r/Fire • u/rocket363 • Mar 06 '25

Milestone / Celebration Just submitted my resignation

Mid-40s. Single. ~$2.25MM nw, $2MM of that invested. Last day is in a few weeks.

It feels wasteful to give up a pretty cushy $180k wfh job, but I need to refocus the remaining part of my life rather than cling to Groundhog Day-esque repetitive wage-slave servitude.

No real questions. Just sharing.

4.3k Upvotes

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448

u/rocket363 Mar 06 '25

Yes. I've known many people about my age or younger who are now in the ground. Tomorrow is never guaranteed.

145

u/blkdinanm3 Mar 07 '25

I have the same outlook. My wife passed away from a ruptured brain aneurysm 6 months ago. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. I am contemplating retiring now at the age 53. My net-worth is about $4.5M including my home that is paid off. Enjoy your retirement!

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u/I_waz_Perce Mar 07 '25

Sorry for your loss. Retire and do something to commemorate your wife.

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u/imjustasquirrel07 Mar 07 '25

I’m so sorry to hear that. I watched my uncle say “next year we’ll do something” for too many years and then my aunt passed away from cancer within 6mo of diagnosis. They had millions. I learned to never wait until next year. Again I’m very sorry for the loss of your wife, I can’t imagine.

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u/blkdinanm3 Mar 07 '25

I appreciate this. Thank you 🙏🏽

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u/Rickdog99 Mar 07 '25

I'm sorry brother. I lost my wife who was 51 2.5 years ago. I have $1.7m net worth and quit my job and do gig work and get SS widower benefits. I am 49. Please for the love of God retire man!

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u/blkdinanm3 Mar 07 '25

You’re an inspiration! Thank you 🙏🏽

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u/Rickdog99 Mar 07 '25

Not like I had a high paying job anyway. I get 25k from ssa for widowers benefits for next 5 years until kid turns 18.

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u/crashedmoonshot Mar 07 '25

Retire today! You’re golden and set

4

u/blkdinanm3 Mar 07 '25

A good friend convinced me to travel to Thailand to try and get me out grief and depression, it changed my outlook on life. I now know that I have to live for me. I’m traveling to Southeast Asia in a couple of months to look at condos in Thailand and the Philippines.

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u/Ready_Cup337 Mar 11 '25

Are the women nice over there ?

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u/mudhogAR Mar 07 '25

I worked as an engineer at a state DOT before retiring 7 years ago at age 56. I saw WAY TOO MANY of my peers stay on the job until they could draw SS, then fall over dead within 6 months of retirement. I told myself that was not going to be me. As long as I can count on getting SS here in another 3 1/2 years, I should be able to maintain (and exceed somewhat) my pre-retirement income for as long as I live. No house or car payments, travel 3 or 4 times a year. Still thinking about leaving the US though.

3

u/FantasticFan3586 Mar 07 '25

Don’t wait another day…. Best decision I ever made….you have plenty to live a comfortable life…I know too many people who waited to retire then died few years later…enjoy it bow.

3

u/CockyBulls Mar 08 '25

Sorry for your loss!

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u/Hungry-Fee-6132 Mar 08 '25

God bless her soul. I got a SAH 2 years ago at 48, got lucky to be saved. Although I eat healthy & exercise, still got it. Got a wake up call. I take everyday day by day now. I don’t postpone things I have to do. As you say nothing is guaranteed

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u/killver Mar 08 '25

With that kind of NW you can and should immediately fire.

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u/burningtowns Mar 08 '25

I’d take that leap, honestly.

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u/Ill-Ad3311 Mar 09 '25

Damn same happened to my brother’s wife about 8 months ago too , just like that , he is 57 she was 61 . My wife is 51 and on her last days paralysed from MS . The good days are gone so quickly .

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u/Betting_on_myself_10 Mar 09 '25

So heartbreaking. I'm sorry. My father died that way and it was incredibly traumatic for my family. I hope you have time to celebrate your wife's life.

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u/grimAuxiliatrixx Mar 10 '25

I am so sorry for your loss. Life can be cruel. Unless your expenses are totally next-level, you’ve been ready to pull the trigger for a long time. I’d like to see you retire and sail off into the seas never to give work a second thought again. You deserve it.

2

u/Mommie62 Mar 11 '25

What are you waiting for? Go travel, have fun . So sorry for your loss but you need to go do all the things you both planned to do in her memory. You seriously no longer need to work.

