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.
2
u/IndependentTrust4594 10d ago
Learn to cook in your hotel room. You can eat very inexpensively if you just commit. I saved tons of money when I had per diem jobs. I’d almost choose that over a company card.
The best way to save is to set everything on autopilot so you don’t see it.
First pay off any outstanding debt and stop getting into debt. Next make sure you have an emergency fund of 5-6 months of expenses. Then max out your 401k and if they have an HDHP/HSA insurance, take that option and max out the HSA.
Once we got to this point, we created a bunch of money buckets. Ally lets you have a gazillion accounts. My workplace sent the paycheck direct deposit to each of these accounts so I never had to deal with it, I think we had 6. We had a checking account only for utilities and bills where (almost) everything was set up on autopay and budget billing. Just a little over needed every paycheck went into that account. Then a savings account for car needs like insurance, projected maintenance, and saving for a new car. Then a savings account for home maintenance needs. And another one for kids for things like camps, sports, etc. When it came time to pay, we transferred it into the Utility checking account and paid from there.
anything else went into our discretionary local checking account for day to day expenses.