Please add me for 2/1/19.
I've hesitated to post this because I have a fear of commitment (even to internet strangers!) and because it feels completely irrational to walk away from significant, not hard-to-earn money in a job that many people dream of getting and working for supervisors and in a structure that is completely supportive (and, really, indulgent) of me.
But I know it's time to move on, even though I don't know what I'm moving on to, and even though my wife will continue to work. I have been living my OMY the last 8 months waiting for the joy of my work to be re-sparked, and it hasn't happened. That tells me that my brain knows it's time to leave, even though I have a hard time accepting it.
My wife and I are 44 and 42, with 2 kids. Net worth is $2.1 million, including a $750k paid-off house, and the rest invested. We will likely move to a (relatively) lower cost of living area at some point, thereby unlocking some of the money in the house. My wife insists that she's wants to continue working forever, but at least the next 10 years. I've done what I can to confirm that over the last 3 years, and she says yes. Her after-tax salary is about what we spend ($70k, for now), so in theory that should work out fine. I've also calculated pensions and social security earned to be about $50k per year so far. While that could be reduced, I think it's unlikely to be cut by more than 20%, and our spending at that point would probably be about that.
For me, the hardest part is feeling ungrateful for having one of the best possible job settings I could have, but it just no longer resonates with me. I have always been risk averse, and I am nervous about not "retiring to something," but I realize that I'm never going to feel like it's a good time to leave. So I'm left with something that Dr. Doom posted in his (fantastic) LivingAFI blog, which was a psychologist telling him that of course he was frustrated while still at work, because he set a goal for himself when he would be able to leave, and then he hadn't left and given himself the reward. I think that captures how I feel. I know I have enough, or at least enough plus degrees, etc. that I will be able to provide for my family. The last few months I experimented with writing down how much extra money we make each day to think about what additional stuff I could buy, and I think I bought one concert ticket and maybe a couple lunches/happy hours. In other words, I don't think what I'm missing is more expensive stuff.
In the end, I think I'm just tired of going to work and feeling bad that I don't want to be there. It's not something I can share with most people, because most people wouldn't understand walking away from a salary and job that most would consider a dream. But if it's no longer my dream, isn't it time for something else? I think so, and it's a point that resonated with me from Steve Jobs's Stanford commencement speech a few years ago.
By the way, 2/1/19 is as arbitrary as anything else. It was the last date on the calendar I got a year ago (technically, 1/31/19), and it's the end of a 2-week period. I will take 2 weeks off at the end of 2018 to make sure I'm convinced to leave, but for now, 2/1/19!