Hi. Love the site, and obviously first post for me.
I'm 52, have about 1.5M in IRAs and brokerage accounts. Very high stress job in high tech sales management, and I'm about ready to pull the ripcord. With an annuity of about $26K /year, and DW making $45K/ year, I can safely withdraw a bit from the $1.5M and make things work, certainly if I just take off a year. DW is 100% supportive because she knows the impact this has on my health, plus I've been making the cheddar for quite some time.
My "problem" is that, for the past few years, I've made a lot of money, and I could continue in this job for a few more years. By a lot of money, I mean $400K-$500K / year (before taxes). I know, why don't I have more saved? Long story, but it's a combination of living the good life with paying down some debts. Plus, 5 years ago I didn't have anywhere near $1.5M. This year I will probably save about $200K (already saved almost $100K).
So, while originally I thought I'd just retire and be done with the rat race, lately I've thought about a sabbatical of about a year. Now, my company has no sabbatical program, and if you know much about high tech sales, you don't just step in and out of it all willy nilly. So I would likely never be able to command this kind of cash again, but I don't think I'd need to. Clearly I'd need to just quit my job.
My hesitation is this: how incredibly selfish of me! This is essentially a $400K-500K vacation! (Okay, maybe more like a $250K-300K vacation after taxes, but you get the point). While I'm almost certain I need this, the guilt is drowning me. I feel I'm slipping into the One More Year syndrome...