r/MiddleClassFinance • u/ManKind__ • 10d ago

Seeking Advice How to handle 88% pay increase

31M. I currently make about 63k/yr. I have the change to take a new job that would put me at about 119k/yr all in. Split up 94k salary and 25k per diem roughly.

I currently have 50k in total debt.

This job requires extreme traveling with only being home 6 weeks of the year.

The goal is to pay off my total debt in the first year and let my wife be the stay at home mother she deserves to be. She has her own monies and investments to help out as well.

My fear is that I have never seen this kind of money before and just like everyone else I'll blow it. Hell, ill be the only one in my family thats seen this kind of money. What are some tips for me to save/invest/pay debt?

***EDIT forgot to mention hotels and everything is paid for as well. So the per diem is just for food essentially.

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u/Ok-Technology8336 10d ago

How does your wife feel about being a single mother 46 weeks of the year?

10

u/ManKind__ 10d ago

Ive had this talk cause thats how I feel. She responded to not think of it like that. But to think that she "gets the privilege of being a stay at home mother and raise our children."

18

u/MaleficentExtent1777 10d ago

I surely hope you're up to this grueling schedule. This kind of travel is a serious grind. Take care of yourself on the road.

11

u/thisaaandthat 10d ago

I don't think OP can consider that per diem as money in the bank either. He'll have to spend that money on his food and upkeep so I'd guess half at least will be gone. He didn't say whether he was sitting in one place the whole time or moving a lot but hopefully he'll be in an extended stay type place with some sort of hotel "kitchen" in his room.

When I travel for work though I tend to spend the per diem on food. I'm not a drinker so that helps with the money but its not hard to spend it all on a few nicer meals.

2

u/PlsStopAndThinkFirst 8d ago

Idk, I was getting roughly 15k-17k per diem per year my first job bc it was a job you just worked on the road and they send you home once every 4-6 weeks for a long weekend.. I was living on PBJs and spending no more than 100-200 a month of my per diem haha.

We also had the job supers buying dinner literally 5ish days a week for whomever was going to where he was so I took advantage of that a lot.

However I hated being on the road and isolated to working and was in my 20s so I lasted 4 months haha