If your DH could double his pay but had to travel often, would you take it?
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Anonymous
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DH has a very niche technical skill and was offered a very lucrative consulting role earlier this year. He can pick up $10,000-$50,000 extra per month. Since the money was good, DH accepted the consulting role and DH can do the work when he is available but it requires him to travel about 2x per month. It has been about 6 months and this extra consulting job is basically at the expense of ALL DH's free time. DH thinks he should continue doing the work and we should save the $. I personally don't think it is worth the expense of all our family time. DH doesn't like being away from our family either. He doesn't particularly enjoy the work. It's just purely for the money.
Would you have your DH continue to work the extra hours for the money? |
Anonymous
| Depends on number of days/month of travel and if there is any extar vacation he is accumulating that you can perhaps use more frequently. and if you see any big expenses coming up that you can cover for: house? private school? |
Anonymous
| Worth it. Do it for 2-3 years and save up a lot of money. |
Anonymous
| Nope. In fact, my DH just took a lower paying job to spend more time with the family. These years with our children are priceless. |
Anonymous
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In a heartbeat, but I think the DH in question should decide.
And traveling twice a month is not extreme in my circle, unfortunately. The husbands of my 3 closest friends all travel much more than that (World Bank and private PR firm). It's difficult for all concerned, but they made this decision because they needed the money and can look forward to moving up the career ladder and traveling less in the future. |
Anonymous
| Perhaps you could come up with a budget that has savings goals and each month, once he's hit the goal, he stops doing the extra hours? Could you have a designated day of the week that is sacred in the sense that it is family-only time? |
Anonymous
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I would not do it long term, assuming the prior job was enough to cover living expenses comfortably (for example, a small house in a good public school district).
I could see maybe doing it for a year or two, but probably not once I had kids. |
Anonymous
Agree with this. If my DH had to be gone for 2-3 days twice a month, that's fine. If he were gone for multiple full weeks per month, we'd really need to talk long and hard about it. I see PP's point that it's only a few years, but that's a lot of time away from your kids. And especially if they are young, those years matter a lot in terms of changes and thinsg you'd miss. Extra money is great, but at the expense of your overall family well-being -- marriage, time together, his time with the kids, his health, etc.. -- then it might not be worth it. |
Anonymous
| Completely up to DH. Whatever he decides, support him. |
Anonymous
DH is basically using his accrued vacation to do this second consulting job. Instead of going on a summer vacation, he is using the time to do the consulting work. DH normally earns about $250k per year. He has earned about $200k extra from this consulting role in the past 7 months. The consulting role will probably only last for another 1-2 years. DH thinks he should just milk it and save the money. We have no large expenses coming up. |
Anonymous
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Agree with PP. How frequent are the trips and for how long? I would be fine with 1-3 day trips, even every week or every other week if the $$$ were that good.
Do you NEED the extra money? Are you paying down major debt, saving for a house? I would NOT agree to DH taking a job that required him to be a way 1-2 wks/month unless we had major indebtedness that we were trying to dig ourselves out of. In that event, I would set a date by which the travel would end. Do you WOH? Are you able to manage work with DH gone so much? |
Anonymous
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I agree with the others to set a savings goal and meet it and then stop. DH seems up for it, and the opportunity to make that much extra cash doesn't come along that often.
How are you handling the travel? And how much time are we talking about? |
Anonymous
Why is this "completely up to DH?" His decisions affect the entire family! |
Anonymous
Depends, then. Do you work? Is it hurting your family or just making him busier? What is the downside? Just that he has no free time? 1-2 years is not bad at all. I'd totally have DH do this and bank the money in a college or emergency fund. And take a great vacation after the 1-2 years are up and the consulting goes away. |
Anonymous
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If you don't need the money, probably not. (That said, there is always a use for money. If he could do it for a year and have a decent college fund established. well, maybe a short while could be worth it.)
My husband travels a lot necessarily in his line of work, and constantly feels in danger of losing his position/contacts if he tries to cut back. Since I work fulltime as well with occasional travel, it's rough on all of us. I don't recommend it. |