I thank everyone for their thoughtful replies. The opinions seem all over the place, which is what I expected. I really appreciate hearing everyone's diverse points of view on the matter.
Some people asked for more info, so here it is:
I am 37. I am an RN in the Emergency Department. The night shift is 7pm to 7am, three days per week. The day shift, which I am currently on, is 7 am to 7 pm, three days per week.
I am a beginner at all of this. I have had bad habits in the past, and thus my stash is tiny. I still have $25K student debt, my pension if I took it as a lump sum today is worth $25K, I have $10K in tax deferred investments and hold $20K cash. I have ~$100K in home equity, and owe $230K on a mortgage, FWIW. So figure NW ~$130K including home equity.
My base wage is $46/hr. The night differential is actually not a percent, it's flat $11/hr. * 72 hrs/pay period * 26 pay periods/year = $20592 per year
My fiance is 32. She finishes nursing school in May, and will likely have no choice but to take nights at first, no telling how long. She has basically no assets and ~$100K of debt so combined NW we have barely $30K. I feel a lot of anxiety that we are not progressing quickly enough, but as she is still in school our expenses are high. Tuition, books, she's not working, and oh yeah we live 500 miles apart and try to see each other at least once a month. Lots of gas. That will all change in May.
We have no kids and are not planning to so I figure we need ~$1M. Kids do not factor into our scheduling. The night differential if we both were on nights would be $41K/yr so without any doubt it would take several years off of our working careers. But it also might take several years off of our lives.
We used to be allowed to work 6 days on, 8 days off which worked much better for the night shift because it halved the number of times you had to transition into and out of work mode. The administration banned this practice several years ago but since then there has been a changing of the guard and the new administration may at some point be open to allowing the practice again. None of the fatigue studies I could find showed any hazard with working 6 * 12 hour days in a row.
I am not someone who would maintain a strict sleeping schedule. If I was working 7p-7a I would likely sleep until three or four on my work days, and then sleep until noon on my days off. I like to do stuff outside while the sun is shining, but would be willing to sacrifice the mornings and stay up late at night on my days off - just not willing to stay up ALL night on my days off.
Compounding the issue is that my defined benefit pension is basically calculated as $(average yearly salary of my best three year stretch)*(%vested)*(years of service)/40. So - clearly I have a lot to gain by having three really high paying years in a row. I get raises every year and cost of living increases so clearly the best window in which to do this would be the LAST three years of my career. I figure I am at least 15 years out.
My fiance will be on a different pension plan, a defined contribution plan where the employer stashes away I think it's 10% of your gross earnings every year in a trust that you can then access upon retirement. So SHE will have something to gain, pension-wise by maxing out her income EVERY year of her career.
We have access to a 457 plan which we can each contribute $18K/yr to. I have, as of Jan 1, maxed out my contribution in a dollar cost averaging sort of way, IE $632/pay period or whatever that works out to. My fiance will be at a much lower wage - her wage on nights might barely equal mine on days.
To me it seems a no-brainer that I should do nights as long as my fiancee is forced to do nights, from May til whenever, but it would be difficult to arrange it so that I could flip back at any time. In her department she may have to wait a while to be able to switch, and there would be no guarantee that we would be able to switch together. It also seems a no-brainer to me to go nights for the last three years of my career. What isn't so clear is what to do NOW. Go for the nights and do the best to build good practices on the bad schedule before we are both forced onto it? Or stick to days until my fiance joins me in the land of darkness?
Thanks again for the varied and interesting points of view. And thank you all for taking the time to post.
