Need some advice on the way to FI.

[u/Fuzzy_Conversation35]

I am literally found out about lean fire recently and wanted to get some outsiders opinion about my situation. It is technically not lean fire because I will still be working.

37M live in Houston. Wife and I have a small single family house fully paid, 2 used 2024 cars fully paid, zero debt, 1 kiddo. Our incompressible fixed charges (property taxes, utilities, HOA, groceries...) are $1500 a month. ​I am able to generate $1000 dividend per month pre-tax from dividends. While I have $150k saved in retirement accounts and $30k safety net.

I am currently in the Tech industry making ~$160K per year, while the salary is nice, it comes with a lot of stress and pressure, and around 60 hours of work per week, not to mention out of state trips. It took a toll on my physical and mental health, and I feel like a slave. So my goal is to financially downgrade to another type of job with less pressure and less mental load. I am targeting a $35 to $45k job. My wife make ~$60k per year but not very stable career. The other option I am looking at is being a contractor at for 6 months at $60k while taking a couple of months break between contracts.

Does anyone had a similar situation?

[u/AnimaLepton]

You mentioned your savings, and your wife's earnings but not separate savings for her; are the numbers you shared combined?

You say your incompressible spending is 1500. What is your real spending? Combined you earn 220k, and yes you have a paid off house and cars and no debt, but you also have a kid and only 180k listed in investments/savings. That's less than 1 year of income, and an indeterminate number of years of expenses which is more relevant. If you've mostly saved up a moderate nest egg at that income, and you cut your household income in half, what savings/investment growth would you actually see?

Dividends are useful, but total returns matter more.

[u/Fuzzy_Conversation35 → u/AnimaLepton]

$150k in retirement accounts, and $320k in dividend investments. All together with my wife. Outside of incompressible charges, we are talking about traveling out of state twice a year, shopping, entertainment, I would say another $1500 per month (conservative) $2k if traveling to another continent. Though we are planning on adjusting the "real expenses" if I make the decision to change my job. This is why I distinguish incompressible from other expenses.

[u/Fuzzy_Conversation35 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks for the feedback. My job is not that bad if you like working from 6am to 6pm, 5 days a week, sometimes weekend, skipping lunch, sitting on a chair the whole day, getting pressured by leadership to make the impossible happen, and escalated to management by your supposed colleagues, dealing with ~5 hours meetings and 80 emails a day, get 2 out of 52 weeks to recover. I have been doing this for 12 years now, when I started it was so much fun, not anymore, it just feel like I am sacrificing my time and life to the corporate world. I am at my 5th company in 12 years. I only truly enjoyed 2 out of 5. I just feel like I need to right size my income to meet my real needs and free up time.

[u/Fuzzy_Conversation35 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks.  Agree with you on the comparison against hourly paid jobs with OT.