I used to work at a large tech company that takes very good care of their employees. Until today. :) And I know there are some of you here, from my office, because we collided on the "Posting too fast from this IP" thing more than a few times. ;)
Today was my last day there.
I quit, my wife, daughter, and I are moving ~500 miles to be closer to family in a rural area with a lot of land, and I'm taking 3 months and change off before starting my next job because, well, I want to. And we can afford to. And I have a lot of landscaping work to do.
What I found most surprising is how many of the people I talked to said, "Wow, I'm jealous." We're moving from a place we don't like (and our dislike of the area is decently known) to a place we want to live, and when I go back to work, it's going to be work from "home" (really, an outbuilding) and part time (4 days a week). Because, again, I just don't need the money that badly and I'd rather have the time to spend with my wife & daughter.
In many ways, finding MMM is the reason I can do this. The concept of "Spend only what improves your life, by your standards" is powerful. Would I love a Model S? Can I afford a Model S? Yes, to both. Would one improve my life in any way? Nope. It would make my life worse, because I'd be bound by traffic again (instead of a free and clear electric bike commute), I'd be worried about denting it, and I'd be out the money.
Due to delays with getting property and permits sorted out for the house, we have to pay cash since my break is too long to get a mortgage based on my new job. It's not a particularly expensive house (manufactured, double wide), and our response has been, "Well. That's pretty fucking annoying. Fine, I'll sell some assets/funds/etc and we'll pay cash." I've had conversations with some people who have a hard time understanding that "can't get a mortgage" is not, in fact, a world-ending emergency panic situation for us. But we're not exactly buying a $800k McMansion on a postage stamp. In a way, it's entertaining that the bank won't give us a loan because I don't have a job for an eternity (3 months), but we can turn around and pay cash for it.
So, yeah. A new chapter in our lives. :D And utter insanity by most people's definitions.
