Thank you for your input, I'm questioning my motivations and what is important now. This is very bad to go through, I thought I had settled all of this in my mind already, but I woke up the other morning from being all jazzed up about this job the evening before with a foreboding feeling about it due to the high cost of living as well as what I earn now. No way can they pay what I earn now, it's twice as much, the DOE sponsor won't permit it.
If I rent a room in someones home, which is fairly common in San Diego now with an average small house selling between 500-600K, doing so I could probably keep the rent down to between 750-1000 a month, it's just I can't bring my wife who is living out of the USA right now and live that way and if I do bring her, it's not going to be very nice for either of us and a paycheck to paycheck situation.
I could perhaps work a second job to bring my wife, she doesn't have the skill set to earn much herself, so that isn't really an option. I see a lot of advertisements where businesses are looking for good RF people both full time on second shifts as well as some part time shift work, that could bridge the financial gap. But again, what the hell am I thinking? For what? Well, I know for what, I want to work at that science facility with these awesome people. That's how I feel, now the question is do I really need to feel fulfilled or be more financially stable? I could perhaps work a second job to bring my wife, she doesn't have the skill set to earn much herself, so that isn't really an option.
There are a lot of second shift jobs in my career field as well as some part time shift work, that could bridge the financial gap. But again, what the hell am I thinking? For what? Well, I know for what, I want to work on that project with these awesome people. That's how I feel, now the question is do I really need to feel fulfilled or be more financially stable? I have a retirement from I can draw on in five years, as well as social security. This is such a huge opportunity, yet I'm overwhelmed by the cost of living at that location and don't want to drive an hour a day each way to and from work fighting traffic.
This lady sums up the problems pretty well: