I can only speak for me... but we would move.

Only YOU can decide what is good for YOU!

I haven't. But I have made the opposite decision -- NOT moving for a job. I was looking at a move three states away, and there would have been a pay increase. This was in 2004. But it would have meant DH finding something else as well, and that wouldn't have been a sure thing. I also knew that the trend for our company was to downsize, and that it would likely get totally absorbed into the parent company eventually. If that happened, I would have rather been here, where the cost of living is lower and where I have my friends and activities and where DH has solid employment. The other city (Houston) would probably have been full of opportunities, but it wasn't a chance I wanted to take.

Sure enough, in 2007 the downsizing began, and it got me in 2008. I might have grown to love Houston in those four years, but I'm still glad I didn't make the move.

As luann said, it all has to do with what works for YOU. I stayed put here in part because I knew that if I were without employment for a while, or could only find something that paid half of what I was making before, that we would still be financially OK. You need to do all that math and figure out what is best.

We are sort of in that position. Dh has been asked to apply for a job in another state. We would make the move if asked, but it is not our first choice. It's all about balancing the advantages and disadvantages and the bottom line.

Moving sucks. Moving to a state where you don't know anyone sucks even more. But, the biggest bummer is not having a job, and looking for one in this economy. Take the job.

I was never asked to move to another state but did work in numerous loactions (phone company) within about an hour or hour and a half radius from home.

Things for you to consider.
Your job skills and how marketable you think you might be if you didn't go and had to find employment where you are now.
Housing...if you own or are buying your home and what the housing market is like in your existing area and the area where the new job is.
Your age, and savings, and if you really need to continue at the higher salary.
Do they have a Pension Plan...Sweet if they do.
Do they offer insurance (fully or partially paid) when one retires?
How far off is retirement?

Sue

I'm retired, can you tell?

I'd consider not only the jobs you might find locally if you don't move, but the jobs you might find at the new location if you do end up laid off or things really go bad. This will be highly individual: a friend of mine is so specialized and high up in his career ladder that even finding a similar job here in the Twin Cities takes several months. OTOH, if you're a mid-level account rep or financial analyst, you likely will have a much wider pool of jobs from which to choose.

Many years ago, I was offered a job in a small city in an adjoining state. It was an excellent job with great pay and benefits. But it was a very small city and this company was by far the biggest employer in town. If anything happened to them, I likely would have had to move to another city/state to find another job in my field. And I really didn't feel like moving after having moved so often in the immediately-preceding years. So I passed. Good thing, too, because within two years, that entire department was moved to a place I would not have chosen to live.

Tough call. Good luck.

Lostinit -

Do you always post and run? Lots of people take the time to try to answer your questions, but you never seem to reply. It would be polite to at least acknowledge that people have attempted to help.

Yep I need to reply. I've aged/seasoned a bit in the last six years having two kids now and mid 30s and what I know is that moving tends to work out one way or another. You make it work or you don't. No one can promise you guarantees in life so you need to weigh the options and come up with a decision that financially benefits you and your family before emotions get in the way. Once you settle financially then you can start giving into emotions as your means will be there to support your decision.

A lot of the issues I see today is folks settle and expect jobs to be where they are that make good money and they never move and I look back and I moved and things have worked out and look back and see I would've languished there. Not to be political but folks in areas where manufacturing have died should retrain and relocate if they wish to succeed just sticking around in hollowed out dumps because you've lived there your whole life is not the answer. You have to move to make things work. You can't rely on past industry to be there for you or to come back when it's been gone.

If you refuse change you are refusing opportunity for growth. Change is fun and exciting. It allows you to step off the conveyor belt you have been on your entire life and allows you to explore new things. Embrace change.

Part of the equation is whether the family as a whole sees a long distance move as an opportunity to meet new friends, attend new schools, face new work challengers, OR on the other hand if the family sees it as being torn away from the security and safety of a current job, being separated from friends and acquaintances, and generally exposed to massive upheavals.

I am retired Military - US Navy Submariner - and was thus my family and I were moved long distance every 3-4 miles. We have looked back and all three of my (now) adult children look back fondly on their experiences and would have had it no other way.

My wife and I also feel strongly that way. We are of an age when the wife was at home with the children while I frequently was at sea, or working away from home. Thus we did not have the pressures of the second spouse looking for a new job.

Not for everyone, I understand that.

We have moved all over the country for my husband's career and it has been a blessing. It's hard as we didn't have a support system to help with our children. It was financially a blessing and we learned A LOT! We visited places we never thought we would get to see. We met so many interesting people along the way, and grew in unexpected ways. For us it worked out, however the spouse who isn't moving for their career suffers in their career! The spouse gets the raw end of the deal, how are they supposed to keep moving and advancing in their career- simple answer is they don't usually advance... it's a huge sacrifice.