Must be nice to be most people on the board here. Lot's of self-rightousness at work.
Benefits do have a value, and so they should be factored in, but if someone's looking to drop $8K a year in salary, unless the prescription drugs and dental he's using now suck up $8K (ish, less taxes) in expenses, it's still a loss game.
"Honour" & "Serving the country" sounds real good, and they're good, soft, noble, throw away words, but when the car loan needs paying, maybe a wife and child to support, $8K is a lot of cash. Anyone who says otherwise is being a money snob. I don't care how much you want to serve, at the end of the day you still need to pay the bills. Someone used to a higher salary coming in probably has commitments reflecting that higher salary.
Anyone who says money doesn't matter isn't trying to live without enough of it.
UCanuck, I feel for you. When I joined, I took a $10K drop. That required a rather drastic change in lifestyle to be able to meet obligations and maybe have a twenty in my wallet at the end of the day. No amount of free aspirin or free world wide trips (that I never went on) made up for that drop. Still, it was initial pain for long term gain, the end result seeing me a LOT more happy in my work, and being compensated quite fairly. When I first asked about pay at the recruiting office, the guy there gave me a pay scale with all the ranks, and in many instances up to 4 differing scales per rank with incentives. Hard to decipher when you have no idea what you're looking at.
Anyways, it boils down to whether you think you can function at the lower pay rate (if you can't, don't try), and whether you think that the end result is worth it in the end (in my case it really, really was). Good luck.
Oh....and as an aside....for all the "money isn't as important" posters....I'd love to see the reaction when Cpl. Someone tells them their TD claim is being denied or some other money claw-back. You'd see just how much money matters then.
Benefits do have a value, and so they should be factored in, but if someone's looking to drop $8K a year in salary, unless the prescription drugs and dental he's using now suck up $8K (ish, less taxes) in expenses, it's still a loss game.
"Honour" & "Serving the country" sounds real good, and they're good, soft, noble, throw away words, but when the car loan needs paying, maybe a wife and child to support, $8K is a lot of cash. Anyone who says otherwise is being a money snob. I don't care how much you want to serve, at the end of the day you still need to pay the bills. Someone used to a higher salary coming in probably has commitments reflecting that higher salary.
Anyone who says money doesn't matter isn't trying to live without enough of it.
UCanuck, I feel for you. When I joined, I took a $10K drop. That required a rather drastic change in lifestyle to be able to meet obligations and maybe have a twenty in my wallet at the end of the day. No amount of free aspirin or free world wide trips (that I never went on) made up for that drop. Still, it was initial pain for long term gain, the end result seeing me a LOT more happy in my work, and being compensated quite fairly. When I first asked about pay at the recruiting office, the guy there gave me a pay scale with all the ranks, and in many instances up to 4 differing scales per rank with incentives. Hard to decipher when you have no idea what you're looking at.
Anyways, it boils down to whether you think you can function at the lower pay rate (if you can't, don't try), and whether you think that the end result is worth it in the end (in my case it really, really was). Good luck.
Oh....and as an aside....for all the "money isn't as important" posters....I'd love to see the reaction when Cpl. Someone tells them their TD claim is being denied or some other money claw-back. You'd see just how much money matters then.
