Greetings everyone! It has been somewhat of a difficult week here at Casa Frugal. Aside from dealing with a nine month old baby who is teething and hating it, we have also been struggling with a big personal decision.
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I’ve written a lot on this blog about how one of our biggest financial goals has been to move back to the mountains where we used to live. You see, ever since we moved away from our favorite mountain town in the spring of 2006, we have been kind of… well, dying to get back there.
Ok, maybe neither of us was actually in danger of dying at any point over this. That may be a slight exaggeration. But we have really really wanted to move back. We are total outdoorsy people, and enjoy everything from hiking to biking to climbing to snowmobiling.
We really loved living in those mountains for the short two years that we got to live there from 2004-2006. As you can tell from reading this post and this post and this post.
Our Big Goal
So in 2010, we made it our goal to move back there one day. Every financial decision that we’ve made since then has been with that in mind as our end goal. The biggest reason why we’ve been majorly trying to get our sh%t together from a financial standpoint over the last few years is because jobs in our chosen fields are harder to come by in that part of the country… and the jobs that are there pay less than in other locations. So we’ve been anticipating for quite some time that when we make this move, we would be making less money.
Because it’s harder to find jobs there, we’ve been keeping in touch with the one potential employer that my hubby would be interested in working for there (all along we’ve known that jobs there for me would be even harder to find, but at the moment it’s sort of a moot point anyway because I’m currently staying at home taking care of our daughter). That employer has known that Mr. CMF would like to work there and that we’d like to move back there one day. But for the last 18 months that we’ve been communicating with them, they have had no job available for him.
Until now.
Long story short, they finally called Mr. CMF to say that a job is opening up this summer there. He interviewed, they loved him- and he loved them-, and they offered him the job.
The catch: taking this job would mean a 25% pay cut in comparison to what he is currently making.
Ouch.
Decision Time
So, what to do? Having made some foolish mistakes back in the day when we were still in school, we took out probably way too much in student loans, and we are still paying that off. However, we have made huge progress on our debt over the course of the last three years, and we’ve actually slashed more than half of our debt since 2012.
So, we have come a long ways. But we are not quite where we want to be from a financial standpoint yet. Namely, we’d like to have the debt completely gone.
Should we wait until we have the debt completely gone to make such a move? I am sure that would be a smart thing to do. But what if we could be happier there? Money isn’t the most important thing in life, after all. Sometimes less $$$ = more happiness.
If Mr. CMF chooses not to take this job at this time, it’s kind of a risk. First of all, unlike Mr. CMF’s current employer, which seems to chew up employees and spit them out on a regular basis (causing unhappy employees and subsequently high employee turnover- more than half of his co-workers that he started working with three years ago have since resigned and moved on), this potential new employer seems to have much better employee retention.
The guy that Mr. CMF would be replacing has been there for 25-30 years. There’s another guy who’s been there 25-30 years who is also resigning this summer. And all the other people are Mr. CMF’s age. So what if they hire two new people this summer and then have no need to hire again for quite some time because everyone is relatively young and happy in their jobs?
I am sure that it is not realistic to think that they may not hire again for 25 years. 🙂 But the fact remains that they have had nothing available for jobs for more than 18 months. Put simply, if we choose to let this opportunity pass, we really have no idea how long it might be until it comes around again. It could be just a year or two. Or it could be a lot longer.
But. Back to the question. What to do?
Pros and Cons
Option 1: Stay put. Mr. CMF continues working for same employer. If we bust a#$ on our debt repayment effort, we can theoretically get the student loans gone in under 18 months. Then we can start saving money for our second adoption, and likely adopt again with 2-4 years. But we have no idea when we may be able to realize our dream of moving to the place we want to be. It might not be for a long time.
Option 2: Take new job and move now. The job is a better job than Mr. CMF has now, in our #1 favorite place on the planet. The tradeoff: Less money (and slightly higher cost of living in that location) means the student loans will hang around longer. And it will take longer to save for our next adoption. Depending on how long it takes, there is a very real chance that we would choose to take longer to pay off the student loans (pay less extra money toward them every month) in order to be able to adopt again before too many years roll by. This means that the student loans could easily be with us for another five years, if not longer.
Oh the Agony
We have literally agonized over this decision, and gone back and forth and back and forth. As a matter of fact, I started writing this post a few days ago and it had a very different ending. I had to go back and re-write it as we thought longer about it.
