metabro

I am trying to make the most of my weekends with my family. We have all our meals together with dinner typically at a restaurant. We try and fit a couple of nature walks every weekend. Rest of the time we just spend time at home not doing anything in particular. After the kids are in bed my wife and I might watch a show or a movie. Sometimes I stay up later by myself and read or watch something.

I’m trying to add some variety so look forward to hearing your ideas.

For the last couple years good arguments were made to move to a lcol location and work remotely.

The golden ticket was to pull this off with a faang / faang adjacent company - make Bay Area SWE wages while living in Nashville.

Now that the job market has drastically changed, do you see living in these places where you have to primarily rely on remote work posing a challenge to finding work? Do people in the hcol tech hubs have a significant advantage or is remote work the new normal so the playing field is more or less level?

Interested to read your thoughts and experiences.

I have a 4 month break from my big tech co. My focus will be on spending it with my kids and wife.

However, I also want to take it as an opportunity to work on myself and come back stronger. 2022 was pretty stressful and I was getting burnt out.

I can’t remember the last time I had this much time off and the thought of this being the last long break before I retire is scary and is making me anxious that I won’t make the most of it.

Any tips and suggestions to make the most of it would help me.

Some context about me that might be helpful: I’m in my 30s. Deep in child rearing stage of life. Live in the Bay Area and have very little to no friends in the area. Have an infant now that limits very long travel.

The recent layoffs have heightened my my feeling of insecurity and anxiety. Company I work for had a massive layoff and it’s the first I’ve ever experienced. I wasn’t impacted but can’t shake this feeling of insecurity.

I’m expecting a second kid and my wife isn’t working and I feel like I need to diversify my income but have never been entrepreneurial and don’t know where to start.

I have more than a couple years worth of savings. But this is partly due to not owning a house. Where I live the downpayment would consume most of those savings.

Ny wife wouldn’t be able to make high skilled wages unless she invested substantial time into upskilling which she doesn’t have at the moment.

How do I shake this feeling? Is there something I should be doing to protect myself besides what I’ve already ?