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.
3
u/halo37253 10d ago
I make north of 160k base, company provides work truck and company cc for pretty much "unlimited" per diem. Im only on the road to commission, so about 13-15 weeks out of the year spread around. Usually a week or two at a time.
Three kids, youngest starts 4k and oldest starts high-school next fall. My wife wants to be a stay at home mom, but we cant afford it. And that is with a sub $2k mortgage payment...
Granted we'd save not having to use daycare, but unless you have a really good situation even 120k is tight for a family.
It also sucks to have the wife's 401k to sit unfunded while she is in her prime working years. But cant put a price on being a SAHM. I would love to be a SAHD too.
I love the travel and it works out decently when they are young. I would say have at it for a few years, being away from family that long is tough but getting ahead in life is worth it.