The ending hasn’t actually happened yet. We are still thinking it through. Our initial response was to jump on the opportunity to move there, and go now. But the longer we think about it, it becomes harder to justify not taking the opportunity that we have to get rid of our student loans now.
We’ve also been trying to use our favorite method of making difficult decisions, The Regret Test, to determine which way to go here. And the ugly truth is that we think that the decision we may most regret is NOT taking the opportunity to annihilate our student loan debt right now.
It’s not over yet. I’ll keep you posted. Maybe this is why the Magic 8 Ball
Has anyone out there ever faced a similar situation, where the thing you MOST wanted was the thing that didn’t seem to make as much financial sense? How did you end up deciding what to do?
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JD says
atWell, that is quite a decision to make. We made a move almost four years ago to a different location in the country because of climate and health reasons. Our cost of living is higher but through very careful planning and managing of our finances we have made it work and actually save more than we did previously. 😀 Perhaps it would be good to keep pondering the words of your husband’s grandmother…just saying. We have never thought we made a mistake moving just needed to tweek how we lived each month. All are trade-offs. Best to you both and the wee one.
Dee S says
atThank you so much JD. I am inspired by the fact that your story is similar and you have made it work (and are actually saving more money- that’s impressive!) You’re so right about Mr. CMF’s grandmother- she used to say, “if it’s easy it probably isn’t worth it.” So true- especially in this situation!
Jon @ Money Smart Guides says
atWhen I have to make big decisions like this, I always tell myself to look at my life in 5 years. What will it look like if I do the thing and if I don’t do the thing. I usually find my answer there.
To me, it sounds like you really value the mountains and this would make you happiest. For that reason, I say go for it. While you will be earning less, you will be happy. Maybe you can find part-time work on the side to bring in some extra money, like lead a hiking tour or something? I don’t know the area so I can’t say specifics. But I’ve found when I am happy, I usually find more opportunities in life.
Also, it sounds like you wouldn’t be moving until the summer – so a couple of months. If you have a good chunk of savings, why not “suck it up” for 3 months and not eat out, etc and put everything possible towards your loans? You won’t get to pay them off completely, but will make more of a dent in them. Is the sacrifice of a few months worth living where you want to live and still having the chance to adopt again sooner rather than later? Maybe you can even find ways now to bring in a few more bucks too – like selling some things you not longer use around the house?
Just my 2 cents…hope it gives you something to think about!
Dee S says
atThanks Jon! I really like what you said about picturing life in 5 years if we do it or do not do it. That is really helpful to me because it actually gives me something to visualize, and I’m kind of a visual person. Yes, there would definitely be a few months until we move and we could definitely suck it up and throw some extra cash at the debt before we go- but there would also be some increased expenses from moving (and finding new housing, etc), so I’m not entirely sure how much extra progress we would be able to make before then. But that gives me a lot more to think about.
Amanda S @ Passionately Simple Life says
atTough tough decision! If this seems like a once in a blue moon job opportunity, it might be just the chance you have been waiting to head back to your dream place. As stated by Jon above, you still would have a few months to cut down to the bare minimum and see how much more you can pay down.
And perhaps living in your dream spot will give many things around you a positive spin and an even bigger push to pay down your debt with the smaller paycheck.
Dee S says
atThanks Amanda! It is a super tough decision. I don’t know if it’s a once in a blue moon thing, but it’s certainly a not-very-often thing. I definitely think that there’s something about one’s location that can completely change a mindset. We absolutely want to take that into account, but realistically the smaller paycheck and likely increased living expenses would negatively impact our ability to pay down the debt as fast. That’s what we are weighing right now. Thank you so much for your comment, I really appreciate all the help I/we can get on this one!
Holly@ClubThrifty says
atWhat a tough decision! It’s hard to take less money with so much uncertainty, but I can see why you would if you’ve always wanted to move back to the area. I hope you make a decision you can live with!
Dee S says
atThanks Holly. It is probably one of the hardest decisions we’ve ever had to make! The biggest thing that we are having a hard time getting over is that we would be taking less money with still so much student loan debt on board. We’d REALLY like to have the debt gone before we consider doing something like that, ideally…
Abigail @ipickuppennies says
atIf it’s a matter of saving for something as important as adoption, I say stay where you are. It’d be one thing if your loans were already taken care of. But it sounds like you have a kinda-sorta schedule for 1-2 more adoptions.
It’s definitely a tough choice, though. I get it.
