Backup plans?

To those of you touting the “live within your means” statement, I agree that a majority do not live within their means. Too much house, too expensive of cars, lots of toys (boats, extra cars, vacation houses ect) too many divorces...BUT, try living in the Dallas area married with kids. I don’t know how the envoy peeps make it work. It might not be as expensive here as SEA or any part of CA, but 30K a year here doesn’t cut it without outside help. Honestly, i could not live here long term for any less than I’m making now.

We live very frugally and a few months ago just finally started to make a very small amount more than our break even point. The first year I was here I had to spend a large portion of my savings to supplement the difference of what we needed vs. what I was paid. The second year we climbed our way to the paycheck to paycheck life.

All that to say anything less than about 75-80k a year in Dallas is not enough for us and we don’t spend like 99% of Americans.

***And health insurance/retirement contributions are necessities not “wants” because who will take care of you when you don’t/can’t work anymore? So I do factor that into our expenses. If you don’t budget for retirement something will inevitably always come up that prevents you from contributing towards it.
 
**And health insurance/retirement contributions are necessities not “wants” because who will take care of you when you don’t/can’t work anymore

I think retirement savings is one of the biggest changes between making regional vs mainline money. When you're making 30k you just can't afford to worry about retirement much, that's future you's problem. Where as at mainline most people start to prioritize retirement savings, but if you fully fund your Roth 401k and IRA that's an easy 35k each year that you don't see again for 30-40 years.

Personally I'm using all this CARES act money to finish funding my retirement accounts before October + beef up my emergency fund. My goal will be to find a job in my area that will make ends meet after that, and hopefully get recalled or find something/a combination of jobs making at least 60k in 2021 to keep my retirement savings on track.
 
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Honestly, while regional pay for dispatch isn’t near where it should be, if you have a side hustle it’s do-able.

I’ve made about an extra $2k this month from mine, but this has also been a good month.
 
When I was desperately trying to get out of my regional, I started applying to train dispatch postings. Never heard anything back from any of them. I finally got an interview with Union Pacific for a rail scheduler job. Figured maybe it was a way to get in the door and eventually slide into a dispatch/controller job. Flew myself out nonrev to Omaha. Took their written test and got a face-to-face interview. It was a weird vibe. I tried to talk about my experience in aviation and how it could relate to performing at the railroad and they just had glazed over looks on their faces. Most of the other interviewers were local and were super knowledgeable about the railroad. I seemed like I was at a big disadvantage. They all seem amazed I flew all the way out there. Seems like they’re used to just getting locals.

I also contemplated being a train driver. I always thought it would be neat to be in charge of machinery that big and being able to see the countryside from the perspective of a train. My best buddy ended up driving trains though and hated it. Absolutely no quality of life. You’re on call always. You can have no life. Sure, you make good money but there’s a heavy price to pay. If you were single, driving a train could be a good gig if all you cared about was making money....


Train dispatch jobs pay well and seem to still be hiring but I’ve heard the QOL is pretty terrible.
 
I'm sure their industry as just as stagnant as ours but does anyone know who works in a cruise line's operaton control? What their titles are?
 
Also keep an eye out on the software vendors we use on a daily basis (Jeppesen, Sabre, Navblue, etc) - they may hire for product managers, training, marketing, sales, etc. Makes sense to hire SMEs from airlines who have actually used their products. Not sure how they will be impacted by all this but airlines need the software regardless of if they have 2 flights running or 2,000.
 
Also keep an eye out on the software vendors we use on a daily basis (Jeppesen, Sabre, Navblue, etc) - they may hire for product managers, training, marketing, sales, etc. Makes sense to hire SMEs from airlines who have actually used their products. Not sure how they will be impacted by all this but airlines need the software regardless of if they have 2 flights running or 2,000.

Sabre just laid off 800 employees so they may not be hiring for a while. Not sure about the others. Still not be a bad idea to keep an eye open for opportunities.
 
Sabre just laid off 800 employees so they may not be hiring for a while. Not sure about the others. Still not be a bad idea to keep an eye open for opportunities.

I've known several people get hired by Jeppesen in product support over the years - while I have not stayed in close touch with them, as far as I know there's only one or two still employed there. Most left for other jobs - some switched industries, some went back to the airlines.
 
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