That's a lot of assumptions.

> Can you quit your job today and be stress free with all the commitments you've got, at least for a few months,maybe even a year?

Yes, I could in fact.

And that despite the fact that I actually make a bit less than the average engineer with my level of experience, because of the kind of company I'm working at. I also donate 10% of my pre-tax income to charity and make the full contributions to my 401k, and I'm still able to put some money into my personal savings every month.

I realize that not everyone in my industry is in my situation - particularly outside of the U.S. - but lots of people are.

My jobs have gotten less suckier as I've gotten older. And with experience (and, rarely, more savings) I have more options. Yes, I could quit if I want.

If I were you, I would make as much money as I can working for a big tech company (e.g. gigantic monopolistic company with too much money on their hands). When you're 40/50+, you'll see what your options are.

So a company expects me to stay loyal to them through the worst of times and not jump ship to better opportunities, but when money is tight for them or the founder just wants a new yacht, they'll gladly downsize/sell/merge and lay off hundreds in a heartbeat.

If I could get the same amount of money from my current job I would probably stay unless I'm sure I would love the other job more. Because when money is a constant, it's either do I want to keep doing what I'm good at, or jump into something possibly different (and riskier).

So tell your company that you're leaving them for a while to spend time with your family. Go do stuff and see if you can find what's important to you.

Leave on good terms, wrap up any projects, in the hopes they'd have you back in the future. People will 100% understand if you say you want to spend time with young kids, but it can actually be about "retiring early to do other projects".

That's probably the most pragmatic way to satisfy your "why".

> It is probably human to always want more.

I think people are most happy when they are wanting more, ideally striving to be the best at something they care about. Most great artists and athletes are like that.

I have a theory that our employment system hijacks this by providing a small salary for distraction and artificial challenges and rewards for retention.

Many of us learn that we need to "slow down and become happy" once we've achieved enough career challenges. Somehow we should be content in our positions and pay, but paradoxically fearful of unemployment.

If that's the space you occupy, you're simply underfunded and may actually need to "speed up".

Also, if you have children, and you don't want their lives to be difficult, you may want to consider expanding your safety net to include future generations. You may need to really start hustling if you think about your family's long term goals.

> If I knew I could have a job like this ten years ago, I would have thought that's it, the dream.

At the risk of challenging your dreams, it may not be an accident that we are taught to dream of labor.

Assuming you get rich from working hard for many years:

With some probability, you really like your work.

My goal is to reach a point where not having to work makes me want to keep working.

If i worked at Google, where SWE's are earning above 120K at a graduate level. I would hope so. I don't earn that sort of money, nor have that level of a safety net, so therefore, I must compromise and continue to work.

If you don't mind sharing (and I understand if you don't want to), why not? Often when feeling stuck just having some spare cash so you 'could' escape can really help, even if you never use it.

I’ve been at my current role for almost 7 years. It doesn’t pay nearly what I could be making elsewhere. I’ve interviewed and been offered better money, but it means giving up the kind of work I do now for something less interesting.

I’ve turned down those offers and stuck where I am, even though it means less money. As my wife told me when we were talking about this: This is the work that you’re going to be doing every day, and that has to be worth it.

That said, there is a cost to my career sticking here instead of moving around.

A couple of times I've landed at a good company, where I figured I could stay for a long time and build something resembling a traditional career. But something invariably changes - the company gets acquired by some MegaCorp, a leadership changeover, your awesome team gets disbanded and scattered, etc... c'est la vie.

I agree in principle, but what motivates me to be financially independent is not having to deal with all the bullshit that comes along with work. Office politics, drama, having your priorities set by someone else, etc. I also find having to care about promotions and such extremely stressful.

During periods of high stress, I find myself dreaming of FI just to stay home reading books and going to the gym. But more realistically, I’d likely continue to work my current job, with some changes.

If I were to become financially independent overnight, I’d schedule a 1:1 with my manager and explain that either I’m now working 100% on my terms, or I quit. That would allow me to just contribute to the product we’re developing, without having to deal with the bullshit. I’d then be perfectly fine staying at my current position for the rest of my career (i.e. no promos).

Its going to be 10x harder for you, if you have a family.

Why dont you start working on weekends/spare time on your idea, if you get some traction then you can think about quitting your job.

My sanity, social life, and world outlook. That said, I don't regret taking the plunge. Living in corporate drudgery isn't living at all.

I don't think that's going to be less stressful... Good luck though!

You should try to make this not the case.

Be extremely valuable but a bit unpredictable.

Moderate your lifestyle so you can afford to have options.

This is kind of what the comment you’re replying to was suggesting. Take advantage of the high income first before moving.

> “You can make money anytime.”

Sure, but interest compounds - money earlier is way more helpful than money later.

I always wonder a little about the family wealth of people that write things like this. Most of the people I know who left high paying jobs come from wealthy families and they’re already basically working for fun.

I didn’t grow up poor by any means, but I also don’t come from family wealth. If I want to have a family of my own, and make sure we will always have a place to live, saving high salary (and equity) in order to reach financial independence is worth it.

If you don’t want a family or you come from wealth then prioritizing other stuff is probably fine. If you do want these things though, I think it’s helpful to be more forward looking until reaching financial independence.

> “Not the life I wanted.”

Totally reasonable, but what people want over their life changes. Financial independence gives you freedom to be able to change too.

So, what does 'worth it' mean to you? I see money and flexibility as the plusses of your current job... maybe that's all you need from the job. Could you keep this one and do something additional to get at whatever 'worth it' means to you?

I left a great job to strike out on my own. After years of effort, two business plans, one failed partnership and moderate success with the second attempt, I would much prefer to have a steady paycheck with good benefits again. It's harder to break back into my previous career path due to the gap this created on my resume. It's not safe to assume that you'll find work as soon as you're ready to switch back to a corporate gig.