I finally decided to take the plunge and leave my job. It wasn't a particularly bad job, but I felt I was losing a little bit of my soul every day. And I finally decided enough was enough, it's time for a change.
I'm not quite to my FIRE stache goal yet (I'm about 12% short), but I figure I'll take some time completely for myself and then see how I feel. I could maybe swing being FIRE'd with my current assets, but will probably end up with another (lower paying, less stressful) job in the future, more for fun than anything else.
I've never been that active of a poster here, but I feel an immense amount of pride looking back on my first forum post circa 2014, when I had just started my stache, knowing that I stuck with it and have basically made it through. I saved hard and found out that life is much better without running on the never ending hedonic treadmill of facepunches.
Feeling all kinds of emotions right now, but more than anything I'm feeling FREE. Like the last day of grade school before a long summer. Happy friday, yall
PS: Big thanks to MMM and everyone who contributes to the forum. Without all of you I'd probably be 'an average consumer' with no savings and a huge car loan. Definitely have changed my life in a big way and I'll be forever appreciative of that!