Hi Mustachians,
I find myself at a crossroads, and I would welcome any insight from the group. After years and years of training, I found myself in a really lucrative job away from my family, working with a bunch of not so nice people. I've been trying to save as much as possible, because I knew the unpleasantness of my job would catch up to me eventually.
Income: 500,000 after taxes from my job. I've had roughly this income for the last 2 years. I know, it's ridiculous. I work really hard for it, but it's not fair. My field is medical. We also get about 1,200 per month from a disability policy for my wife.
Current expenses: Used to be about 60,000 per year, but since reading this blog, we have gotten it down to 35-40,000 per year right now. Planning on moving in with parents temporarily if this job collapses (see below), which should lower expenses. I'm 36, wife is 34, we have a 3 month old. One 2006 Toyota Corolla, one 2011 Honda Accord, both paid off.
Breakdown of expenses over last three months - total = $8,300
Rent $3,700 ($1230/mo)
Utilities $1,300 ($430/mo)
Auto & Transport $1,100 ($370/mo)
Food & Dining $1,000 ($330/mo)
Travel $700 (1 time cost - plane tickets for holidays)
Charity $300 ($100/mo)
Baby supplies $200 ($65/mo)
Expected ER expenses: I anticipate it to be lower, but it may go up as the baby gets older (college, etc)
Assets: Have saved 1,700,000, 100% of which is in index funds (20% global stock index and 80% S&P 500 index). Also own a paid-off house, worth about 200,000, in another state, which we are renting out for 1,500 per month.
Liabilities: none
Specific Question: On a daily basis, my job is stressful but fine. But the people who supervise me are unethical and frequently do things I am uncomfortable with (UPDATE: specifically, sexual harassment of employees and unnecessary procedures on patients to make more money). Recently, this has started bleeding into my daily work. There are poison pills written into my contract, so that if I quit before June 2014, I have to pay them about 100,000 as a lump sum. On the one hand, it hurts to pay that much money. On the other hand, I don't like my job, don't feel great about working with my bosses, feel like I have enough saved for FIRE, want the baby to grow up with her grandparents, want the help with childcare, and want to explore other non-medical passions. Should I grin and bear it and keep working until June 2014, or should I just pay the 100,000 to extricate myself from a bad situation and treat it as a life lesson?
UPDATE: Enough people have asked about what happens if I get fired that I decided to add to original post. Currently, I do not get paid until about two weeks after I complete each month of work. If I were to get fired, I would not get any money I had earned until the 15th of the next month. I assume they would probably try to take out as much of the 100,000 as they could from that paycheck and test me to see if I would get a lawyer. But I'm not 100% sure. Either way, I've never been even close to being fired from a job. It's not in my bones to actively do a bad job and try to get fired.
I appreciate any advice, please ask if anyone wants any more information.