Couple facts...
33 yo Engineer working in field for about 10 years now. No student loan debt. Excellent credit score. Roughly $28k in savings. Another $28k in a 401k. Only debt is $300/month car payment.
Girlfriend 29 yo has work from home job. Can work remotely from anywhere in USA. Approximately $65k annual income. Has almost $40k in savings. Healthy 401k with well over that.
Long-term relationship, and is very stable/ healthy, we both know we will eventually be married.
Here's the idea...
Basically thinking of downsizing to single income, as girlfriend wants to take advantage of her remote work position. Our lease will be ending, and based on our research we can find Airbnb for approximately same cost per month as current rent in different cities we would like to stay. May also stay some with Friends/ Family along way. Estimated trip 5-7 months.
My concern is not so much that we couldn't afford it, as we budgeted it out. My concern is that savings (specifically mine as I feel it's lower side for my age/profession) will stay stagnant, and possibly decrease depending on emergencies. Also time gap in resume for re-entering job market. During trip I would look for some work from home positions myself, or other means of income, although I'm not expecting more than a couple hundred bucks a month. Also planned to work on professional courses online to keep fresh and add to my resume so it's not just "traveling"
The other hard part is I have another job offer pending, but would need to start right away. No time to travel between jobs. This would be a $6k raise from current salary (which is already currently more than GFs), and they have better benefits.
I'm very close to turning other job down, and traveling. I feel as before we get married and have kids, we could have this trip without having to piecemeal things here and there when pto allows. A road trip across America is also a dream of mine I've had for a couple years now, and I not sure when else the opportunity like this would present itself (until retired). I also feel like the risks are fairly well mitigated compared to stories of other people who quit and travel, but I may be fooling myself. There's a reason why I posted this on personal finance and not the travel subreddit.
I know that this is obviously not the smartest financial strategy as time is my best investing tool at my age, but at the same time, I feel like it is doable?
Give it to me straight. Does this sound like a huge mistake?
Submitted August 09, 2018 at 12:51PM by MrTooTall https://ift.tt/2M9uSyY
