Thanks everyone for the feedback and general confirmation.
Ultimately, if I didn’t accept the position my contract would finish around March and my wife and I (and baby and German shepherd) planned to take around a 6-12 month sabbatical.
The location is definitely not in a place I’d ever choose to settle down if we were FIRE’d (large southern hot city near the coast). It doesn’t lend well to many hobbies I enjoy (hiking, camping, mountain biking, etc.), but we can find ways to enjoy it. There aren’t a lot of jobs in my industry in places like Colorado or the PNW. If there are, it’d be another $100k+ paycut. That may be the next step after this.
@Malcat - that’s a great and ironic question. My team (and myself) was just presented with that option today. I’ve always had the option. Personally, for my hourly rate, I find 55 hours to be a sweet spot. I work 6:30-4:30 M-F and around 5-7 hrs from home on Saturday. I find it to be a good option with work/life balance considering the added income (the extra 15 hrs/wk for 50 wks is approx $138k in pre-tax annual income).
With that in mind, I have no interest in working more and will turn down the additional hours. I find time to generally run 3x/wk and lift weights 4x/wk before work and on the weekends, and evenings with the family and a chunk on the weekend. Having weekends fully off will open a lot more options for hobbies and entertainment.
@Dicey - my gut is saying this is my chance to give it a shot. This ‘permanent’ job is about the pinnacle for my industry, particularly for someone my age with only an associates degree.
The ‘worst’ is that it just sucks and we take that much needed sabbatical we’ve been waiting for. Really, the worst would be that we buy our first home (dream home) and then they transfer me or some crap lol.
I ‘may’ have the upside down the road of relocating and working 100% remote with around 6-8 weeks/year of travel to projects/job sites. That would be my ultimately dream/goal.
@2Birds1Stone &
@rothwem / others - our spending has always been really rough. We’ve largely spent to compensate for the lack of free time, hobbies, etc. This year alone we’ve spent $7500 on restaurants. These will be easy to squash. I have no doubt at all that we can get our spending way more in check (although still a ton compared to the forum). I bought a lot of “buy for life” expensive items in the last year expecting a large downshift, sabbatical, etc. I.e. about $6500 in guitars, have a camping trailer (paid off) worth about $40k, My ‘dream car’ - 9k mile 2003 mustang cobra (paid off) - and my ‘dream truck’ worth around $80k (I owe $27k I can obviously easily pay off), paid off 2006 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon (paid off) we have very nice gravel bikes, etc. etc.
Current expenses are:
$2600 rent/utilities/cable, (month to month lease with a nice 4 bedroom, 3 car garage in a neighborhood/location we love)
$175 phone bills incl watch/ipad data,
$300 auto insurance
Netflix $20
Apple Music $10,
Apple TV+ $5
Pandora $5,
Audible $15
Apple Cloud Storage $10
Protein/Supplements $150
YouTube: $15
Gas $300
Groceries $800
Life Insurance $90
Dog Food $100
Health/script $100
Trailer Insurance $40
Truck $570
Lawn - $80
Peloton - $40
Storage - $340
Total: $5765/mo
That’s not a total breakdown of things like actual health insurance and also our variable expenses (travel, entertainment, restaurants, incidentals that seem non stop like dogs toe amputation, torn hamstring, kidney stone, etc.). I can easily pay off the truck (-$570) we could downsize our storage unit (we have a big unit, it was all that was available for our trailer nearby at the time and we kept it thinking we’d put everything in it if we took a sabbatical).
We obviously have a bunch of memberships for streaming, but being the truck is the only debt, and if we did a sabbatical we’d stay in our trailer and travel full time, we could get our expenses insanely low if we needed to. Also, when I’m currently taking home around $26k/mo, we don’t feel the need to cut things like a YouTube or Apple Music subscription..
I’m estimating that taking this full time job we will keep our spending around $9k/mo total, and take home (incl 401k match and pension) will be about $13,800/mo and incl. bonus around $16,900/mo.
I don’t have a FIRE number in mind, and doubt I’ll ever fully FIRE (I can always do contract work a few months a year or find a hobby to earn income I’m passionate about, something fabrication related).. I ultimately want to live somewhere in the mountains where i’ve got around $2MM and can do the passionate work I mentioned.