Background: I'm 25 and graduating in May from Georgia Institute of Technology with a bachelor's in Industrial Engineering. I have just received a job offer from a start-up company (~10 employees) for a data analyst role with a starting salary of $70000. According to my program's salary report, graduates in 2017's (Spring) and 2016's (Spring & Fall) class received a median of $68000. Upon finishing my course study, I have roughly $30000 in student loans. I plan on marrying my now girlfriend in the near future (~1-2 years) and we've discussed our financial situations. Together, we're looking at roughly $70000-75000 worth of student loans. We plan on living off of her salary (~$40000) and using whatever salary I receive to pay off the student loans aggressively.
I'm going back and forth with myself on whether or not I should accept my first job offer of $70000. It's a nice starting salary and I could make a huge dent in the student loans quickly, however, I want to think about savings/investments for our retirement and that's where the problem lays. The company pays 100% for health insurance, but doesn't have a 401k program set up. With other more established companies, 401k programs are put in place and they also offer some sort of matching, but their initial salaries may not be as high. Do I take the guaranteed 70k with no savings plans/benefits and aggressively pay off our student loans for the next 3 years or do I take my chances with the market and hope to receive another offer with potentially less base salary ($55-65k) but with 401k in place? I still have a little bit of time in terms of searching for a job since I don't graduate in May, but it's nice to know that I have a guaranteed job now upon graduation. The non-monetary benefits of the company could potentially be me moving up within the company faster since it's a new-ish start up and there aren't many employees. I'm new to the personal finance scene and was hoping for some advice with my situation.
Also, I have read a little on ROTH IRAs and was planning to max that out regardless of where I end up - it's just nice to have both ROTH IRAs and a 401k plan to contribute to, right?
Any advice on whether or not I should take this job or just laying out more pros/cons that I'm not considering at this moment would be deeply appreciated. I have to let the company know my decision within the next half week.
Submitted November 18, 2017 at 09:10AM by GTIE78 http://ift.tt/2APrAH9
