I would like to pursue interests that do not involve money. I have done well in my career and now the question is when to change gears. I think I am close but I'd be interested in reactions. One key point is that I don't want to have to spend time thinking about money after retiring, except perhaps voluntarily devoting a bit of time to researching stocks, since I find that interesting to a degree and have some training and experience in that area. Some background--
Context: I live in a high priced area in the Northeast. My house is modest but expensive because of the area (2500 sq ft, $800k). I have a 500k mortgage at about 3%. I own two modest smallish cars (~6 years old, paid ~20k for each used a few years back). I have two young children and a wife that is not currently working but plans to go back to work in a few years. She would probably earn 50k-75k per year in her profession.
Spending: We spend 120k or so per year in expenses, which breaks down roughly as follows--house related (40k), day care two days a week for 2 year old plus miscellaneous babysitting (20k), health insurance premiums plus out of pocket (20k), food (15k), car related (10k), other (15k). House related include prop taxes, mortgage interest, utilities, repairs, lawn service etc but not principal paydown. Other includes vacation, charity, clothes, blah blah blah. I think if I wasn't working I could relatively easily lower total costs to 100k per year without moving based on doing my own lawn, less babysitting, smarter food purchasing, etc). The health plan is a high deductible—it can probably be lowered about 5k with some research etc. but I don't think it can be lowered as much as in some other parts of the country.
Assets: I've saved about $3m net worth, including say 300k in house equity, 700k in retirement accounts (includes stocks and bonds), a few hundred k in cash, and the rest in a diversified portfolio of mostly stocks (very diversified by market cap, industry, geography, etc with a focus on dividend payers). I have a tilt towards international stocks on the basis of valuation. FX exposure on my total net worth is somewhere between 30 - 40% because of that but I am not levered to any particular currency. Taxable accounts currently pay dividends of roughly 50k per year in cash.
More context: I am in my late 30's. My tentative goal is to retire at 40 or so. I think I could probably quit today but a few more years seems prudent, especially given my desire not to spend time on money and the seeming near term potential for a market meltdown that could go global. A repeat of valuation levels from 2008 doesn't seem likely but it is probably worth continuing to earn for a few more years. I may move to a cheaper area after retiring but that will depend on my wife. If we lived in a walkable place we could go down to one car. All of my interests and hobbies are cheap (e.g. reading) although it might be fun to take the family overseas for a month or two in a few years (but probably like 5 years or so when the kids can appreciate it). Otherwise road trips are good and the occasional cross country flight to visit relatives (say once a year). My wife is like minded. After quitting I'll probably need a few months or more to decompress from many years of hard labor but I don't think even when I decompress I'll want to pursue income producing work. I don't plan to sit around--I just plan to pursue things that are unlikely to generate significant income (e.g, creative endeavors untethered from capitalism). My current income is high by most standards. Every year I work adds significantly to my asset base.
Questions: I'd love to lower my expenses--it seems embarrassing that my costs are so much higher than MMM's and yet I'm not really buying anything except food, shelter, and the occasional break from one or both kids for my wife. I have way less in terms of material goods than other folks in the neighborhood because I just don't care about having a fancy car etc. And I generally feel quite blessed. But I'd be interested in reactions. Is my expense situation just a natural outgrowth of living in a high cost area? Do I have clown like spending habits? Does my retirement plan seem "about right" based on what I've outlined here? Am I a crazy person? This is my first post here--be kind and brutally honest.
Cheers, -Nicodemus