To relocate or not relocate?

So here is the scenario.

Both my wife and I are college educated professionals (late 30's) with mountains of student debt (which we will have paid off sometime in our 50's by my calculations) and all the other costs of life (mortgage payments / car payments etc.) and currently employed at jobs which pay 75k per year for each of us. We live comfortably in terms of being able to pay all of our financial obligations monthly and still have a bit left over for going out to movies on occasion or out for dinner (and truck parts occasionally ) but not so comfortably that we could just fly off somewhere for a vacation for instance or buy that new car at the drop of a hat. This salary is about 15k-20k less (for each of us) than the reported averages for our respective fields / years of experience / qualifications & regional geographic averages (I've researched this a lot!). Our employers are very thrifty and there is pretty much no chance of any tangible raise or upward mobility in our companies going forward -- our compensation packages are what they are and hell would have to freeze over for that to change.

My wife has been offered a job out of state which will immediately see her get a 20k raise over what she is getting here but I will then be unemployed for some indeterminate amount of time until I (hopefully) find something myself.

So in the immortal words of the The Clash.....


Should I stay or should I go?

ie. Does a collective salary of 150k/yr and pseudo job security but no upward mobility outweigh the benefits of 100k/yr and the unknown.....

What would you do?

 

It depends on what state you're in and where you are moving. What is the market like for your profession in that state? How about the cost of living where you plan to live? Cost of homes, taxes, food, etc.

Once you have that, do a cost benefit analysis and you'll have your answer.

 

Currently in Washington, proposed move would be to Phoenix, AZ. Cost of living is less from what we can tell especially considering the cost of real estate. Market for our professions would probably be comparable and potentially slightly better given the greater population of the Phoenix metro area vs the Seattle metro area.

 

Are you purchasing or renting a home when you get to Phoenix?

 

You will be spending a lot less on winter clothes

I was thinking of a similar move to Utah where the cost of living would be much less, but the student population I work with is what's keeping me in LA (inner city youth - can't leave the job without thinking about them). If it wasn't for them I'd be there in a heartbeat.

 

Do you have kids?

If it was mt Vernon vs phx I would move tomorrow. I have lived in Seattle and phx

Paradise valley
Chandler
Scottsdale

Are the cities in phx I would live in

I prefer phx due to lower cost of living
So close to Rocky point and Sedona


Get your wife the raise and find you a new job
Especially since no upward mobility where you are

 

Yeah I'm sort of excited about the possibility of more sunshine and all of the open desert off roading I see posted by the AZ & SoCal folks. Kinda looks like fun aside from the uncomfortable feeling of being unemployed for a period.

Most likely purchasing if we can find what fits our needs (wife has horses) otherwise may end up renting for a bit to figure out the area and commutes.

 

Nope, no kids to move -- just furry ones (cats, dogs, horses). There is really nothing holding us to this area other than my wife has all of her relatives here and of course income security (even if it is below average - a job is better than no job right? But then again, no risk, no reward......)

 

What kind of work do you do? I think that I would have been able to get a job before moving if I had chose to do so. Education is a field that's always hiring though.

 

Take the risk

Family is a $60 sw flight away

 

My wife and I are both horse veterinarians. Phoenix is a huge horse area.

 

Where is your wife's job location

My sister has 4 horses and lives in phx


$75k for a vet? You need to get out
My college roommate (vet) makes 173k a year (I know, as I just did her partnership contract)

 

My wife would potentially be starting at Midwestern University in Glendale. They are starting a veterinary teaching program there so she would be teaching clinical studies to the 3rd and 4th year students.

 

How about opening your own practice? I would take the risk. I'm going to be doing the same with the girlfriend in June and neither of us have a clue how it's going to play out. But neither has ever not succeeded anywhere in life. Make the jump and see what happens. It's only money

 

Damn...must be a small animal vet. My wife and I have both been offered partnership at our respective clinics but we cannot see the logic into buying into a practice that apparently cannot afford to pay their associate veterinarians an average salary for our demographic (western US, 10-14 years of practice experience, equine associate) yet are supposedly doing well in terms of profit margins......

 

i don't know about size of animals
But it's in the city
24 hour urgent care practice
16 vets
8 partners
8 suckers


Every indication is to leave the job you have

You guys are getting screwed

 

We've thought about it. It would have to be a low overhead ambulatory practice. In terms of setting up a hospital based facility the thought of taking on a 1-1.5 million dollar loan makes me want to vomit.....

 

I guess a good question to ask is would you/her regret NOT doing it? Would passing up the opportunity eat away at you or your wife down the road? Or, is job security and being close to your family more important? My wife and I moved across the country a year and a half ago just to be where we really wanted to be. She is a teacher, so we had to find her a job first but when she got hired on the spot on a Skype interview and we had 2 months to sell our house and move 2500 miles west, we said F-it, lets do it. Our house sold in 2 weeks and we fit everything we could in my tacoma and 6x6x12 enclosed cargo trailer, drove out west never having been there and neither of us regret the decision for a second. Both of us moved away from our families but we are still young and we aren't having kids, so it was a perfect opportunity for us. So basically this is a long winded way of asking would you regret it if you didn't take the chance? Would she? Remember that you already believe you're topped out at your current jobs, so if moving forward is what you really want, then take the chance. Or not..

 

Guess it depends on the price of housing in the area you want to move to. In your late 30s your still in the prime hiring age and not many people make it rich playing it safe. But I think it comes down to quality of life and where you want to be more than money. If you have no real attachment to where you live and you believe you could find a job in your field I would go for it. Plus it would probably make the wife happy.

I for one do not want to move from where I live. I love the area and that has limited me to a smaller job market. But I love my little village and Im .5 miles from my boat mooring, Ect.

 

I've got news for you, there are a lot less educated people who live with a lot less than the money you guys make. And Oh, I forgot, and took yearly European vacations year after year. But took of a bit of twitching of their live style. Lets start with a good cooking book,....Let me tell you a real story, A few years back I went in this nice restaurant and order a good diner for myself. The waiter takes the food list and promised to be back with my food. Then it struck me, How much is that steak, how in the world I ordered something and I don't know how much it is? And you know what? I calmed myself down saying, wait a minute, you have enough money to buy a steak in any restaurant. Thanks God you can afford one in any circumstances. And it is true, thanks God. But it never been a next time. Never buy anything with out checking the price first, and doesn't matter if I can afford it or not, I want to know. This is (in my opinion) the best way to save, or to be able to afford anything. The more you make, the more I'll spend? Not my idea of life style.