As I typed this and read many times just for my cathartic experience but finally decided to really post and see what others think.
Thanks in advance for your advice/thoughts.
Background:
---------------
-Self (53), Spouse (50), one kid( 24) already finished college and started working last year, other one( 19) just entering 2nd year college undergrad.
- ~9M+ total invested assets mostly in BH portfolio 75/25 ( stock/bond) + a rental house( ~1.75M) + Own the home with no mortgage( ~2.75M+). So basically no need to work from financial pov as the expenses are also low( << ~150k year). Trust me I know that's a lot of money based on my daily BH intake. This is not humblebrag and I do not pose it as any financial issue/question. It is just to add overall context.
-Recently had a 3rd cardiac event in the last 15 years (CVD) due to genetic factor and likely not the stress at work( at least I think so) and lucky to survive so far.
-Currently on Short Term Disability with a very low intention to go back to sw eng work in FANG like company.
-I have been contemplating early retirement for last few years but was ready to pull the plug early this year and just talked to a therapist to see if I am masking any underlying mental issue to even thinking of retiring early.
--The therapist pushed me to find to "run-to-retirement" thing as against "run-from-work". His point, which I agreed was, I may still realistically have 15-20 years of useful life left to not have some sort of structure/goal/direction and reason to look for. So after much discussion, he convinced me to keep coasting till I find "that thing". Or maybe I subconsciously convinced him to convince me to continue working as leaving a few millions on the table for "not-so-bad" job seemed illogical. But since then, this health incident happened again and re-evaluating it.
-The job/boss/company/environ is not really that stressful but I don't have the love/enjoyment/thrill for it anymore after 30 years and it just feels like tying me up for the 8 hours a day and just mundane grunt work wasting life one day at a time. Added to that the general employer expectations, perf appraisals, meetings, occasional stressful customer issues, keeping up the pace with other coworkers etc. I feel I am done with this and hard to tell myself any more stories to keep doing the same old boring stuff, however lucrative it is.
Issues/Questions:
------------------
-I can clearly retire but not sure how would I burn at least 4-5 hours each day even after accounting for hobbies/passions. I am fearful that lacking a structure, goal will push me to waste my life/mental energy as I have never lived a truly free and uncontrolled life. My gut tells me I should be fine but I cannot simulate the new phase mentally and fears unknown as the current career is one way street.
-I am forcing myself to continue doing the same thing for OMY to kick the cane down the road, but I think now status quo is no more the answer as I am running our of lies to convince me to keep making more money.
-I am not sure what is that thing to "run-to" in retirement as pretty much whole life I have been just engineering/building software systems. I am going to explore volunteering in local hospital/other places to see if I can get some fulfillment/enjoyment but not sure I can get enough intellectual stimulation and satisfaction as indicated by the therapist and I sort of agree.
-I feel guilty/useless/wasting my life in the early hours of weekdays when everyone around me is working, during these last couple of month on STD leave. I have that burst of mental energy to spend but no problem/issue to solve/work on. By afternoon/evening I am OK and feel happy. Is this normal for early retirees and just life-long habits bothering me till I get re-oriented in new phase?
-I find myself doing various NYTimes puzzles, browsing news/political sources/YT videos/BH/reddit forums to spend/kill time. Although enjoyable for sure but feels unproductive and artificial.
-I am finding various free online courses on math/finance etc and find fascinating, engaging and thoroughly enjoyable but feel like I will lose direction after a while if there is no concrete goal.
-I can probably work at my slow pace for another 10+ years if I find low stress career path which I can control at my pace with me being my own boss.
-I felt excited thinking that I can probably do CPA/CFA/taxation or something like that as I have been doing my own taxes/finance for long time and sort of enjoy especially almost daily reading of BH for many years. Is that a realistic goal for my background as I have no clue for what these entails. I do enjoy finance/investment/taxation/mathy stuff. But I don't have any energy/inclination to work really hard over many years to get some degree/creds. I am basically looking to mentally (maybe socially too ) engage but with full freedom and control of my time. But I don't want to engage in some multiyear endeavor which will take few years and by then I realize that I do not like it that much. Does CPA/CFA path seems reasonable?
-Do you know any career options for someone with math, technical, engineering background? I am not looking for a software eng or related IT fields including product marketing/SE/QA/Testing/Consultant, even as part time, as too bored/burned out with soft dev . I think I will enjoy something which is intellectually stimulating with somewhat social element with some sense of purpose/meaning with full control of my time.
TL;DR:
-------
-Take a 3-6 month break to rejuvenate myself from the slow burnout of 30 years and continue to make money with status quo ?
-Look to find some 2nd career options to keep me busy, challenged, engaged, socially connected which allows me control of my time/freedom. Should I pursue CPA/CFA/tax-related stuff as directly useful to me/family and others and will it checks all the boxes for me? How do I find/explore other careers?
-Is volunteering really going to fill the intellectual/social/mental gap of work?
-Or maybe I should just chill and let the retirement journey take me to boredom/wherever and the life unfold itself. Maybe I will find something new in next few months/years. Worst case I will get depressed and will deal with it.
Looking forward to your suggestions/comments/thoughts?
