 (Won't change)
- Food – $3,780 (A national average. Could likely be trimmed.)
- Health - $240 (Won't change.)
- Housekeeping - $360 (A national average. I already own a lot of the needed tools for cleaning, so I doubt this will be hard to beat.)
- Insurance - $785.16 (Not sure how this will change, so I'm leaving it the same for now.)
- Misc – $1,392 (A national average and added as a buffer for anything I may have overlooked.)
- Personal care - $408 (A national average. Yeah, I'm sure I can beat this.)
- Utilities – $1,290 (A local estimate. Can probably beat this one.)
- Total - $9,531.54
Mortgage (expected): $9,909.48 per year.
This is based on a scenario from my other post: an 80k house with a 70k loan at 5% interest over 10 years. 80k is reachable in this area. I'd prefer a 40k house but I don't know how easy it would be to find one that low, let alone in an area I'd want to live in.
Expected Savings (counting both expenses and mortgage): $15,772.89 per year.
Whew! There it is. So, what do you think? Which is the more badass option? And like I said, not all of the factors are in the numbers. After all, I'm still wanting a better job and, even if I score this one, I'll keep applying for those better positions without missing a beat. But given the current job market and my long distance and lack of networking options, I don't know what my odds of finding a good job somewhere nice within five or so years is. So maybe it's worth the risk. Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts!