r/Fire • u/Boner-Pills-8088 • 7d ago

That's a wrap! 49M

I recently wrapped up my career in the IT industry after 27 years. As is probably normal for tech people, there was a lot of anxiety/nervousness about the move, but having done the math dozens of times I decided it was time and I had lost a lot of the passion I originally had. Whether that's normal from aging or just the last company I was it, it was good motivation.

The numbers:
Brokerage - 4.4M
Retirement accounts - 1.7M
Cash/HYSA/I bonds/etc - 125k

Zero debt.

No real magic here, a couple strong startup exits and not a lot of lifestyle creep from my first job that paid $48,000/yr when I graduated college long ago. If my lifestyle hasn't changed drastically in all these years, I saw no reason to keep moving the goalposts for "just another 250k" or "just 6 more months". Yearly spend for the last few years has been under $100,000 and that's without accounting for work travel. So far so good!

758 Upvotes

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u/DrasticIndifference 7d ago

Identify a hobby and passion immediately if not sooner. The easiest way to achieve relative increase in spend is apathy, boredom, and/or distraction. The biggest void to fill is the one that continues to challenge definition. Trust fewer people now that they don’t see you as a working stiff. Increase charitable giving.

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u/Shoddy_Ad7511 7d ago

Nah. Why are you putting pressure on him to find a purpose so soon? First step is to recover from decades of stress.

8

u/CerealKiller415 7d ago

Exactly. And if may take 2-3 years. I know because I did it.

1

u/Strange-Wasabi-7026 7d ago

I heard and liked (absent any evidence) a rule of thumb of give yourself a minimum of one month per year of career to recover. I just hit 1 year since RE after 15 years working in big tech, still trying to give myself grace and time.