Hi, I'm Sissy Lou. I'm jumping out of my job of ~20 years to live the good life and just found the MMM blog (LOVE IT!) but since reading the blog I've developed a dilemma.
I've worked at the job since 1991 but quit in 1997 and went back in 2000. After giving my resignation this time, explaining that my husband and I would be leaving Seattle and moving to St. Pete, Florida, I discovered some fine print on our Human Resources site. If you work for 15 *continuous* years and are 55, your stock awards continue to vest when you leave the company; otherwise, you lose what's left as you walk out the door. When I read that, realizing I was short on the continuous 15 year part by 1.5 years (I meet the 55 years of age part), I went back to my boss and asked if I could work remotely from St. Pete and then quit once the 15 year requirement was met. She said yes, really going out of her way since the company I'm at is laying off. I'm going to step down from a director role into an individual contributor role to work remotely.
Anyhoo, after reading this blog, I'm not so sure I want to work another year and a half, even remotely and even as an IC, because I'm more encouraged to start the good life ASAP. We have slightly over $1 million saved, our condo in St. Pete requires $700 in HOAs a month (pays for cable, phone, water, 24/7 front desk security, maintenance for pool/hot tub, etc., and lots of other amenities), and we have no debt. I like what I do OK but working another 1.5 years is starting to sound worse and worse to me; however, if I do it, we'll continue to have a salary + bonus during that time span, plus the stock awards will amount to an additional $250,000 for the coffers.
Do you think it's worth sticking around for another 1.5 years? (In some ways, I think I'm answering my own question here.)