We had to move states before we were done with debt. We were moving away from our support system, and even with a cheap moving method (ABF U-Pack storage cube), it was about $2,500 all told.
But it was a matter of my husband’s health. He has severe eczema. In Seattle, it was so bad that many days he couldn’t wear clothes. In the past, he’d been much better in Arizona, he said. So we sucked it up.
It ended up being okay, but it could have gone badly.
Dee S says
atThanks Abigail. That’s kinda where we are at right now. We’d really hate to have to either postpone adopting again or NOT adopt again because of our debt… and we fear that’s the situation we’d end up in if we signed up for a voluntary pay cut at this stage of the game. You’re so right, moving is never cheap (about $2k is the cheapest move we’ve ever had), and so, as much as we might like to throw extra cash at debt before we were to move, realistically some of the extra would be sucked up by moving expenses themselves.
Liz says
atI just recently was in a similar position. I was unhappy with the location I was living in, another position opened up with my company that was much closer to family but it required a pay cut. I have ton of debt and the smart financial move would be to stay. But I don’t’ think you can put a dollar value on happiness. I wasn’t happy where I was so I took the job, made the move and am bracing for my first smaller paycheck. I did all the math and my budget should still hold, it just means have less extra money to throw at my debt. While the overall cost of living in the new city is less, since I opted not to have a roommate I actually pay slightly more for housing, So I think the situation is pretty similar, except that I don’t have a family to worry about, but from what you are saying you are either choosing to be happier in a place that you love or a potentially disheartening position to be debt free sooner. You will eventually be debt free either way, why not be happiest you can be while dealing with it? I think you have a wonderful opportunity in front of you and if it is one thing frugal folks know it is that money is not everything, even when in debt. Good luck with you decision!
Dee S says
atThanks so much Liz. Wow, it really does sound like your situation was similar. And I do think that you are so right about not being able to put a dollar value on happiness. Life is short, so I think it’s best to do everything we can to enjoy it while it lasts 🙂 Even though we REALLY want to move, the big sticking point for us right now is that we are not sure exactly how happy we will be if we have the same debt load and less ability to pay it back. Will we be more stressed out about it after the move? Would that put a damper on the happiness? That’s the soul searching that we are doing right now.
Marie M says
atYou mentioned that husband’s current employer has a very high turnover rate. Is this because of people voluntarily leaving, being forced out or a combination of both? If it’s either of the last 2, I would say go for the move. Actually, I would say go with the move regardless. You don’t know if this opportunity will ever open up again. Yes, you’ll have the debt a bit longer but at least you’ll both be happy in the place you’ve longed for and the Mr. will be happy (hopefully) in the new job. Plus, there’s the added attraction of bringing that teething 9 month old (well, probably 1 year old plus by the time you move) in a place you were so happy in.
Dee S says
atIt because of people voluntarily leaving. The management basically rules with an iron fist, and it just does not make for a pleasant environment to work in. Many of Mr. CMF’s closest friends at that employer have already left for different jobs. Mr. CMF intentionally chooses to work at times of the day when there are fewer upper management people around- that’s been his coping mechanism so far 🙂
You hit the nail right on the head- we would like so much to be able to raise our daughter there, in a place that we really love. Right now we are just weighing the happiness factor- will we be as happy as we’d like to be if we bring with us a ton of debt and less ability to pay it off as quickly? It’s a big question to ponder, we are finding…
Gia says
atgo for it! It’s what you’ve been waiting for. You can stil pay off the debt and adopt, maybe not as quickly, but money can’t buy happiness. Do it while you have the opportunity. Life is short, take the opportunity now, it may not come again for a long, long time.
Dee S says
atThanks Gia! We have opted for sort of a middle ground; we ended up working out a deal where my hubby would hopefully start in a few months. The contract is not signed yet, but it is sounding positive 🙂 This will sort of give us the best of both worlds, because it means we will stay put for a few more months (during which we will bust our butts to make turbo progress on our student loans!) and then we can move. Fingers are crossed that all goes as planned…
Carmen says
atI think you are going in the right direction.????. Everything is going to work out good. You will get there, where you want to be( law of atraction) we have been thru that????
Dee S says
atThanks Carmen! We think so too. We are now SUPER motivated to dump our student loan debt ASAP, and this situation has really lit a fire underneath us to do everything that we can to achieve that goal. We are hoping to be student loan debt free by some time in 2016 🙂