Few moments feel as exciting as landing a new job offer. A new experience means a fresh opportunity to achieve career goals, work flexibly, increase your salary, or join a mission-driven organization. New jobs take you to new places, metaphorically and literally. If your new role takes you across town or across the country, though, your excitement might quickly turn into moving stress.

Some job offers come with additional financial support to make moving less stressful. Industry experts calls this type of incentive relocation assistance. Often, relocation assistance includes cash compensation, help scheduling and planning your move, help hiring moving services, and even assistance choosing a new neighborhood, home, or schools for your children. Unfortunately, many companies only offer relocation assistance to senior executives and the high-demand roles.

So, what do you do when you do not get relocation assistance?

Our experts at Safely Finance recommend considering all your options. You could ask your new employer to make an exception for you. You could explore using some of your cash to pay your upfront costs. You could even consider borrowing funds at a reasonable interest rate to avoid draining your savings.

Below, our team shares how you might think about each of these potential paths forward.

How to ask for a relocation bonus

Companies think carefully about how much they spend hiring each employee. Relocation can cost a lot of money. In fact, some moves require tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars according to the Allied Global Workplace Mobility Survey. Savvy employers weigh the cost of onboarding against the timeline required for a new hire to become productive. Keep this in mind from the start and you can approach asking for a relocation bonus with the right foot forward.

First, consider the type of relocation bonus you need. Companies might offer lump sum compensation, reimbursement for expenses, direct billing for moving costs, or outsourcing moving services to a relocation specialist. Every company maintains a unique policy. Your chances of receiving a relocation bonus will likely be higher if your request matches it. For example, only asking for a lump sum if your company grants lump sum bonuses or instead asking for expense reimbursement if that is the status quo.

Next, think about what kind of assistance you need and how much it will cost. If you simply need help with travel and moving supplies, tally up your costs for each and figure out the total you need to get from point A to point B for your new role. However, if you need help finding temporary housing, help with spousal employment assistance, neighborhood and school scouting, or a stipend for moving coordination, then you may need to gather quotes or seek advice from a moving consultant or relocation specialist first.

Once you know your moving costs, determine how much you want to ask for in a bonus. A bonus may fully cover your relocation needs but it also could help offset partial costs if you do not feel it is fair to ask for the full sum. Commonly, employees ask for relocation assistance beyond the means of a company’s budget. If you ask for more than you employer can provide, your chances of approval will become slim.

Now, you are ready to make your ask. Request a moving bonus with the information you gathered. The right way to frame your request will be unique for your situation, but you will never start on the wrong foot if you approach the dialogue collaboratively with your hiring manager. How you ask impacts your chances of success. So, find a way to bring together your needs and the needs of your employer.

For example, try asking: “I am excited about my new role. I would love to move up my start date. That way, I can get to work on my first big project right away. Could we find a way to help cover the cost of (breaking my lease, moving, etc.)?”

Using savings to move

The first question to ask when you want to use savings to pay for your relocation is if you feel financially stable. If you spend your savings before then, you may put yourself into a situation where you feel strapped for cash on the other side of moving. Moving should be something to celebrate, not a reason for even more stress.

First, determine if you can cover your moving expenses and your first few months of bills after moving. Create a budget based on how you plan to spend your money, including the short-term costs you need to include for relocation. Do not forget to add in costs like your security deposit, pet fees, lease break fees, utilities, transportation, food, an emergency fund, paying down debts, securing renter’s insurance, and other daily necessities.

Once you have your budget, find the total you need to relocate and compare it to your income and savings. Ideally, your income alone more than covers the costs you need to spend. For many of us, this may not be the case. That’s okay. Instead, focus on whether your savings cover your costs with enough left over to be able to afford the basics of your budget. If your savings do not cover the costs, it may be time to go back to the drawing board, find a roommate, consider secondhand furniture, move your boxes yourself, or look for more affordable housing options.

Another important thing to consider is that moving to a new state will likely require more time, energy, and financial resources. You may need to pay to rent a truck or moving van. You might consider selling some of your possessions before you move to lighten your load and bring in a little extra cash. You might need to spend more time learning about housing options in your new area before deciding where to live. In short, the longer the distance of your move, the higher your potential moving expenses may be and the more you may need to think about to feel fully prepared.

Personal loan for moving expenses

Moving costs add up quickly. Relocating in your local area might only cost a couple hundred dollars, but any long-distance move could cost thousands. When expenses add up, you might consider supplementing your cash with a moving loan to pay for relocation.

A relocation loan, or moving loan, is an unsecured personal loan that covers your moving expenses. Moving loans help pay for moving trucks or vans, personal storage, professional moving services, packing supplies, insurance, and more. In some cases, you can even use the funds to cover your security deposit, first and last month’s rent, pet fees, application fees, lease break fees, and more.

The best moving loans share similar, consumer-friendly qualities. The best lenders offer fair interest rates, reasonable loan amounts, suitable repayment terms, fast funding times, and other moving-specific considerations. Generic personal loan lenders may offer some of these features. However, our team is not aware of any moving-specific option that works directly with renters the same way as Safely Finance.

Safely Finance stands out because our experts designed our lending process after working on more than $12B of loans at some of the world’s largest lending and financial technology companies. Safely Finance loans and move now, pay later services offer features that renters want, like a fast application, quick funding times, consistent monthly payments, no origination fees or prepayment penalties, a fixed rate, integrations directly with your landlord or property manager, credit reporting to help boost your credit score and grow your credit history, and rates as low as 0% APR. You can even check your options and offers upfront without any commitment and without impacting your credit score.

To learn more about Safely Finance, check out our homepage or reach out to our team at team@safelyfinance.co.