Reply #14: Oh hey... no problem at all.

[FBaggins]

I can certainly see how it could have been read that way.

Yes - perhaps the wrong choices financially

Oh, I don't know. It sounds like your declined living standards were a testiment to that frugality that you were talking about. If you had the job for some time and were maxing out your 401(k) then there was probably a fair amount in there... but you didn't consider spending it to maintain a higher standard of living, you were trying to squeek by on as little as possible. Others wouldn't have made the same decisions. They wouldn't have gotten moving actively on their job search until severance and/or unemployment ran out and they wouldn't have been willing to consider a career with a lower salary until their other savings was tapped out (and maybe they ran up debt on cards/lines that were still open).

So it sounds like you made it through a really tough time because you were so frugal both before and after the job loss. Don't be depressed... be proud! The benefit of a "rainy day fund" is that when it rains, it's there to take care of you. Plenty of people (yes, including 6-figure earners) live paycheck to paycheck and could have been on the street six months later.

I will say that I agree that paying down the home wasn't the best move. I know that Dave Ramsey would have you pay it off as fast as possible, but I've never agreed with that. The problem with overpaying on a home is that you can't get the money out when you need it without refinancing (which won't happen if you're unemployed) or selling the home. If the same money went into savings/investments then you could always pay off the home early if you wanted to, but can still get to the money if the worst happens.

And hey! If the new job comes with that salary without months and months of overtime, you might decide that this one is actually better for your family! I remember taking a small step down at one point for a job that took me off the road and had more reliable hours. I didn't realize it at the time but the tradeoff was more than worth it.