<prompt> Human: My girlfriend is debating to take a new job. As you guessed from the title its in an area with a lower cost of living area but pays a little less. This job is a significant move up in the job ladder and will lead to better jobs in the future. nbsp;Right now she makes 45,000, but the new job pays about 43,000. Which according to cost of living calculators is equal to 65,000 in my current area. nbsp;Anyone else been in a similar situation? Did it work out and did you feel like you had a lot more money even though the less pay overall? Or is it better to wait for a actually highing paying job?  <response>: Well, salary shouldnt be the only consideration. You said thats in a significant move up and will lead to better jobs in the future and thats extremely important. As for the salary difference, a 2k cut is pretty easy to surpass with a lower cost of living. If she can rent an apartment for just 167 less a month than where she is now, shes come out on top because the 2k is before taxes. So Id recommend looking around the area to see what rental prices are like. We moved to an area with a lower cost of living and are quite happy. We moved from an area where 1350 a month for a shitty one bedroom was a good deal to an area where 700 for a decent two bedroom apartment is a good deal. So clearly were saving a lot of money there. More importantly to us because we want to own a home eventually, we went from an area where a single family home would cost us 500k to an area where we can find a nice single family home for under 150k. There are definitely other benefits to consider, particularly health insurance, the price of which can vary considerably from one employer to another. 