Well, this isn't a direct question. I've just come to the realization that I need to make a drastic change, and I'm just trying to form my thoughts coherently.
Here's some background:
I'm married to the greatest woman ever, and we have the smartest 18 month-old child the world has ever seen. We're a dual-high income household in the ridiculously expensive SF Bay Area. We're in our mid thirties, and would like to buy a house, but realize the math here makes that a bad financial decision. I do corporate finance and my wife works in law.
Income:
We have a pre-tax salaried income just north of $400K. 2015 bonuses are expected to make this ~$500Kish total. I expect these bonus levels will not repeat themselves. My income is roughly 1/3 of the total, and my wife's is the remaining 2/3. My wife is in an up-or-out profession. Around the end of this year, she will either be promoted or asked to leave. Our historical savings rate has been ~50-60%, and a recent raise/promotion will be keeping it in the higher end of that range.
Net worth:
Cash + Emergency Savings: $22K
CD for house down-payment: $150K
Brokerage Account (very conservatively invested, also for down-payment): $205K
Pre-tax retirement accounts: $196K
Pension (former employer): $27K
Roth retirement accounts: $51K
Daughter's 529 Plan: $10K
Other (illiquid) misc investments: $10K
Total net worth $670K (no debt). Target for FI: $1.5M-$2M
So that was the background. Here's my dilemma. I left my stable megacorp job for a startup job about a month ago. This was a dream job on paper. I could run my own shop, get a great promotion, and a decent pay raise. If I could design my own job, this would be it.
I've recently discovered the downside. The overall office environment is a toxic place to be. It's mostly driven by one person who spends most of the time yelling and screaming at everyone, even the people (like myself) that don't work for him. Everyone's stressed and on a hair trigger. This person is also the CEO's trusted adviser, so I actually have to take his tirades seriously, even though he's technically a peer.
I've worked in this environment before when I was in the Army. While I can deal with this personality type, life is too short. I won't allow this level of stress and headache enter my life and impact my family life. I don't know the exact timing, but I don't expect to stay in this job very long.
Here's the options as I see them:
1. Quit, but try to find side-work. I may be able to scrounge up some side-consulting gigs within my network, but nothing that could come close to replacing my income. There is also a small possibility of being able to build a rental home on some family property. This would be a lucrative opportunity, but it's low-likelihood that I could get the required family buy-in. The $22K question (literally) is whether I can make enough doing this to justify keeping my daughter in daycare.
2. Become a stay-at-home dad. I don't think I'm psychologically ready to give up my career for this, but it might be the best option.
3. Job search. Who knows where this will go? I am skeptical of my likelihood of getting picked up for good jobs having such a short time at this job.
4. Quit being a compainypants and stick it out.
Option #1 has the most intuitive appeal. This is what I would do if I was already FI. However, it will likely delay FI by some number of years. I just picture this scenario as also being the beginnings of a warning story of what not to do.
Any thoughts?