Retiring early from corporate— leaving my 200k job in tech

I finally gave a few weeks notice after months of thinking and rethinking when and how to do it.

I’ve been on a FIRE path (financial independence retire early) for several years now, starting in my 40s — pretty late to the game, compared to other people.

However, downsizing and living frugally while earning a high salary helped amass a large amount in a short period of time. Investing that amount in index funds, dividend producing funds, treasury securities, and high yield savings accounts made the initial pool of money grow and compound in just a few years.

These “just a few years” though have been the hardest because I knew I wanted out and I knew I couldn’t get out until I hit a certain amount in the accounts.

It felt like I was in self-imposed yet mandatory confinement for a set period of time. Being a very disciplined person helped keep me on track.

I learned a lot in this time — about dividend income, about t-bills, Roth conversions, and all kinds of financial things that are necessary in order to manage hundreds of thousands of dollars by yourself.

In doing all this I discovered that I enjoy immensely the financial aspects. This has made my weekends and week nights fun — watching YouTube videos on this subject, watching the market, buying when I felt the price was lower (I know they say don’t try to time the market but it was a learning project).

My job during the day was excruciating to go through while I had no interest in the subject — I was there solely for the income… it is sad to say it out loud but very true.

The job stressed me out a lot, and I have chronic health issues due to the stress. I tried many things to manage this stress, some worked a bit, others not so much — the resulting effect of it on my health being permanent.

Knowing that the longer I stay in the job, the longer my health gets affected, I calculated and recalculated my FI number many times — at least twice a month, if not weekly. I looked again and again at projected expenses in retirement, stripped out any “fat” from them, and kept mainly the bare necessities like rent, food, medical. Plus going to coffee shops — I can’t live without them!

Photo taken by author

I had to keep in balance on one hand my “discomfort” with this job and its consequences on my health, with the monetary benefits that it was adding to my portfolio every 2 weeks (401k match, pension contributions, yearly bonus, paid time off, part of medical insurance covered, and a few more).

My thinking was to keep monitoring this balance and when the first side of the equation becomes heavier than the latter, then pull out of the job. I did not take lightly the decision to leave this cushy job. There was a lot of thinking involved, talking it over and over with family and close friends, tossing and turning about it for years. But beyond the thinking, I was monitoring my gut feelings, waiting for that moment when I knew I had to go.

This time has finally come and after agonizing for several weeks about how to message this to my boss and coworkers, I finally pulled the plug.

I truly don’t understand why it was so hard for me to say to my boss that I’m leaving. In researching this online I found that others went through similar “pains” when giving notice. So I’m definitely not the only one.

I felt relief after saying it and as it spreads through layers inside the corporation (from people closest to me to people I used to work with or that I don’t work with daily), I find myself having to respond or deflect the ever present (even if not always openly asked) question of “why?”. I can almost always feel an unspoken judgement “are you stupid?”, as well as jealousy, lurking in the back of people’s minds.

Why do you leave a highly paying job at the top of your earning potential while you are still young?

Why turn your back on all corporate perks and on many relationships with coworkers?

It’s simple — I’m just interested in doing other things with my life!

That’s all there is to it. After trying to painfully explain myself to a few close people at work, and they still not understanding it, I realized that in the first place I don’t have to explain myself to anybody.

I am just leaving a job, and they don’t get to weigh in if I should or not leave it, when I should leave it, and so on.

It is solely my decision and the more I try to explain it, the more I get tangled into their thinking and my decision is not making any sense anymore.

I just need to snap out of it, and not get mired into their corporate, linear thinking. Not everything is about earning lots of money. Having peace of mind and control on one’s health is much more important — at least to me, at this time in my life.

I need to mention that my leaving this job means a retirement from corporate, it does not mean I will not continue to earn money through online gigs. So it is not a full retirement — but definitely going from full time to part time, and from being employed on a w2 to being part of the gig economy.

I have been waiting for this time when I give my notice for so long, and it finally came. I dragged it as long as I could — first I was going to give notice at the beginning of this year, then next month, and next month, and so on… now it will be almost three quarters of the year later when I leave the job.

These extra months are simply an extra padding on the amount we need to live on, and will make the transition to the gig economy with its unstable payouts much easier.

If you struggle with the decision to stay or leave a job that pays you a lot but that makes you miserable, just know that you are not alone and that at some point the struggle will end — you will know and feel it strongly when it is time for you to go.

If you don’t feel it yet, that’s an indication to continue staying in. The pain/discomfort that you feel now is the pain of a new you being born, and you probably should wait until this transformation is over — you will know when it is. There is no way that you will stay in your current job past that point.

So be patient, stay the course, and the time will come for you to also give your notice and earn your living doing something else. Good luck in your own journey!