TLDR: MCOL, $950k assets, $70k mortgage. Can net $150k severance if I walk away by end of year. Annual spend $52k in 2019, $22k YTD 2020. Spouse happily employed at $70k - $80k with good benefits. Am I an idiot for wanting to walk away from stressful, $225k job and get paid $150k to do nothing for a while? What's in my blind spot?-------------------------------------I (M39) am married (F39) with 2 kids in early elementary school in a MCOL area. My employer is offering a voluntary severance payable in early 2021 if I leave payroll by end of 2020. Between severance, bonus, and deferred compensation payable in 2021, I will net at least $150k after tax. Wife loves her job, making $70k to $80k with generous time off and good benefits.I’ve hated my job since…forever. If I accept the offer, I’ll be walking away from ~$225k annually as a middle manager at Fortune 500. I’m a risk-averse guy who’d prefer $1.6M NW before FIREing and this feels like one of the riskiest things I’ve ever contemplated. On the other hand, getting $150k for doing nothing and getting my soul back sounds pretty good. I don't think this is necessarily RE forever for me, but at least a good break.Financial details:Assets: $950k (excludes home). Would bump up to $1.1M after $150k severance. House is ~$260k.Liabilities: $70k mortgageLife Insurance: $1M (me), $350k (wife); likely to reduce mine soon2019 Spend: $52k (included ~$10k related to moving)2020 Spend: $22k Sept. YTD (low due to Covid isolation); expect $30k for full yearAnnual Spend target: $40kHealth Insurance: through wife’s jobPlans for my time if I take severance:Wife wants to keep working indefinitely, but if I walk away, I have no immediate plans other than helping the kids through virtual school (they are struggling!!!) and picking up abandoned hobbies which brought peace and balance to my life at one time. I also have a few organizations I’m interested in volunteering at occasionally. Will I return to work at some point? Who knows.Lack of motivation at work:My tolerance for the corporate bullshit has reached zero, especially as I have dealt with family medical issues. Those medical incidents have truly shown how stupid and pointless much of my role is. A few years ago, I literally held my child’s dying body as we were rushed into a life-saving emergency surgery in the middle of the night. After that experience, I just want to respond to each request at work with “No Karen, I don’t give a damn about your TPS reports! Reconsider your life choices, Karen, and leave me the hell alone.”I think I can find myself again, deep down below all that corporate soul-sucking numbness:Thinking of what an unemployed future might entail, I am filled with a sense of calm and peace that I have not felt in a very long time. Due to health issues of family members, I have taken a month of FMLA several times the last few years. That was a time of amazing stress decompression and mental / emotional healing for me. At the end of the month each time, I wanted more time off and dreaded going back.I’m an introvert, perhaps extremely so, and have not ever enjoyed presenting my work – it feels like I’m completely exposed on a battlefield. I also have fairly high anxiety, especially related to work. I have not enjoyed my work for several years, and this has intensified with the team I lead getting gutted over last 24 months (40% headcount reduction). My boss is great, but my clients are complete asshats. I hate dealing with them.If I stay, I will be facing further headcount reductions on my team in 2021 and that fills me with dread. I fear that I’ll fall prey to “one more year” syndrome if I stay, and with each day become less of the person I want to be.My concerns of walking away are twofold:While I really hate the work, I also recognize I’m in a privileged position to be pulling down $200k+ in MCOL. Walking away, in the middle of a global pandemic, feels foolish based on conventional wisdom.What if I walk away and need to return to work later in life but can’t find anything at all, even something really low paying? I worry about getting health insurance for my kids if something happens to my wife. I catastrophize about this and think “you’ll regret this, you big moron. Keep your job. It’s the safe choice.”I’ve always known this moment might come on the FIRE journey. I just wasn’t expecting it so soon and am having trouble shifting my psychology to “yes, I can walk away and be ok for a long time”. So tell me, FIRE people of Reddit, are we being stupid? Do we have blind spots? What are we missing here that would lead us to say “oh, right! I forgot about that. Of course we shouldn’t take the offer!”?? via /r/Fire https://ift.tt/35c2m6w
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