Have an internal promotion opportunity, and looking for a sounding board. Married, 2 kids under 5yo.
Current role: 130k, 20% bonus, minimal travel. MCOL, great education , in a city so good amenities . Took this role a year ago to be nearer our family. The town we moved from is the place we lived for nine years.
Opportunity(same company): 170k, 30% bonus, stock equity, minimal travel. VLCOL. This role is in the same place we moved from. It is familiar to us and we still have friends and a community there.
The cost of living alone will save us around 30k/year. The biggest downside is that we will be moving away from our extended family, which is why we left the place in the first place.
This is a big growth step as far as my career goes, and would pay big dividends to our future with the amount we could save and invest. Our families would be heartbroken.
Any considerations are appreciated.
Internal promotion and relocation
byu/AZrnr inpersonalfinance
Posted by AZrnr
4 Comments
How long are you willing to stay in each city? Would you rent or buy?
If there was a problem with the new job, are there good job opportunities in each city you are considering?
Both seem like good options. It just comes down to how much you value the family proximity and if the extra money enables a life you want more or less.
For a >$50k raise plus $30k COL savings, you could afford to visit your extended family a whole lot throughout the year.
The career advancement is a big pro as well which could lead to more options in choosing where you live in the future.
I’d personally take the job.
This is a 42% pay raise while moving into a lower cost of living.
Does your wife also work? If you can control your lifestyle creep and invest ALL of your increased pay & decreased COL every year, can you afford to retire or semi-retire and move back to your preferred city by, say, when your oldest kid enters high school?
To me the biggest question is the strength of your marriage/how much your or your wife’s individual happiness depends on the proximity to your extended family. If either of you would become so miserable that you would resent the other and stop functioning as a team, or goodness forbid end up separating, there is no amount of money worth that loss.
But if the two of you are a solid team and neither’s happiness highly depends on proximity to family, plus you have a friend network in the new (old) city, then I say make that move WITH an exit plan for when and how to move back.
With that increase in pay, you can probably afford frequent comfortable trips to see your extended family.