However, deep down I know that staying just for the sake of the money is the weak option - more personal growth awaits from taking the plunge. So I'm going through with it.
I'm almost there, and have been having this exact same thought. I could stay at my acceptably tolerable job. It's a predictable pathway, with work I know I can do in exchange for very predictable amounts of money.
But I've been doing it for a decade now, and the idea of another decade (or two!) in the same beige cubicle, staring at the same screens day after day, just feels like capitulation. Like accepting defeat. Like admitting that my life will never amount to anything better than this very moment, and it's all down hill from here on.
In a way, that makes NOT quitting my job a far scarier prospect than quitting it and plunging into early retirement. Life is short and the world is big, and there are a thousand opportunities out there just waiting for you, opportunities that you will miss if you take the predictable and safe pathway of "more of the same".
So the potential downside of staying is clear to me. And what's the potential upside? My current job has already made me rich enough, and having two or three time as much money as I do right now isn't really going to change very much about my life, so why would I give away the entire remaining portion of my life for more of the same?
It does hurt a little bit, to think about the hundreds of dollars per work day that I'll be leaving behind. But everyone has a price, and I think I've finally reached the point where getting my life back is worth more than more money.