Anyone else considering moving to a simpler/career-free/part time income lifestyle well before attaining full financial independence? I've always been striving towards the standard definition of FI, where your passive income covers all of your living expenses, but for my family at least, that point seems SO far off in the future, it's discouraging. Especially being 36, and late to the frugal game. We'd be looking at age 50 before we have our mortgage cleared and hit our SWR target savings of $500-600k. However, we'll be mortgage free in 5 years, maybe less (the remaining 9 years till 50 would be savings building). Once at that point, we'd only need about $35k/year to live decently. Our retirements savings from 65 onwards are already covered, through a combination of retirement account savings thus far, employer and government pensions, and some inheritance.
It seems so much more appealing to us to leave the career/full time job world at the time of mortgage payoff, and switch to part time/casual/small business income only. Then we'd have so much more time to pursue our many interests that we now have only limited time for, and also to spend even more time with our kids (5 and 7). We'd also be less stressed with a relaxed time schedule, and no corporate BS. It's more risky, of course, having to be required to find that $35k per year every year (plus inflation!), from ages 41 to 65, instead of being able to have passive income cover it. The trade off is 9 years of more enjoyable work and more time, though!
Is this type of trade off something that anyone else has thought about?
Notes - our current family income is $120k, and neither of us hate our jobs, so we should be able to work part time no problem in the same fields, if we chose to. Wife is a hospital nurse, and already part time, but 30 hours per week. She loves her work, but it is very challenging, and she worries about burnout, and her body giving out. I'm an accountant, there are part time opportunities there as well, but I would try to find work in a more enjoyable field. Bike mechanic or adventure guide are a couple I'm considering. Even if I had no income, we could cover the $35k annual needs (and then some) from just wife's pay. We'd essentially be throwing caution to the wind, though, assuming that we'd always be physically able to work enough to meet our needs till 65, and that there would always be enough income opportunities.