<prompt> Human: The office my wife works in is closing. Theyre consolidating the company to one central location and were not moving there. Instead my wife will need to find a new job.However, shes got a pretty nice severance package and its making us wonder how soon she needs to start looking.The office isnt closing until February. Shell continue to be paid her regular paychecks until then. If she stays until the end and trains her replacement, shell get: Two months of bonus pay - one month of extra pay in December, and one month in February. Twenty-weeks of severance pay.This amounts to about 7 months worth of extra pay. So even if her regular paychecks end in February, we should be able to live on the same pay schedule until well after that. Of course if she leaves early, she gets none of it.We have good savings built up. She wants the severance. She doesnt want to start looking for a job until after February. Shes got a great resume, and I feel like she will find a good job whenever she starts looking. Shes highly employable.But theres part of me that says, Dont take anything for granted. Start looking now, and secure a good new job as soon as possible, and abandon the severance. And also, why stay in a place where morale is now terrible and no one is motivated to do anything?Looking for a job immediately will allow her to be more picky, and find something she wants instead of something shed have to take. I know finding a job can take a long time - especially the right one. Hiring processes can be long and you can lose out on something you thought was a sure thing. But it would sacrifice 7 months of basically free money. I dont have any history with severance packages so maybe Im looking at this wrong?What is the right move?EDIT: Theyre not outsourcing her job; theyre closing one office in the US and focusing on another US-based office. Her job is not one that could be outsourced. They offered to let her move, but maybe it was an empty offer since the other office is 1,000 miles away and there was never any way we would move there.Shes on my companys health insurance so thats not a factor.Assistant: She wants the severance. She doesnt want to start looking for a job until after February. Sounds like maybe your wife might be a bit burnt out at work and wants some time to just restrecharge before going back out into the working world?Human: Not exactly. The ideal situation is that she has a new job lined up ready to begin as soon as her old office closes. Then she still gets the severance and shed be getting paid for two jobs at the same time for 5 months.  <response>: The ideal situation is that she has a new job lined up ready to begin as soon as her old office closes. Ideal for her or you? If she says she doesnt want to start looking for a job until after February, it really sounds like she wants a vacation from working for a while. If you are so antsy about her potentially not bringing in double the income she usually does for those 7 months, maybe you should have a conversation about compromise about when exactly her target start date at another job should be and start her job search a few months ahead. 