This is very helpful. I do think it would be hard to spend time commuting when I could be with family. I intend to use most of the pay raise to tackle debt (would have paid off in 6 months with what we pay now plus an extra $1000 a month), plus I’d increase my 401k contributions, increase charitable contributions, put some into savings, and then take a small amount and hire a biweekly cleaning service so that I had more free time when I’m home, plus less stress. I don’t want the money for just “fun” stuff, I have a plan to help get our finances in better order, but I also know my kids are only young for so long, and I can’t get that time back.

Unfortunately, the way the pay system is set up in my current job, I can’t really leverage a raise. I don’t want to give too much identifiable information, but where I work now is a set pay scale and mostly goes by tenure. I could possibly get another promotion in 2-3 years (just got one recently), which would be about a $9,000 raise. So it truly would take me 10-15 years to ever get close to the $120k salary. I also feel like I was a better mother and wife when I worked outside of the house because my energy is just very low when I am home all day :(