…

Your reconsideration of life choices seems to have a lot of politics layered into it. You have to be true to yourself, but don’t fool yourself into thinking things will magically be different just by changing locations. The US in general seems to be becoming more liberal - it isn’t a situation unique to where you live.
 
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I would seriously look into the FAA. They are begging, I repeat begging, for ops inspectors. Not only do they have openings all over the country but many can be remote as well. Being typed in the 60 and with military service I believe you would qualify rather easily. Would be an initial pay cut but you will pretty quickly make that up and eventually have a second retirement to look forward to.
 
I've got little different spin/focus on a reply for you... You just touched on it, so maybe it's not #1 for you, like it is for my wife and me, but our kids are our #1 priority in life. If I was going to move, I would first consider the impact it woud have on my kids. Obviously, the impact a move will have on your inclome/job/career is relevant to that and also a super important/relevant factor all by itself too, but for me, my first consideration in a move like you're talking is my kids.

We did exactly this 10 1/2 years ago. We moved when we did because we didn't want to make the move any tougher than it had to be on our son and daughter. I'm a researcher for my job and I did a fair bit of digging into the impact of age on making a significant move/change like you're talking about. In short, if you can do it before they get to middle school age, it tends to go a lot easier on the kids. After that, they start to form some pretty tight relationships and splitting that up is tough. Obviously, plenty of kids do it and are most are just fine, but we wanted to do it at the best time we could, with our kids in mind, so we moved when our son was going to start 4th grade and our daughter was starting kindergarten. With them in mind, I wouldn't have wanted to wait much longer.

We moved for many of the same reasons you're looking at moving. It has been the best collective decision we've ever made and I have absolutely no regrets about making the move. Our kids love it where we live and we couldn't be more pleased with the decision. I hope you have a similar experience. Good luck!
 
MattB said:
You reconsideration of life choices seems to have a lot of politics layered into it. You have to be true to yourself, but don’t fool yourself into thinking things will magically be different just by changing locations. The US in general seems to be becoming more liberal - it isn’t a situation unique to where you live.
Click to expand...
Fair point. I don’t want it to sound like i don’t have a good life/career/etc.

Certainly wherever we end up or whatever I end up doing, there will be negatives. There is no perfect job or perfect place to live… That’s just life.

But I can’t ignore this overwhelming gut feeling that I need to make a change.

I remember the same feeling before I applied to Marine OCS, or before I applied to go to flight school. That uneasy gut feeling that you need to make an uncomfortable leap… Every time I have things have worked out for the better.

The difference now is having a family. If things don’t work out this time, it affects more than just me.
 
I can't get past the "comfortable" description for a household income that's at the 90% percentile nationally, in an area that's far from expensive in terms of cost of living.

If cost of living were taken into account, you'd likely be 95th percentile or above.

Just a little perspective about the discomfort associated with those golden handcuffs.
 
Scoot said:
I've got little different spin/focus on a reply for you... You just touched on it, so maybe it's not #1 for you, like it is for my wife and me, but our kids are our #1 priority in life. If I was going to move, I would first consider the impact it woud have on my kids. Obviously, the impact a move will have on your inclome/job/career is relevant to that and also a super important/relevant factor all by itself too, but for me, my first consideration in a move like you're talking is my kids.

We did exactly this 10 1/2 years ago. We moved when we did because we didn't want to make the move any tougher than it had to be on our son and daughter. I'm a researcher for my job and I did a fair bit of digging into the impact of age on making a significant move/change like you're talking about. In short, if you can do it before they get to middle school age, it tends to go a lot easier on the kids. After that, they start to form some pretty tight relationships and splitting that up is tough. Obviously, plenty of kids do it and are most are just fine, but we wanted to do it at the best time we could, with our kids in mind, so we moved when our son was going to start 4th grade and our daughter was starting kindergarten. With them in mind, I wouldn't have wanted to wait much longer.

We moved for many of the same reasons you're looking at moving. It has been the best collective decision we've ever made and I have absolutely no regrets about making the move. Our kids love it where we live and we couldn't be more pleased with the decision. I hope you have a similar experience. Good luck!
Click to expand...
Yup our son is our #1 focus.

Our ability to be good parents, spend time with him and give him quality experiences is paramount. Part of the urge to move is admittedly selfish, but part of it is the ability to foster his experiences as well.

For example doing the airline thing would just take too much away from my family at this point, despite the income potential at the back end of my career.

But yeah, that’s why I have really started to focus on making a career change/moving in 3 years rather than 13.
 
Someone recently said that pensions are modern day indentured servitude

Man that hit home. I don't know how yours works but with mine you don't get full payout til the bitter end. 1 day prior, it's half. I'd say at 36, don't let it tie you down these are your best years. Not to say moving west is the right choice, your paycheck will be much less out here
 
I can't get past the "comfortable" description for a household income that's at the 90% percentile nationally, in an area that's far from expensive in terms of cost of living.















