All the above I totally agree with. However try living on a Regional pay of 50k with a wife and kids. You have a mortgage, car, insurance, food, cloths normal bills (Water, Power, telephone). You will see that 50k won't take you far at all. Can it be done? Of course! Can you save anymore money for emergencies? No! Can you save for vactions and your kids future education. Living on the edge pay check to check and having one burp with cause a tailspin.
50k aint gonna do it, unless your wife is working.
I'm not going to sit here and argue with you that 50k isn't a lot of money--in truth I consider that "barely getting by." However, I think one has to consider what they
really need to be "happy" in life, and that applies at any income level. Personally, my favorite vacations are road trips for camping and climbing and staying with family. I would love to help my kids out with college, but if I can't it won't kill them to pay for it themselves--my folks helped out a little with my school, but I paid for the vast majority of it. And as far as saving for emergencies, I'm one who believes that can be done at almost any income level with proper spending habits and a good solid budget. It may have to build slowly, but it can be done. And perhaps I live in a 100k house instead of a 500k house. I've always been one who believes that all luxury is marginal, meaning that there really isn't much difference to me between my 10 year old Honda Civic that I paid $6000 for and some brand new luxury car that cost $30k--they both get from point A and B just as quickly. They are both safe. They are both reliable. The heaters work in both of them. They both carry the same amount of people. So why spend the extra $24k? I don't see it. I mean we can take the same analogy over to road bikes; carbon frames are really nice, but they aren't necessarily any faster/stiffer/lighter/more durable than aluminum frames (as long as the frame geometry is fast), and a lot of the time carbon is heavier than aluminum! So why pay for what you don't need?
I say work hard, try and get a mainline job. The majors will be recovering in 2-3 years and there will be better chances to make 100k-150k and have a much better life then to sell yourself short and settle for a regional job.
I say if my wife wants to work, more power to her. But if she does not want to work, I'll do whatever I need to do to make that work out as well. It's all a process.
I also say that we've all gone and chosen ourselves a career where we need to be really careful about increasing standard of living with increasing levels of pay. Things fluctuate, companies furlough, lay-off, close-up. This happens, and there's nothing any of us can do about it. The rememedy, I think is to live well within our means. If luxury is marginal, then it can be done without, even if our budget will allow it. I'm sure that there are those who would disagree, but this is my plan.
But for now I enjoy my QOL and am fortunate enough to live in base and spend a ton of time at home being mr.mom.
Man that sounds cool! I'm happy for ya!
-Goose
