I’m in a situation I’d like some advice on.. I’ll start with info about my wife and I, and then on to my questions..
Age: 30, wife 30.
Occupations: Design Engineer / Wife: Sales Engineer
Income: $50k / Wife: $125k , Combined: $175k
Networth: ~200k
Savings Rate: ~60% (only became mustachians about 14 months ago, plus wife’s income went way up around that time as well)
Debt: None except mortgage. Home is worth ~$215k, we owe $193k @ 3.75% in a 15-yr loan
Kids: None right now, maybe none ever.
On to my questions..
My current job pays less than I think I’m worth. I get ~3.5% raises annually, and I don’t see a position that I could get promoted to anytime soon (strange company structure, I guess). I’ve been applying for new positions and recently found a very interesting one. I think the pay would start at roughly the same, but it looks like there’s lots of room to grow in that company. There’s a steep learning curve to be able to contribute, so they send you to a 6 MONTH “bootcamp” training in a city that is about 6 hours drive away from my home. They’d pay room/board and salary, and I’d have weekends off if I wanted to come home.
Here’s my issue.. For my wife’s job she travels a fair amount (30%?) and my new position would require the same amount of travel. There would inevitably be some overlap where we’re both traveling, so there are new concerns that we don’t have currently like paying someone to come to our house to take care of our dogs a few times per day. This would be a common issue especially when I’m at the 6 month training program.
I guess the decision to take the job or not depends on the starting salary. The 6 months away would be rough, since my wife and I really value our time together, but we could get through it.
Another thing to factor in: My job is “comfortable”. I work 8:30-5:00 with very little expectation of overtime. I think it’s easier for my wife to be ambitious in her job (taking big travel projects, 4 months in Dubai, etc) with me not traveling or working crazy hours. I’d like to progress my career but not at the expense of our relationship suffering. We already make enough money that we live comfortably on 40% of what we make.
Any ideas on what to do about the dogs? What would you do in my situation as far as the job situation goes?
Thanks,
Ryan