Hi everybody!
I would love to get your advice on my lawyering career and FI plans. :)
Background: I was with a big firm for several years (actually loved it, but burnt out on the location) and then joined a small firm about four years ago. It was good for a couple of years but has recently turned incredibly toxic, to the point where my physical health is starting to be affected. I've been looking for a new job for about a year, but being picky about what I apply to, in part because I felt like I could stick it out amid the drama and in part because I needed good insurance for a surgery that's now done. I am not looking at other firms because I know I'm ready for a change, so my preference is to move in house. I like legal work and being a lawyer, so I'm not ready to give that up yet, though I do have a number of creative pursuits and hobbies outside of work. My parents are on the east coast and starting to have a number of age-related difficulties; my sister is also on the east coast and going through a very toxic divorce with my 11-year-old-nephew in the mix.
It's now gotten to the point where I know I have to quit. My birthday is in early June, so I've set that as an arbitrary deadline to just quit if I don't have another job by then. I have about two years of living expenses saved up, plus rental income -- not quite FU money, but close enough. I also have about 250k in retirement accounts and will have maxed out my 401k for 2016 by June.
My first choice is to find a job that I am excited about before June. If that doesn't work out, I have a few options:
1) Take a job at a different firm. I am not excited about this, but it would keep me employed and I think it would be a pretty easy move to make. It would also keep my FIRE plans on track.
2) Just quit and plan to take a sabbatical for ~6 months, focusing on visiting and spending longer periods of time with my family, tackling some creative pursuits, and enjoying the glorious Northwest summer. Excited about this idea, but it makes me SO NERVOUS because I am lawyer and therefore extremely risk averse. It would also potentially gut my liquid savings, prevent me from investing in a rental property, and significantly slow down my FIRE plans (currently targeted for 2022), and I would spend the whole time worrying about the difficulty of finding a new job after being unemployed and quitting my previous job without a good explanation.
3) Quit and take 1-2 clients with me and hang out my shingle. In some ways this sounds much more stressful than #2, even though I'd be making some money (not a lot), because I would feel like I needed to be growing the business more and couldn't just relax and focus on the "fun" part of a sabbatical. I would still have the same stress of worrying about finding a different job later, and for some reason this seems like it looks like more of a failure (I know I shouldn't worry about the optics, but I do) than just saying "eff it all, I'm having fun."
Any advice on this?
Any lawyers out there who have successfully taken a sabbatical and then gotten back into the field without too much trouble? What was that experience like (and what's your area of expertise)?
Better to enjoy a sabbatical now and prolong FI, or try to power through and keep my FI plans on track?
Other thoughts/wisdom/support/camaraderie?
Thank you!