<prompt> Human: My wife 28 yo and I 33 yo moved from our nice, financially comfortable life free rent to a bigger city so that she could attend Pharmacy school this fall. She starts classes in a few weeks. I want to do everything I can to make sure that she has the least amount of stress while in school as possible. The only thing I want her to worry about are her grades. The Pharmacists that she knows have all told her not to work while in school because the program is so demanding and I support that decision 100. We dont have any secrets at all, we both know where we fall financially and exactly what debt we have. She will have health insurance covered by the school in a few weeks but I dont have any currently. I make bonusescommission with my job but I never factor them into the budget because you can never count on a bonus. Here is where are at currently: Savings: 400 Weve been struggling to save up for the last 3 months. Rent: 900month Cell Phones: 168month Internet: 47month Food budget: 80week Gas budget: 50week My car payment: 141 only 2 payments left Her car payment: 180 36 months left Credit card debt: 16kHere are my dilemmas:Let me start by saying that I have done sales for the last 3 years and am decent at it.I work 10am-7pm with SundayWednesday off. I am currently making 15hr with about 2-5 hours overtime every week take home 1000 every 2 weeks. My job gives me uncapped bonuses but Im still new and havent gotten anything large yet. My bonus this month will be about 250. I get mileage pay and 40month for my cell phone. Ive just recently been given 3 retail locations to oversee. Which is a good resume builder for me. I train the staff at those locations, they sell, I make more money. If I stay with this job and keep performing the way I am my contract will be up in May 2016 and I will HAVE to look for a new job. But my resume will look MUCH better than it does now. If I stay and get my 3 stores to up their performance there is a very good chance that I get hired on permanently compared to as a contract employee and my pay gets bumped to 17hr with my bonuses increasing by 25.I was just offered a job at another company. This company does debt collection, it is not retail and it is not sales. It wont fit in to my career goals at all but has the potential to make a ton more money than I am making now.The pay is 12.25hr though I was given the option of working in a department that guarantees 15hr. The bonuses are uncapped in this job and from what I can find out people are getting between 800 and 7000 per month in bonuses. The guaranteed 15 works like this: Pay rate is 12.25 if you dont bonus enough to fill the gap to 15 they give you 15hr for the month. If you bonus over the 15 you get that bonus. No word on what happens if you consistently miss your goals but I can guess they dont let that happen to often.I would work 8am-5pm 3 days a week and 12pm-8pm 2 days a week with weekends off which is amazing, I havent had a weekend off in 3 years. I would also have Health, Dental and Vision covered for free by the company, I dont pay for the coverage just the deductible. There is a 75 tuition reimbursement after my first year so I could go back to school part time and finish my degree.New Job Better hours, better benefits, lower pay, higher bonus potential and will allow me to take a second job if need be.Current job Longer hours, no weekends off, lower bonus potential, better pay, ok benefits and cant work another job and Im currently happy here but that could change in a month.PF Help! I dont know what to do and for once my wife isnt sure either. Were to the point where we might just flip a coin. I need some logical advice from people on the outside who are invested in our situation. THANK YOU!Edit: formattingEdit 2: The collection job has a ramp up period of 6 months where the goals, and bonuses, slowly increase over time. But the company is growing and growth within is possible. Assistant: Lets be pessimists for the moment. Lets assume that, at least for the next few months until you get good at your new job, youll be on the low end of the bonus spectrum - 800 if you get a bonus at all. Ive also assumed that no deductions have been made to your quoted bonus numbers for taxetc.The difference between 15hr for 40 hours per week for 4 weeks and 12.25hr for 40 hours per week for 4 weeks is 440; that means out of your 800 bonus, 440 is going into making up the difference in hourly wage, leaving you with 360 bonus dollars at the new job. Youre getting a 250 bonus at your current job, so in the worst case scenario youre up 110 per month at the new job.But wait, your current job pays 40 for your cell phone, so the difference is only 70 per month. Theres also mileage, but Ill exclude that for lack of detailed information. Plus youre getting some overtime pay at your current job, but Ive excluded that in this calculation because you didnt say exactly how much - 2 hours at 1.5x is 45 though.Between the 70 difference before tax, but I dont think that matters much here and the additional benefits like healthdentalvision and tuition reimbursement, the new gig sounds pretty good - heres the catch though: What if you dont make the 800 bonus? What if, for whatever reason, you only get 730 or less? Then you havent really gained anything by switching jobs, and youve lost the resume improvement and the ability to work somewhere in-line with your career goals.IMHO in your position where youre already strapped for cash, Id take stability, at least until 2016, at the current job over potentially switching to a job you suck at and getting laid off. Starting school is bad enough, having the extra uncertainty of job insecurity is an unnecessary burden at this point for your wife. The opportunity is there if you make a much bigger bonus than the assumed 800, but thats certainly a risk - keep in mind that the information you got regarding bonuses at the new job may be biased toward the higher end already since theyre trying to get you to work for them.Id look for ways to shave 10-20 off your food budget and hopefully some from your cell phones if possible to make up some of the 70 difference.---e: detailsHuman: Ill edit the original post, the new job has a 6 month ramp up period before the full bonus can come in to effect.I know they talk about the bonuses to lure people in but honestly I do think even care about them. A bonus never enters a line in my budget I live off hourlysalary pay and use bonuses for debt reductionfun. I spent the last 2 weeks trimming our budget in case I take this job.Im leaning toward the new job now, this post has helped a lot.Also, THIS is the answer I was hoping for, all the logic and detail.  <response>: bonuses are a proverbial carrot for companies like debt collection. I suspect if you take a closer look youll see an incredibly high turn over rate and very few people get consistent bonuses worth mentioning. 