Life Situation: Married, 50, 2 adult children self sufficient, Full-time employment in IT. Live in US.
Gross Salary/Wages: ~$150k ($130 base + incentive based on company performance)
Pre-tax deductions: 401k- maxed for 2015+, HSA for 2016- $2500 for 2016 for Lasik eye revision
Taxes: est 25%. Married, filing jointly
Current expenses:
Mortgage- paid.
Utilities/HOA- paid by DH
Vehicles (2)- paid
Auto insurance- paid via payroll deduction from my employer for DH and I.
Medical/Dental insurance- paid via payroll deduction from my employer for DH and I.
Pet Insurance- $55
Gas/auto- $50
Groceries/Dining Out- $500
Fitness/Gym- $89
Clothing- $100
Travel (misc)- $200 I have to fly family to us if I want to see them so I pay for 3 tickets per year for them to come visit. Plus misc travel expenses w/DH
Misc- $200 A catch all in case I missed something
Car repair $50 per month. 99 Toyota w/ 301k (yay) miles. Will switch over to DHs Toyota in 2017 w/160k miles
Expected 2017 year-off total expenses: ~$25k per year
Assets: 401k- $255k. Projected savings based on 2016 YNAB budget ~ 70k so if all goes as planned 255 + 70 by end of 2016.
Liabilities: No debt, no mortgage (paid)
Specific Question(s): Married for a year to an amazing man who FIRE’d from the finance industry in his 40s (now 55). I work full time in IT. As you can see from my current assets I’ve had a less than mustachian lifestyle (plenty of excuses; co-signed on DD vehicle which she defaulted on and I paid off, I could go on and on but at the end of the day just face-punch worthy excuses)
I’m burned out w/my job and feel like a hamster on a treadmill sitting at a PC 8 hours a day. It’s not a hard job just mind-numbing. I’ll call this a mid-life crisis of sorts. I’ve been working in IT for ~ 30 years and while I’ve loved it at times there are more important things than work such as spending more time with my husband. I didn’t think about this as much before my marriage.
I’ve been thinking of taking a year off to “re-set”; take road trips with the husband, cook healthy meals, de-stress, etc. Then after the years up, start doing IT contract work. I’ve estimated my yearly expenses as ~ 25k which includes health insurance.
If it’s relevant- my husband has sufficient income to support both of us. However I feel it would be unfair of me to expect him to make up for my previous lack of savings.
Q1: Would you recommend I keep working full-time vs taking this one-year break in 2017, while saving as much as possible w/goal of possibly FIREing faster?
Q2: How much will I need to FIRE given projected annual expenses of $25k?
Thanks in advance for any feedback!