2025 was a huge year for my family! My son was born in November 2024 after three+ years of fertility treatments. A few months before he was born, I learned that my job was likely going to be consolidated due to a merger at my university. I spent my maternity leave interviewing for new roles, and ultimately started a new role in April 2025 at my same institution. Not only do I have significantly more job stability, which is still a large uncertainty for most folks as our institution is facing 9% budget cuts, but I also negotiated a 10% raise and went from working remote 1 day/week to 4 days/week. My new boss is incredibly supportive and encouraged me to go for another promotion cycle this fall; if all goes well, I should receive another 10% raise next fall.
When my wife went back to work in February, we quickly figured out that she wasn’t able to spend as much time with our son as she would like. After running the numbers, we learned we were at Coast FI, and my wife dropped from 40 hours/week to 36 hours/week. While these additional four hours/week were great, she still wasn’t happy at work due to multiple HR issues, stagnate pay, and lackluster PTO/sick leave. My wife worked at her pediatric outpatient clinic as a speech pathologist for nearly a decade, but since having our son, her priorities had changed.
Once again, I ran the numbers, and figured out with my new job, we could likely afford for my wife to accept a new job working in the schools and take a $10k pay cut. She interviewed and accepted a job working for a local school district this summer for…a $10k pay RAISE, $300/month stipend to stay on my health insurance, access to a 457b with a 9% employer match compared to her 4% match at her previous employer, gas and cell phone reimbursement, and school breaks. She now works 35 hours/week making more money than she ever did at her old employer, she can pick up our son every day from daycare, and she will now have all school breaks off.
We spend so much more time together as a couple and a family, with even more financial security, because we understood (a) what our life costs, (b) had saved aggressively since we got married in our mid 20s, and (c) knew how to negotiate our worth.
So, thank you to Brad (and Jonathan) for all that you’ve done through ChooseFI. My family’s life is exponentially better because of the lessons we’ve learned and implemented over the course of the last five years since I discovered your podcast.
A final thank you to my dad, who got my wife and I a copy of The Simple Path to Wealth for Christmas the first year we were married. This is a gift I will never be able to repay him for, but I promise to pass these lessons down to my son for second generation FIRE.
— Marissa