What would you do? Stay or go?

Hi everyone. I have found myself in a difficult decision, a fork in the road of life. I would appreciate any insight you may have, or suggestions!

I am currently 27, live in the US, and am not particularly pleased with where I live (would much rather move to florida or warm area), however I grew up here, have family here. etc. I am working as a surgical physician assistant, and landed a job with a very good group of surgeons, all of whom treat me with respect and are very flexible. I am paid well. My schedule is no means perfect, however I see it becoming worse in the future as my boss has aggressive expansion plans. I was the first PA and will be hiring and running all of the PAs in our practice. In short, I have a dream job for an ambitious PA. And I can truly say I enjoy and would probably stay in this position for the rest of my life (if it were just about a job) .

I am engaged to a european citizen, who would like to come here and get married. However, she would also like it if i came there. And truthfully, I would love to move there. However, there are very few countries in the EU which have PAs, and the ones that do get paid very bad. However, I have recently found a government PA job as a civilian PA on a military base. The job could be in surgery, family practice, ear nose and throat, or OB/GYN, all of these fields i am comfortable in however it is not what i do now (i am in a super sub specialized surgical area). The pay would be a cut of about 20% from where I am now, with no real large advancement in my future. But I would get the chance to move to the EU, and live in a country in which I have always wanted to live, even if for a short while.

As for the future wife, she would like to be a foreign language teacher in the US, but if we stay in her country, her job prospects are a lot rougher.

In short I feel torn between the two prospects. A job which I love that offers great advancement and support and peer relationships in an area of the country I hate and can't see staying in, -- there are PA jobs everywhere in the USA, but i may never find one as great as with the guys i am with now, or the opportunity to experience life abroad, still make a decent amount of money, but with unknown peer relationships with people i will be employed with, or if i will even enjoy the specialty in which I am placed.

The most interesting thing is this. I have waited years to marry this girl, and now that she is coming here, it's almost as I see life as a dead end here after we are married, and I always pictured us being together there. But this could just be that I have waited so long to do this, I haven't really dreamed of going beyond that moment.

Financially, I still have a decent amount of college loans 45k, a new car which i am making payments on. However I have no other ties except an apartment that I rent. I am fine moving away from family, and most of my friends are out of state anyway.

Let me know what you think - what would you do? Any good questions I should ask myself?

Stay here and make the most of bringing her here. If after a few years, when she has her citizenship, you both want to try living in Europe, that option should still be there, no? And there is still the rest of the US to consider, once you've maxed out the possibilities of your present position.

Then again, many parts of Europe are expensive, and you don't want to have kind of no future in your career. If you go as far as you can here, you will build up a high level of skill that might be transferable, but look into the job requirements there before going. A lot of trained people come here to Canada and are stunned to find out their qualifications need major upgrading, if that's even possible, to be relevant here. Instead of starting over in training, they start in a low level job. You can find out Euro immigrant stories for comparison.

I think you should stay in the US, keep the job you love and have your GF come work here too.

There are places you can go in the south that may offer you similar job advantages. Have you looked? One place I know always needs PA's is the VA hopital and other military sites. The pay is good. In fact, after a few years you probably won't be able to make anywhere near as much anywhere else. Job security is great and so are the benefits for PA's. One added advantage is that you get a real sense of pride working with our country's veterans and honoring them for their sacrifice. If you are a veteran yourself you have an advantage in getting hired. The government gives veterans priority. Think about it.

It does make more sense staying here, financially and jobwise, the job IS good? The big thing is it would be BIG change if you went to europe, but could you come back if you didn't like the new job there? She is willing to come here, as I think you meant? I would think twice about moving is whatt I'm saying too because few people have jobs they love,a don't get along with the people they work with like you do now.

I would visit the area where you would be living and even interview for the position. It doesn't hurt to look.

This is more a question of where you want to be in your life right now. Are you looking forward to being more settled, or do you still want to have adventures and live abroad? If things looked good overseas then I would be tempted to take a chance.

How risk averse are you? It would be more expensive and you would be paid less. There's also a good chance that it would not be a wonderful experience and you would want to leave after a time. At that point you might be able to move back to the US and get a job in a nicer climate.

Just how much do you like your job? Enough to stay in a place you dislike? That's what it really comes down to. If you're going to leave eventually then I wouldn't let it hold you down.

I would move to Florida; I think you will have absolutely no trouble finding a job there as they badly need medical personnel with all the older population there. I would get established and then have your girlfriend move there, making sure first that you were in an area near a school or whatever she would need to get her credentials to teach here (one needs a masters in education/special courses to teach English to foreigners here, as a US citizen, I looked into it); presumably she could teach her language in continuing ed situations, etc. perhaps, but might be good to be prepared for all possibilities and locate in an area of Florida where she could get good credentials AND have a population that wants teaching/schools that teach what she wants to teach and need teachers.

After she is established and everyone is okay/comfortable, I'd get married. After I'd been married for a year or two, within 5 years of starting this whole process, I'd be paying off your debts and saving to reassess going to her country and trying that adventure.

1. Get yourself established in the location you would like in this country, start saving/paying off credit/debt
2. Bring girlfriend over to the location that is best for her working desires (hopefully area you have chosen in #1 :-) and get her established
3. Marry
4. Get established as married couple, save even more and pay off all debt, re-evaluate whether everyone wants to move to Europe
5. Move (or not).

Hmmm...first of all getting married is a HUGE step for anyone! My advice would be to stay where you are. Your job sounds good and you also have your family around for support. Moving to a new country could be overwhelming in itself. Of course, this is your decision to make, but weigh all your options beforehand.

think you should at least stay there with your future wife for bit, and save up money on the side. After you know you have backup funds, you could start looking elsewhere for work and a new life, without the stress of living off your paychecks the moment you move. Also if you give yourself time for your reputation to grow a bit more, it can help you get jobs easier.