Good on him for having the courage to make the leap of leaving a cushy government job with pension, ect. However, one thing that i'm scratching my head at is, if he could find happiness and meaning working at a grocery store couldn't he have found some itty bitty meaning in working for the government? I mean it's called public service for a reason right?
Now I get that it could have been that he was just spending too much time at work to fully do what he wanted to do, but if his job was as cushy as it sounded, I'm sure he has enough PTO sick days to probably work 4 days a week for half or 3/4 of the year. I mean with all the federal holidays it shouldn't be that hard, hell I know federal employees that don't know what to do with their PTO and sick days.
He could have easily downsized, rode a bike to work, ect without having to quit. Build up the stache and then BAM, work at the grocery store only two days a week, haha! I kid, sort of. I guess i'm still not at that point where making bank and staching is pointless when I could be happy now. I'm too much of a worry wort to make that kind of leap, sort of like OMY syndrome for a fire hose of income.