Would you or have you ever taken a paycut to take a new job? 

I have an opportunity to take a new job at a College near me. I currently work for a large company that manufactures paint. I’m guessing you probably know who that is in Ohio but oh well. It’d be about a $10k a year pay cut. It’d be a less stressful job since it’s not tied to manufacturing/production. The retirement is better too (10% match for 5% contribution  in 401k vs 6% for 6%) also and extra 2 weeks vacation and 5 extra holidays off.  And the big one... free tuition. Now my kids are very young so I don’t get to worry about that for awhile, but it would be a benefit in the future. 

So you’d lose $10k annually on salary. You gain a couple thousand a year in the 401k to offset that a bit. And you get more PTO and tuition covered. It’s hard to calculate the tuition benefit because you don’t know what tuition will be in 15 years and you don’t know what scholarships, if any, your kids could have. I’m trying to calculate this all out to weigh the benefits but there’s too many unknowns. 

Currently, I would take a slight pay cut to live somewhere that is much cheaper than DC.  

posted by like_that

Currently, I would take a slight pay cut to live somewhere that is much cheaper than DC.  

Have you looked yet? 

I haven't, I've always got at least a little bump in pay with each job change. My wife has taken a couple pay cuts. Your situation looks pretty tempting. 

Sounds like total comp is probably a little higher, so not sure you should really characterize it as a paycut...you're just trading some salary for additional benefits.

15 extra days off is huge, IMO.  You're talking $8k with the 401k matching, which is maybe $6k after tax.  Plus, less stress if that really matters to you. Seems like a fair trade-off, to me. 

I wouldn't count on still being there by the time your kids are ready for college.

I have.  Took about 5k paycut but I liked my new co-workers better and it was a much better situation.  Great decision. 

posted by kizer permanente

Have you looked yet? 

Yes, but not that aggressively yet. 

I always thought making the most money is the best (I’m only 32) but being happiest seems to be worth more. If it’s less work, better retirement, and possible free college, I don’t see why not try it. My wife and I make enough now where working 40 hours means more to me than killing it for some corporation.  I’m not sure I’d take a salary decrease, but I would move laterally. Do you have room to negotiate? 

Also have to include enjoying the work.  Which do you think will be better on that?  15 more days off per year would be big to me.

posted by iclfan2

I always thought making the most money is the best (I’m only 32) but being happiest seems to be worth more. If it’s less work, better retirement, and possible free college, I don’t see why not try it. My wife and I make enough now where working 40 hours means more to me than killing it for some corporation.  I’m not sure I’d take a salary decrease, but I would move laterally. Do you have room to negotiate? 

Well unfortunately the 10k was a negotiation. When I originally told them my salary they said they couldn’t touch it before I even interviewed. I interviewed anyways and they  came up 7 grand from what they told me in the screen just to make it a 10grand hit. I make a few thousand up in the 401k and I made actually almost 3k up in health insurance for the year so only only 3-4K negative after that. It makes it easier to stomach. 

I would take the pay cut for less stress, better benefits and more days off. In a heartbeat.

Had a 3 year freeze but never a pay cut ....not sure what I’d do. If it was much at all I’d look elsewhere.

Bottom line is simple.. what is best for your family, your health physical/mental, what is the more secure future outlook

i took my current job, across the country, for the same pay as my former job. but living in PA my tax bill has pretty dramatically increased. I'm not unhappy, it was a chance for me to move home, i got to spend 3 months helping my mom before she passed away which after being gone for 12 years meant a lot to me (and her too i think). 

my point is you need to assess your situation, but from what i'm reading, it sounds like the only thing holding you back is the money i wouldn't turn down a job if that was the only thing making you think.

Please don’t force a specific college on your kids because you get tuition for free lol.

posted by Laley23

Please don’t force a specific college on your kids because you get tuition for free lol.

Sure. But I see no problem with "If you go here, it's free. If you go elsewhere, you can pay your own way."

posted by justincredible

Sure. But I see no problem with "If you go here, it's free. If you go elsewhere, you can pay your own way."

Me either, although I helped pay for some of my kid's college in spite of his being offered a full ride elsewhere.

posted by Laley23

Please don’t force a specific college on your kids because you get tuition for free lol.

Easy to say if they/you have the means to afford tuition at the college of their choice. We were fortunate enough to be in a position to take care of two out or our three kids' undergrad educations (the third was on a full ride for volleyball--and boy was that nice!), but not everyone is. IMO, getting through college as close to debt free as possible should be everyone's objective.

I don't have kids yet, so it might be easy for me to say, but I am 100% ok with "forcing" my kids to a specific school if tuition is free.  In most cases, once you get that first job in your career, you are are on your way.  Starting out debt free is a huge advantage. 

If my kids had a 100% free tuition option, the only other option in colleges would be "100% you're paying for it" option. 

What is a paycut?

I plan on doing what my dad did. Started a college fund before I was born for me and sister (we already did this and have about 2 years of money in it). I had the option to play soccer at a bunch of schools and soccer/basketball at 1, but I wanted to play at a bigger school. So I tried to walk on at Indiana. Didn’t quite make the cut, but I was not going to go to college at anything but a bigger, major university after going to the smallest damn school in Ohio k-12.

He was fine with that decision, and helped with the amount he had saved away. I am almost done paying off my student debts, of which I had to pay the rest that he couldn’t afford. I forget the exact amount but it was a little over 1 years worth of the 4. 

I got a raise, but cost of living was higher. The raise probably didn't offset the cost of living, but I did it to get closer to family, less travel, less stress, etc.

To me, working in colleges is cake. Do it. Free college is worth it. If the kids choose not to go, that's their fault. I'd take free college too -- especially if it had what I wanted to do (which is mostly any college these days for just being a "general student"). The other thing to ask about is the tuition remission with other colleges -- surely they have the possibilities of going to other schools for free too. It's fairly commonplace anymore.

I quit working as a college coach, but could see myself going back at some point just to get free tuition for my kids (I have 13 years minimum before that happens though).

posted by OSH

The other thing to ask about is the tuition remission with other colleges -- surely they have the possibilities of going to other schools for free too. It's fairly commonplace anymore.

That's interesting.  Would be pretty cool if they could get that.

I'm not an undergrad snob, but I wouldn't go to some small private college no one heard of.  I don't think undergrad matters all that much, but I'd much prefer a good, sizable state college over just about everything else.  Somewhere strongly respected, at least regionally.

posted by OSH

I got a raise, but cost of living was higher. The raise probably didn't offset the cost of living, but I did it to get closer to family, less travel, less stress, etc.

To me, working in colleges is cake. Do it. Free college is worth it. If the kids choose not to go, that's their fault. I'd take free college too -- especially if it had what I wanted to do (which is mostly any college these days for just being a "general student"). The other thing to ask about is the tuition remission with other colleges -- surely they have the possibilities of going to other schools for free too. It's fairly commonplace anymore.

I quit working as a college coach, but could see myself going back at some point just to get free tuition for my kids (I have 13 years minimum before that happens though).

Yeah they have a tuition exchange program where you can goto a different school if someone from that school wants to go to yours. 

I mentioned my wife taking pay cuts before. She just took a small pay cut to start working at a bigger university (probably easy to guess which one), but the job is exactly what she wanted and she was miserable at her last place. I plan on taking advantage of the tuition benefit at some point.