[Anonymous]

Hey guys,

I could easily be pegged as a pessimist which I prefer to label as a realist, but let me paint a picture of my situation.

I want to feel good about this, and hopefully after reading you guys will be able to help me out with that, but no matter what I want brutal honesty!

I have worked in industry for almost 6 1/2 years. I enjoy my job, but upward mobility is virtually impossible. The competition to get beyond my spot is EXTREMELY thick!

I am 3/4 of the way done with my CPA exams and have my (hopefully) last one scheduled at the end of this month.

I applied to a small firm (14 employees, 4 of which are CPAs and one of the partners plans to retire in 5 years) to do taxes part time this upcoming tax season. Long story short they called me in for an interview and offered me a full time job! We negotiated a starting salary, and there is a bonus that amounts roughly to 10% of the salary.

The health benefits are drastically different between my current job and the job at this firm. The coverages are comparable, but the costs are drastically different. Taking these differences into consideration, and assuming I would have to put my entire family on the plan, I would be making about 10% more with the new job NOT including the bonus. It is highly likely that my kids will end up on a different plan that is significantly less, and probably a 50/50 chance my wife will as well. If that’s the case, then without the kids my increase in base salary becomes roughly 20%, and without the wife or the kids my increase is roughly 32%!

These are all assuming I earn no bonus.

I guess what worries me, is the 10% worst case scenario still something to be super excited about?