I'm in a somewhat
similar situation. The guy sitting
right next to me doesn't make 5x what I do, but people only a few seats away easily make that much, possibly 10x or even 50x. I'm not so much concerned with the fact that they make (significantly) more; it's more about trying to decide when to walk away from the big pay I'm receiving (relative to most people in general).
So I suspect that while our specifics are different, ultimately it's a question of values. Which do you value more: making the big
big bucks, or financial independence? MMM himself said in a recent post (perhaps it was in the comments) that if his old job offered him $1mm for a one-year contract, he'd turn it down. He knows his own values well enough to confidently say that his sources of maximum happiness are effectively decoupled from money. In other words, $1mm won't make him any happier, so why bother?
Also, you didn't mention any specifics regarding your position versus the 5X earner sitting next to you. In my case, the guys with the seven+ figure incomes have (1) substantially more experience than me, and (2) work (or at least have worked) significantly longer hours than me. I whine about 55 hour workweeks, but I know one guy here who used to regularly work 80 hours Monday through Friday (16-hour days!) plus six to 10 hours on the weekends. If that's what it takes, then no thanks.
A $250k+ income, combined with MMM-level spending, makes early retirement achievable in effectively the blink of an eye. But when you make those big bucks, I think the temptation is that you could work
just a little longer and early retire into a typical middle class lifestyle (i.e. relax the frugality drive a bit). Or, you can constantly second-guess yourself as to how big of a safety net you need, for example, "two more years and my annual expenses drop from 4% to 3% of my portfolio".
Finally, one thing I try to constantly remind myself: sure, there are people right here making 5X+ what I do. But on a national scale, I'm making 5X more than the average person. And on a global scale... well, I just have to remind myself how incredibly fortunate I am.
Perhaps a strategy for you might be this: don't worry about whether or not you want to make the jump to the 5X position. First define what your current FI number is. Focus only on achieving that. Once you hit it, then you can revisit the question: "do I want to take my career to the next level, or say good enough?" The idea is, separate the FI goal from the
career goal.