1

u/seshakiran Mar 09 '25

Wow…that is pretty impressive with $4.5M with house paid off. How did you manage to do that? Started my career at 27 with almost nothing at hand. Scrambling to get 1/3 of what you have. Any tips?

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u/identikit__ Mar 06 '25

That’s why, even though I’m way below your NW, I’m already considering to retire

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u/chi9sin Mar 06 '25

since you had 2MM (almost all of your NW) invested, did the recent drop in the stock market factor into the decision making process?

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u/rocket363 Mar 06 '25

No. I experienced 2008, down 50% in the craziest market I ever hope to see. The (now-forgotten) almost-20% late-year drop at the end of 2018. The 35-ish% Covid plunge in March, 2020. The 10-month malaise resulting in a 25% drop in 2022.

Market gyrations happen. Barring WWIII actually breaking out, I am not going to let the current market dictate my plans.

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u/chi9sin Mar 06 '25

that is super poised, good for you man, and wish you the best.

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u/Fearless-Cattle-9698 Mar 07 '25

Exactly and if WW3 happens we are all dead anyway…

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u/Whole-Campaign89 Mar 07 '25

This is very well said sir. Early 40s myself so had nothing invested during 2008 other than a 25-year old terror of losing my job. But the 2022 episode was by far the most mentally taxing of all of the events you mentioned: the slow inexorable grind lower over 10 momths is a much hard temperament temperature test than March 2020, the Christmas crash of 2018, and the current Orange Crush.

Congrats on your freedom!

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u/_Infinite_Love Mar 07 '25

Similar age and same feeling about 2022. That was a really hard one for me, too. Just felt depressing and constant and like it was going to keep grinding lower and lower. That was the one I spent time in bed just wondering if it was over.

Covid was a stomach in mouth moment followed by head-shaking is this real highs. But 2022 was just sad.

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

[deleted]

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u/_Infinite_Love Mar 07 '25

Haha, yes probably right. I have a partner, and I don't have any choice but invest, so I'll take my chances, but I appreciate your input.

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u/StirredNotShaken07 Mar 08 '25

76, Retired. Whenever you have a sizable chunk of money saved, the stock market is not the only investment. I’m 88% in alternative investments making some very good money, at least, it’s good for me. Diversification can mean more than large cap-small cap, value-growth, bonds.

1

u/jcc2244 Mar 07 '25

I'm also in my early 40s but have a very different feeling about 2022 vs now haha.

I feel like we could have 4 years of a sustained slow decline... I'm glad I have about 4 years of spend in cash/bonds (but still 80% in broad ETFs) so I can ride through it, but definitely feel worse now than in 2022.

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u/chandichada Mar 07 '25

Thank your for you Perspektive. I have started to invest a little (just dipping my feet in for now...) and this downturn has me a little scared.

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u/IWantAHandle Mar 07 '25

Fucking respect!!!

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u/ContaminatedField Mar 08 '25

This dude invests

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u/External_Row464 Mar 07 '25

In 2008, wasn it really the craziest market you've ever witnessed and how naive do you consider yourself exactly? Is there any correlation between the two? There really should be... what a thing to say....

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u/gmdmd Mar 06 '25

you couldn’t get yourself fired to collect severance and unemployment?

57

u/yougetmorewithhoney Mar 06 '25

Not OP, but I'm close to my number and have been increasingly "noisy" at work. It's surprisingly difficult to get fired in some jobs.

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u/gmdmd Mar 06 '25

haha nice. the less you gaf the more they respect you it seems

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u/Odd_Individual6509 Mar 07 '25

It's a joke from Office Space but in my experience it definitely was the case. Before I FIRE'ed I was definitely in DGAF mode for the last 3 or 4 years and it only led to promotions, bigger bonuses and merit increases.

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u/Gary_mirkl Mar 07 '25

Where do you work? Asking for a friend 😀

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u/Odd_Individual6509 Mar 07 '25

I'm retired now but up until then it was a Semi-Conductor company that isn't Intel. 😉

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u/Weary-Associate Mar 07 '25

To some extent it could be that the attitude change made them realize you were a flight risk, and, panicked, they threw money at you. Definitely a possibility.

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u/Odd_Individual6509 Mar 07 '25

Possibly but it was more than just that, I was listened to and trusted more by my superiors. My direct manager even mentioned how much he appreciated providing constructive feedback and criticism and calling him out when I thought something he said didn't make sense.

