Not to be pessimistic but if losing a couple thousand a month (after tax) is going to hurt you, you really need to consider that you will be at the very bottom of a 15,000 long list of a highly leveraged company that has the weakest margins of its peers.

Your main concern should be what do you do if you get furloughed in the first couple years. FWIW I had roughly three years living expenses in cash waiting for me when I left my regional and that didn't include my wife continuing to work. I wanted worst case covered.

If you can make that work, you can find a way to make first and second year work which is a best case scenario.

Save your money now and if you don't need it, you've got it and can invest it when you feel you can start to take more risk. That is what I did at about the 2.5 year mark and it worked extremely well for me.