Congratulations, CrazyIT, ATS, DisplacedHoosier, and IslandFiGirl!
My husband saw his last patient as of January 15, and is FIREd. He's still potentially doing some low-income clinic work, but it will be only because he wants to. He's finding it very strange - he says that he's walked around with a huge bucket of anxiety and stress for 30 years, and now that he's dumped it out there is a big, unsettling absence. He was a perfectionist at work; for example there is a particular procedure which is unsuccessful 5-7% of the time, but he only had two unsuccessful cases over his entire career, in good part due to his high anxiety about getting a good outcome. Now there's nothing to worry or stress about - all the kids will be launched by June, our marriage is excellent, our health is good, and so there's nothing to distract him from thinking about how he wants to live his life now that basically anything is possible.
I'm going half-time on April 1, and will probably do that for about a year. Even more exciting than that is that I have someone to replace all my management/planning/executive responsibilities, and I'll go back to being a pure developer. (OK, that's a bit of wishful thinking, but at least it will be a strong move in that direction.) This will make my work so much more fun, since it's rarely the development that is stressful. My hours will be calculated quarterly, so that I'll have the option of 30 days full time followed by 30 days off. In addition, I'll keep health insurance, keep 401(k) eligibility, and get paid overtime for extra hours! Around various certifications costing the company thousands of dollars per retest hour, I've several times worked 80-100 hour weeks on salary, so this will be great.
Like others have said above, "I'm a bit worried that even half-time work will fill too much of my headspace." If so, I can quit. At least I hope that I can - life without work is almost incomprehensible, despite working so long for FIRE.
Does this count as FIRE? Linea_Norway, how do I get my name and GettingCloseSpouse on the list if it does?