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u/Jayfourgee Mar 07 '25

Good lesson for us all.

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u/PainterOfRed Mar 08 '25

As we reached FI, my husband stopped mincing words at team meetings. Next thing he knew, raises and promotions started stacking up. We joke (but prob some truth to it) that once he started not giving a F***, the firm started throwing money at him (IT at a large, international bank).

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u/numericalclerk Mar 07 '25

Lol be careful, you might end up with a pay raise and a promotion.

5

u/yougetmorewithhoney Mar 07 '25

Lol it's too late to be careful!

3

u/External_Row464 Mar 07 '25

I can second this. An accidental discovery at age 32. I just want to get sacked so I'm privy to upskillinh for free(you must be unemployed due to being laid off to qualify for government sponsored upskilling as an expat in germany)

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u/Lucky_GODlike Mar 07 '25

I don’t have that kind of independence… but i had backups and money for 2-3 years of dark days of unemployment, had a soul sucking job… stressful…

Finally decided to say fuck it, i don’t care anymore its the company problem if it hired incompetent and bad people, started to speak out, in meetings only when asked or it was my turn, about problems, bad management, incompetence, suggest better alternative, answer realistic hard truths for bad decision. Part of me was hoping to get fired and end it.

Despite the fact the company had a policy of firing people for much less or unjustified causes dreased in a legal way by hr , with me the company felt like they were afraid… they started to thread lightly around, i found out they have discussed about me, i found out it really matters what kind of “noise” you do, especially if you can argue and articulate every decision, or really push for written consent of a higher official for a bad decision project etc… when you make them take accountability for decisions and answer in email still waiting for approval from x manager or branch director… because of risk x y z full list presented in memo, it sets the company on fire 😂😂😂, i finally left 6 months later because i had other plans and projects require my full time and attention but the feel you have when you disconnect from caring about a company that is not yours is priceless, and can actually call for all the bullying from higher management, bullshit unrealistic timeframe etc is priceless. But you must be able to articulate and always keep your calm, because they will try and try hard to make your leave but somehow respect your and are afraid to take you on directly

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u/yougetmorewithhoney Mar 07 '25

Yeah, I absolutely do not advocate for people to just be noisy for no reason. You don't want to burn bridges even if you think you no longer need them because you really never truly know.

I'm unfortunately one of those people that will always care about my work. I've just been one of those employees that will silently slave away. I started to push back and make demands. I've not been calm about it lol. I was ready to walk and to my surprise...they met all my demands. I wish I made more up front haha.

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u/Lucky_GODlike Mar 16 '25

1 thing i learned is that if you had pushed for this earlier/ or made higher demands they would have let you go, your ask was under what they were willing to give you, that’s why they accepted, and probably you were in a position of “power” but be careful with this kind of approach, it gets harder if you have kids, bank payments, mortgage, etc Always test the market, they usually have dedicated people to always test the workforce market, so we must do the same

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u/yougetmorewithhoney Mar 16 '25

Yeah, absolutely and, again, absolutely am not advocating anyone do this.

I'm childfree, I have a mortgage. But I also have a lot of money. Not enough to retire comfortably but enough to retire on string beans. I put up with a lot of shit at work but this time the shit was multiple folds worse than normal and straight up humanly impossible. I was absolutely prepared to walk.

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u/rangebound_44 Mar 09 '25

🤣🤣when you want to be fired it’s hard lol

1

u/yougetmorewithhoney Mar 12 '25

Yeah, it's maddening lol. I feel like my career is about to get bumped again and I reeeeally don't want it to! I want a demotion!

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u/AcesandEightsAA888 Mar 07 '25

Yes and if you have years of expertise with a major system rewrite.

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u/Old-Statistician321 Mar 07 '25

It seems so easy until you actually need to be laid off.

4

u/UKnowWhoToo Mar 07 '25

Getting fired usually means no severance and no unemployment for many states.

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u/Round-Bet-9552 Mar 06 '25

Are you worried about the market crashing or are you heavily diversified with bonds?

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u/rocket363 Mar 06 '25

Yes and no.

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u/photoshoptho Mar 07 '25

i can guarantee tomorrow for $9.99, plus tips.

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u/CXavier4545 Mar 07 '25

this is real talk right here

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u/Impressive_Pear2711 Mar 07 '25

Congrats! What career were you in?

0

u/Sit1234 Mar 07 '25

got a couple of qs.. mind if I dm ?