If cost of living were taken into account, you'd likely be 95th percentile or above.















Just a little perspective about the discomfort associated with those golden handcuffs.



I can't get past the "comfortable" description for a household income that's at the 90% percentile nationally, in an area that's far from expensive in terms of cost of living.







If cost of living were taken into account, you'd likely be 95th percentile or above.







Just a little perspective about the discomfort associated with those golden handcuffs.



I work for a woke company that makes me want to puke in my mouth. I make pretty good money. It eats my soul every day. My house will be paid off next year and after that I have to do something else. The money isn't worth it.
 
I second what has been voiced previously in regards to flight paramedic. I worked as a flight nurse for a few years prior to going back to NP school and often had looked at moving west due to opportunities . My partner, who was a flight paramedic, did move west and found numerous opportunities with good pay, schedules, etc.

Looking back, working as a flight nurse was one of the most enjoyable/rewarding jobs I’ve ever had. I often miss it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
307 said:
I can't get past the "comfortable" description for a household income that's at the 90% percentile nationally, in an area that's far from expensive in terms of cost of living.

If cost of living were taken into account, you'd likely be 95th percentile or above.

Just a little perspective about the discomfort associated with those golden handcuffs.
Click to expand...
Perhaps that wasn’t the best way to put it… We make good money, and I’m definitely one of the best paid firefighter/paramedics in the county factoring in cost of living. But as I’ve stated, after the pension pickup my take home is not nearly as good as one imagines even with 120k being my salary on paper.

But in the past 3 years we went from being dual income no kids to having to pay for childcare and all the associated costs of that. Factor that in with inflation and a relatively static income, we felt it.

But similarly we could cut back expenses and still be just fine.
 
yoopshoot said:
I second what has been voiced previously in regards to flight paramedic. I worked as a flight nurse for a few years prior to going back to NP school and often had looked at moving west due to opportunities . My partner, who was a flight paramedic, did move west and found numerous opportunities with good pay, schedules, etc.

Looking back, working as a flight nurse was one of the most enjoyable/rewarding jobs I’ve ever had. I often miss it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I’d have to get my NR certification back (I just hold a state card) but that’s doable.
 
Have you considered another municipal fire job? Plenty of departments don’t transport still but you’d tied to medium to large cities for good pay. There are some lateral jobs out there. I moved from a large city department in Texas to a smaller one out west at 35 and it was tough starting over but totally worth it. You might be able to get into the wildland scene with your helicopter experience in several different ways.
 
Braaap said:
Have you considered another municipal fire job? Plenty of departments don’t transport still but you’d tied to medium to large cities for good pay. There are some lateral jobs out there. I moved from a large city department in Texas to a smaller one out west at 35 and it was tough starting over but totally worth it. You might be able to get into the wildland scene with your helicopter experience in several different ways.
Click to expand...
I’ve considered it, biggest hang up being the pension wouldn’t transfer out of state.
 
@BuckeyeRifleman , you’re young at 36 and have a working resume of many different purposeful experiences. Those can and will lead to a much broader set of possible opportunities than you can imagine now. Make a change and don’t look back. I’m probably a small handful of years until retirement. 20 years ago I made a career change & have never regretted it. I didn’t move away but it was a move into a completely different industry/line of work. Best wishes!
 
Drop your paramedic cert and lateral as a fireman somewhere out west. Take what you put into pension and invest it for when you retire. I work for a large FD that is running guys out for the same reasons you talk about . 2-30 year guys we’re leaving mostly laterals some took total career changes, they all seem happy.
 
Yoder said:
I can't get past the "comfortable" description for a household income that's at the 90% percentile nationally, in an area that's far from expensive in terms of cost of living.















If cost of living were taken into account, you'd likely be 95th percentile or above.















Just a little perspective about the discomfort associated with those golden handcuffs.



I can't get past the "comfortable" description for a household income that's at the 90% percentile nationally, in an area that's far from expensive in terms of cost of living.







If cost of living were taken into account, you'd likely be 95th percentile or above.







Just a little perspective about the discomfort associated with those golden handcuffs.



I work for a woke company that makes me want to puke in my mouth. I make pretty good money. It eats my soul every day. My house will be paid off next year and after that I have to do something else. The money isn't worth it.
Click to expand...
I'll chime in. The salary doesn't always tell the tale. My wife makes good money but by the time you deduct federal, state, 401K, health insurance, dental, basic insurance policy for the family, she only brings home 55% of her gross. They salary looks great but the net is a different story. Not to mention Biden/inflation.
 
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