Me and DH are in a bit of discussion about this - I am on 70k where my office is 15 mins walk from my home. Bus stop is just next to the house and by bus it's only 5 mins. Commute time is so quick and cheap £2 each way. I have two little kids - 1 year old and 4 years old. Both at preschool and childminder who is 5 mins walk. There's good work life balance and can work flexibly over 4 days
However, the career progression is slow at my civil service job. I have been looking around to see what the opportunities are out there and seems like most of the jobs in London for my profile pay over 100k. We are in Midlands and my mortgage remaining is 150k. We bought the house just when COVID started so we got a good sized 4 bed house for 260k. Our outgoings are less due to a smaller mortgage and locking in for a good cheap mortgage rate. So, that helps with keeping our financial stress low, considering I have been on 2 sets of mat leaves in the last 4 years. Also, with the 70k, we can still claim 30 free hours for DCs , which we won't if any of us go over 100k.
DH says I should just stick it out and stay at my current workplace but I feel like I should explore what London has to offer.
Travelling to London from Midlands is expensive and return train tickets are £150 per day and at least 3 hours additional travel.
Moving to London would be hard as houses are expensive and we don't want a huge mortgage. I am mid 30s, DH early 40s. We want to live stress free life and ability to travel as well.
What would be better for us in the long term?