Thinking about moving...need opinions

The town I currently live in is great and I have lived here my entire life. Everyone knows me and knows my family. I work for AT&T currently. I am thinking about moving to a bigger city. I am back and forth at the moment. Here are my pros and cons:

-Pros-
If I take a new job, I can make 25-30k more per year (have already had a few offers, but of course I wasn't ready to move yet).
My wife's goal was to work as a nurse at a specific hospital in the new city
The schools in the county we would move to are the number 1 schools in the state....still public.
There is a TON more stuff to do for entertainment in this area as well.
Selling the house would actually put me in a position to be debt free after using some of the profit to pay off some bills. I have good equity built up.

-Cons-
We will be further away from our family but still only about 2 hours away
If I leave my current employer, I'm leaving over 12 years of service
Just moving my step son to a new school system and away from his friends
My step son will be further away from his dad but my wife has full custody

That's just a few things I have been thinking about. I can probably stay with my employer and just relocate but the money won't be as good as the offers I have had. My wife and I rarely have time to hang out with our friends right now so we wouldn't be missing much there. I'm just afraid that if we decide to move, that it will be a mistake. But on the other hand, turning down the higher pay and stuff could be a mistake as well. I have a friend that left our company and took another position at one of the companies that has made me an offer. He says it's the best decision he's ever made. Over the past couple of years, I have watched quite a few people leave our company for more money.

Here is the thing, I am a VoIP guy and have a few Cisco certifications. I LOVE working with in that area and I just don't get the hands on in my current position. With that being said, I can tell my boss I want this other position and I will get a 10% raise, get more hands on with this stuff, but I will be management instead of craft which has a little worse insurance amongst other things.

When my wife and I were first discussing this, I was 100% set on moving and leaving the company and making more money. But now that we are actually thinking of putting the ball in motion....I'm starting to question myself. And just as a side note, we are all on board with moving so it's not anything that I'm having to sell to the family.

Any suggestions or opinions or any other things I need to think about?

hey bro,

I think that most of us have been at this crossroad at some point or another.
I think that most if NOT must of us have felt that nervouness and feeling of failure.

The great thing about this situation is that you and your family are looking for better ways of life, and not just seclude yourselves to a life you may not be fully happy in.

the truth is that, no matter where you are in life you may always have those "pros and cons" where the cons may make you question the pros (the good stuff)

What I have learnt in life is to trutthfully appreciate and respect my surroundings, where the grass may not always be green at the other side of the fence. At the same time taking well calculated risks that will pay off in the end.



Without a plan, you plan to fail bro.

As hard as this may be, my personal adivse is this:

you are not alone anymore, you have a family to look after. Perhaps making such a big move could be very risky. IF I were single and with no children (I have no children) making a move like that would not be so hard.


The only way to achieve success is to undertake big risks and this is one of those decisions that only you and your family can make.

I am on your side and I from the heart wish nothing but solid results in this venture.



B2J4E

i understand your concern, but i think you pretty much needed to write it out as a way of telling yourself you need to move. its not like your moving to another state, your 2 hours away from your family, i would LOVE to be just 2 hours away from my family but im not, i got to hop on an expensive plane to see them once a year. the pro's here outweigh the cons by a large margin. having a better education for your son outweighs current friends, and whatever age he is at this will be a good personality strengthener for him to jump out of his comfort zone and meet new people. change is exciting whether its exhilarating or really scary. this will definitely be a better decision for your family, but again you didnt need me to tell you that it was already written out in your post.

good luck g, i wish you the best when it comes down to decision making time.

Thanks guys. Very good points!!

I really like the pros and cons you have made...being honest with yourself is huge in making a decision such as this...Here is my suggestion: see if you can actually obtain a job with the higher salary...if so, and they will definitely hire you, go for it! Do your due-dilligence and find an affordable house, take your time, etc, but I say move brother! I have had this nervousness before as well and I am glad that I took the plunge personally!

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Originally Posted by mikeyg51

I really like the pros and cons you have made...being honest with yourself is huge in making a decision such as this...Here is my suggestion: see if you can actually obtain a job with the higher salary...if so, and they will definitely hire you, go for it! Do your due-dilligence and find an affordable house, take your time, etc, but I say move brother! I have had this nervousness before as well and I am glad that I took the plunge personally!

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Thanks for the advice man. Yeah, the job situation is number priority for sure. We actually want to sell our current house regardless of this decision so hopefully everything will time out accordingly. The offers I have had so far, they seemed to be flexible with hiring and then allowing you so much time to get your house sold and moved into a new house before having to be in the office every day as well as offering assistance in making the move. Whether or not those offers are there when they need to be is another thing.

great to hear bro! Knowing that you could definitely get the job is a great thing because then the move will be that much easier...all too often ppl quit before having a definite offer lined up...And knowing you won't actually lose on your current house is nice too since the market is only just now starting to rebound!

i like the pros very much

10 years ago I packed my truck and moved out of state. I have no regrets but its all about what you got now and what you want later. if sticking around wont get you where you want to be , GO. the best part is now I know I can go anywhere and do anything if I so make the choice because the fear is gone

I will say it seems the pro's out weigh the cons on this one.. like others have said its hard to move but look at what your getting.. I worked for a company for 9yrs and our compition wantd to hire me which was right down the street it was scary for me to move to that company still in the same town but it has been the best thing I've every done.. has worked out great.. that's also a big pay jump.. you might want to check on housing prices and other living expenses to make sure the more money doesn't come with more expenses ..