two fed household--advice

[Anonymous]

Hi---I was wondering if i could ask your advice. We are first time parents, both feds. Wife makes 80k, husband makes 50k per year. We have decent savings, but presently living in a 1-BR apartment which we are renting. My question is--- should we consider having one of us leave the government, and make more--if we dream to pay for our child's college and get a small property to call our own? Would be great to hear from other couples who made it. TY

[Anonymous]

Yes. Husband should get out there and try to make more money, while wife gets the fed benefits for the family.

[Anonymous]

Yes--it's tough to live off 130k combined HHI in this area for a family

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Husband should get out there and try to make more money, while wife gets the fed benefits for the family.

This is what we recently decided to do. I'm keeping my Fed job for the benefits and flexibility and he's searching for a private industry position that pays more. Wish us luck

[Anonymous]

Just make sure that you understand the real costs. Those private sector jobs are easier to lose, come with fewer vacation/ sick leave benefits, and often require more hours. Around 2009, a lot of people were very grateful for those "lower-paying" federal jobs.

[Anonymous]

What are your career trajectories likely to look like if you stay feds? I mean, I was hired as a GS9, making $33K--but within 3 years I I had been promoted to GS13 and more than doubled my salary. Now I make $120K a year as a fed.

IF DH is locked into a job that doesn't have promotion potential, then exploring outside opportunities makes sense. But if he's newly employed you can probably take heart that his salary won't stay at $50k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are your career trajectories likely to look like if you stay feds? I mean, I was hired as a GS9, making $33K--but within 3 years I I had been promoted to GS13 and more than doubled my salary. Now I make $120K a year as a fed.

IF DH is locked into a job that doesn't have promotion potential, then exploring outside opportunities makes sense. But if he's newly employed you can probably take heart that his salary won't stay at $50k.

Totally agree with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just make sure that you understand the real costs. Those private sector jobs are easier to lose, come with fewer vacation/ sick leave benefits, and often require more hours. Around 2009, a lot of people were very grateful for those "lower-paying" federal jobs.

The benefits really depend on the job--my husband had a headhunter call him--both the benefits, pay, and promotion potential were better than the feds (at a GS-13), but the job security is an issue.

I would say the person who is more comfortable with risk could go to the private sector; many of my husbands fed coworkers in a STEM field are leaving or retiring and going to the private sector for 50K raises. He is thinking about it...we want to have enough money to retire.

[Anonymous]

OP here---He's a GS9--his 2 year growth goal is about 75k, if he moves to private now, it would probably be 75k now already with a steeper climb hopefully. I agree we really like the hours working federal. I'm more flexible to move to private sector but that would be more time consuming (might require me to work nights and weekends, and be in a different part of the country). He has student loans that the federal govt is helping a bit. Would appreciate the feedback from the feds who have stuck it out or made the move.

[Anonymous]

DH and I both started as GS-7s out of college. We were single then. We're now both GS-14s, and have been out of college 7 and 6 years respectively. Mind you, we are in fields with a high promotion rate. It really depends on the field that you are in.

[Anonymous]

I would stick it out, but I am pretty risk averse plus I put a pretty high value on "work/life balance"

[Anonymous]

I started as a PMF for 40k as a GS-9, and 7 years later got a 15. My husband started in the private sector and is a GS 13 engineer. For us, the pension and generous leave can't be beat. We both work 40 hour work weeks. I did private sector prior to grad school for 7 years and hated the focus on the bottom line. Public service suits me much better. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Jeezus Beezus threads like this really make me suicidal. My job tops out at a GS-11. I came in the Feds in 6yrs ago at a GS-7.
My series is not high- paying so I am always feeling the pull to go back to the evil private sector. The only thing I would miss is the stability factor.
I'm aiming for other Federal jobs because I really need to make more money.

[Anonymous]

I don't know, I think there are a lot of DCUMs who make a LOT of money and can't imagine living any other way. But it is possible, OP. My DH makes $125K as a federal employee. I do freelance work but pull in less than $6K/year. I've been primarily a SAHM for 11 years. We have three kids, own a smallish but nice house in a nice MoCo neighborhood, send one child to a (relatively) reasonably priced private school and the other two to publics, and have excellent college and retirement savings in place. We own both of our cars. We just don't spend a lot on things that many of our friends and neighbors, do, i.e. going out to eat a lot, babysitters, theatre tickets, gym memberships, cable TV, pricey phone plans. I buy most of my and the kids' clothes at thrift stores and we don't buy books, we use the library. But I love our lifestyle and other than traveling a little more and eating out more often, there's nothing I'd really change. DH had the opportunity to pursue a job that would have earned considerably more in a rural area in the Northeast, and we decided he wouldn't because we like living here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jeezus Beezus threads like this really make me suicidal. My job tops out at a GS-11. I came in the Feds in 6yrs ago at a GS-7.
My series is not high- paying so I am always feeling the pull to go back to the evil private sector. The only thing I would miss is the stability factor.
I'm aiming for other Federal jobs because I really need to make more money.

I'm with you, however, I came in as a GS-9 and now I'm a GS 13-7 (9,11 and then 13). The only way to move up in my series (Program Analyst) is to be my boss. I'm currently looking outside my agency for non-sup 14s.