OtherJen, you are right, & anyone but me I'd be shaking by the shoulders saying "leeeeave" - at least outside of pandemic times. When it's me, however, all my personal trauma intervenes - unable to find work after graduating into the last recession & being aggressively shamed for joblessness really did a number on me, even though the accusations were baseless. If "doing everything by the book" back then still failed, you'd think I'd learn the system is not to be trusted, & yet....
Joleran - Exactly that! I tried two therapists asking for direct, actionable advice, instead got "tell me more about that." I don't spare words, so it felt like running out the clock on my precious self-development time - I could & do just-talk to friends for free.
Financial advisors vary wildly in quality, those working for big firms are trained to cover their liabilities, so it seems to depend more on the magnitude of your numbers than the straight math even if they normally know how to do math. The desire to hear from a trusted voice that you're okay despite all supporting evidence is a familiar one, though. I personally can't seem to tackle the "when-retired" list now either but I feel fairly certain it's mostly out of a lack of energy after work because I long for them as soon as I can go 72 hours without a shift; my problem is that all off-time is recovery time. Do you think it's that you have a hard time breaking the inertia & starting those pursuits in the first place, is it energy, or is it something else?