Hello! Ok, I think I have the courage to ask my first question on this forum. (takes deep breath)
I'm in my early 40s and single, and I'm almost ready to cut the day job cord and ramp up my fiction writing. I sold three novellas and two short stories to publishers in the last twelve months, so I don't think I'm being a poseur. ;) I'm fully aware of the huge financial risk I'm taking, which is why I saved a nest egg of, as of right now, about 22x my monthly expenses. Unfortunately, I'm not at 25X+ expenses yet, but I truly can't stand my day job career anymore. Yes, I've made some adjustments over the years, which ended up being only short-term fixes that kept me from quitting outright. My expenses include a mortgage, and I plan to refinance that to knock off $400/month to create some budgeting margin.
The big issue for me is health insurance. I'm thinking of hunting for a much lower stress, lower-paying job to get the insurance. Ideally, it would also cover my living expenses so I can leave my nest egg untouched.
Are there any other strategies I should consider? Thanks to everyone for your advice!