Thanks in advance for your advice/thoughts.
Background:
---------------
-Self (53), Spouse (50), one kid( 24) already finished college and started working last year, other one( 19) just entering 2nd year college undergrad.
- ~9M+ total invested assets mostly in BH portfolio 75/25 ( stock/bond) + a rental house( ~1.75M) + Own the home with no mortgage( ~2.75M+). So basically no need to work from financial pov as the expenses are also low( << ~150k year). Trust me I know that's a lot of money based on my daily BH intake. This is not humblebrag and I do not pose it as any financial issue/question. It is just to add overall context.
-Recently had a 3rd cardiac event in the last 15 years (CVD) due to genetic factor and likely not the stress at work( at least I think so) and lucky to survive so far.
-Currently on Short Term Disability with a very low intention to go back to sw eng work in FANG like company.
-I have been contemplating early retirement for last few years but was ready to pull the plug early this year and just talked to a therapist to see if I am masking any underlying mental issue to even thinking of retiring early.
--The therapist pushed me to find to "run-to-retirement" thing as against "run-from-work". His point, which I agreed was, I may still realistically have 15-20 years of useful life left to not have some sort of structure/goal/direction and reason to look for. So after much discussion, he convinced me to keep coasting till I find "that thing". Or maybe I subconsciously convinced him to convince me to continue working as leaving a few millions on the table for "not-so-bad" job seemed illogical. But since then, this health incident happened again and re-evaluating it.
-The job/boss/company/environ is not really that stressful but I don't have the love/enjoyment/thrill for it anymore after 30 years and it just feels like tying me up for the 8 hours a day and just mundane grunt work wasting life one day at a time. Added to that the general employer expectations, perf appraisals, meetings, occasional stressful customer issues, keeping up the pace with other coworkers etc. I feel I am done with this and hard to tell myself any more stories to keep doing the same old boring stuff, however lucrative it is.
Issues/Questions:
------------------
-I can clearly retire but not sure how would I burn at least 4-5 hours each day even after accounting for hobbies/passions. I am fearful that lacking a structure, goal will push me to waste my life/mental energy as I have never lived a truly free and uncontrolled life. My gut tells me I should be fine but I cannot simulate the new phase mentally and fears unknown as the current career is one way street.
-I am forcing myself to continue doing the same thing for OMY to kick the cane down the road, but I think now status quo is no more the answer as I am running our of lies to convince me to keep making more money.
-I am not sure what is that thing to "run-to" in retirement as pretty much whole life I have been just engineering/building software systems. I am going to explore volunteering in local hospital/other places to see if I can get some fulfillment/enjoyment but not sure I can get enough intellectual stimulation and satisfaction as indicated by the therapist and I sort of agree.
-I feel guilty/useless/wasting my life in the early hours of weekdays when everyone around me is working, during these last couple of month on STD leave. I have that burst of mental energy to spend but no problem/issue to solve/work on. By afternoon/evening I am OK and feel happy. Is this normal for early retirees and just life-long habits bothering me till I get re-oriented in new phase?
-I find myself doing various NYTimes puzzles, browsing news/political sources/YT videos/BH/reddit forums to spend/kill time. Although enjoyable for sure but feels unproductive and artificial.
-I am finding various free online courses on math/finance etc and find fascinating, engaging and thoroughly enjoyable but feel like I will lose direction after a while if there is no concrete goal.
-I can probably work at my slow pace for another 10+ years if I find low stress career path which I can control at my pace with me being my own boss.
-I felt excited thinking that I can probably do CPA/CFA/taxation or something like that as I have been doing my own taxes/finance for long time and sort of enjoy especially almost daily reading of BH for many years. Is that a realistic goal for my background as I have no clue for what these entails. I do enjoy finance/investment/taxation/mathy stuff. But I don't have any energy/inclination to work really hard over many years to get some degree/creds. I am basically looking to mentally (maybe socially too ) engage but with full freedom and control of my time. But I don't want to engage in some multiyear endeavor which will take few years and by then I realize that I do not like it that much. Does CPA/CFA path seems reasonable?
-Do you know any career options for someone with math, technical, engineering background? I am not looking for a software eng or related IT fields including product marketing/SE/QA/Testing/Consultant, even as part time, as too bored/burned out with soft dev . I think I will enjoy something which is intellectually stimulating with somewhat social element with some sense of purpose/meaning with full control of my time.
TL;DR:
-------
-Take a 3-6 month break to rejuvenate myself from the slow burnout of 30 years and continue to make money with status quo ?
-Look to find some 2nd career options to keep me busy, challenged, engaged, socially connected which allows me control of my time/freedom. Should I pursue CPA/CFA/tax-related stuff as directly useful to me/family and others and will it checks all the boxes for me? How do I find/explore other careers?
-Is volunteering really going to fill the intellectual/social/mental gap of work?
-Or maybe I should just chill and let the retirement journey take me to boredom/wherever and the life unfold itself. Maybe I will find something new in next few months/years. Worst case I will get depressed and will deal with it.
Looking forward to your suggestions/comments/thoughts?
Statistics: Posted by simpleguy123 — Mon Jun 03, 2024 8:27 pm — Replies 0 — Views 85