I’m in a chaotic transitional period in life, and trying to balance looking ahead to the future and being responsible about where I am in the present.
I left my last job in 2025. Unexpectedly, soon after, my spouse and I amicably decided to divorce. Details don’t matter, but I ended up having to find a different living situation with our dog. No kids.
We’ve stayed splitting accounts while I job search, and we were always good savers. I’m not currently worried about financial runway, though I am very aware that it’s a finite resource.
My last job paid just about $100k - I know I’m incredibly lucky. I’ve been freelancing for some modest income and interviewing for similar roles and getting callbacks, but no final offers. It’s been about five months of looking for a full time role, which I know is standard these days. I want to maintain a good relationship with my soon-to-be-former spouse, and help re-pad our savings ASAP before we financially disentangle and finalize our separation.
I’m in an eye-wateringly HCOL area now (think top 3 in the USA) and at this point I’m currently applying for and actively interviewing for jobs somewhat junior to my experience at around the $80k band. Friends from this area are advising me not to do that quite yet, and I just wanted a temperature check. I don’t want to be unrealistic about the realities about the job market - beggars can’t be choosers; but I also don’t want ignore my friends if they’re right about saying I’d be trading off future financial stability now, when I’m going to be on my own for the foreseeable future. What would you guys do?