A few months ago I posted about taking a job that was a mistake. I have been a reader for about a year now and wanted to give a quick summary and update/lessons (if any?) learned.
Recap: I took a job across country (1,100 mile move). It ended up being a disaster - not what I was sold on type thing. My manager on day one was someone I did not interview with and two weeks in I was suddenly given another boss as well. Despite the high pay, I very quickly realized it would be a career mistake to stay, in addition to being a culture that would drive me crazy. So anyways I took advantage of my network and got a job with my previous employer (different manager, different department, different building).
We (my wife and 1 year old) have successfully done the transition. The move back is paid for, we have moved into a new house (again), and things are more or less settled.
Financially, the impact was expensive. But, my current employer is someone I'd work for until I was 65 and not feel like work is hell. That last job was significantly higher pay but I think the amount of alcohol necessary to keep that bearable would kill me in a few years time. We now have a rental house that probably won't make us any money. When we bought a new house we were going to put 20% down but because of the job situation we ended up with two houses and 5% down on each. Luckily we rented out the first (and most expensive) one and the rent is enough to cover the mortgage payments.
As I look forward, I am optimistic but my confidence is in need of repair. The job I took on paper and in the interview "passed the test." And yet, it was so wrong. I am trying to tell myself that you do the best with the info you have but I think it will take time until I feel confident in my decisions again. I hate quitting things and never saw myself as someone that would quit a job after 3 months.
Thanks for everyone's time in reading my earlier thread about it and I can point to two positives from coming here:
1) I set my 401k contribution to the maximum allowed (18,000 per year). With matching it gets above that.
Initially I was worried about doing this because it felt like the money was gone until I was older. But from learning on sites like these I realized I can make 5,500 of that contribution Roth and in the event of a disaster, I can withdraw the contribution anytime without penalty.
2) After talking with someone here on the pressure to save a lot early on because you have a family and want to leave them with something in case of a sudden death, I realized I needed term life insurance. I got a 200k policy on myself, 100k policy on my wife, and 20k for each child we have (we have one now). I am superstitious I believe that if I take the policy out I won't need it. It has made me a lot more relaxed since getting it. I feel like though that is a good amount - I'm not looking to benefit if my wife dies but it will be a financial setback in addition to the personal. Similarly, as time goes on and we save more the 200k policy in the event of my death will be a smaller portion of the financial emergency funds.
