Question about taking a "sabbatical" between jobs

[cosaver]

I'm hoping that others can give me some advice about taking a pause between jobs while trying to retire early in the long term.

My spouse and I have been intentionally saving for early retirement for the last five years or so. This year we paid off a relatively inexpensive house in a medium-low cost of living area and we've accumulated ~$600K in Vanguard index funds. I track costs carefully and the yearly interest on our non-retirement investments has started to exceed our yearly living expenses. Overall it feels like the financial engine we have been trying to build is starting to hum along.

I work remote as a software engineer at a small firm, making ~$125K / year. I'm finding this position is no longer fulfilling and is sometimes quite stressful. Due to a variety of factors it's not possible to grow my career (raise/promotion) with the company. This Winter I applied (and was accepted) to a sort of "writers retreat" for programmers, called the Recurse Center, where I could spend 12 weeks studying new topics and networking with other engineers. Afterward the Center connects participants with job opportunities. The program is somewhat similar to a bootcamp, but there is no explicit cost to participants (it's funded by companies that want to recruit) and the learning is self directed. (There is, of course, the implicit cost of not having a job for 3+ months until I find another remote position.)

I'm trying to figure out whether to attend this program. Basically I have two opposing points of view:

A) Networking and building new skills are important to career growth, and this is an opportunity I've wanted to explore for a while. Maybe this program will help me rediscover what I liked about programming. Leaving the current job will cost a little in the short term but might pay off in long term fulfillment and a better job.

B) Leaving a well paying job I know how to do is foolish. Most software jobs will have stressful/unfulfilling times. It's better to tough out another few years and retire, especially considering that I don't wish to move to a higher cost of living area for a higher paying job.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? What was your experience? Did your career decisions get more "conservative" as you approached early retirement?

Edit:

Reading through replies, I realize I should've clarified a couple things:
- My spouse has a steady job they plan to continue at, which would cover living expenses if I didn't have a job. We have an emergency fund if we were both unemployed that would last for at least a year.
- I wrote "interest" above and it would have been more accurate to write "total gains". Most of our investments are in equities, so I do want to consider that gains in 2020 were above average.
- I think that the program I applied to is fairly well regarded, but the tech world does have "hype issues" sometimes. I'd like to think I can identify hype but I might be wrong.

[Sibley]

Is this program well regarded in your industry?
Is your spouse working? If so, how much of your living expenses are covered by that income?
Do individuals who attend this program generally find jobs quickly?

Assuming 1 and 3 is yes, and your family income is sufficient to cover expenses OR your willing to pull from savings, I'd say sure, go for it.

[AccidentialMustache]

My spouse and I have been intentionally saving for early retirement for the last five years or so. This year we paid off a relatively inexpensive house in a medium-low cost of living area and we've accumulated ~$600K in Vanguard index funds. I track costs carefully and the yearly interest on our non-retirement investments has started to exceed our yearly living expenses. Overall it feels like the financial engine we have been trying to build is starting to hum along.

If you really mean interest, you've hit the FI "definition of done." If you mean total gains, then given how good gains have been for the market this year, okay, yeah, you may need more years.

I think the question to ask is how many more years. If its only 2 more years, would you tack these 12 weeks on to the end of those two years? If not, then maybe skip the program.

That said, you can interview while you still have your job, and you can push your start date out. I'd had a plan to take a few months off after I and my last gig divorced, but kinda got headhunted into a new one and didn't even make the 2 months unemployed mark. It is too bad, I was making progress around the house, getting some time to engage in my own interests, etc. As a preview of retirement I feel like it was largely successful.

My new gig is fully remote post-pandemic, and pays better than the last one. I'm in the midwest, doing software. I've never not been in the midwest, although in the past I was a sysadmin not developer.

Summary: from what you write, my read is you don't need to care about career growth. You need a few years (likely <5, possibly as low as 1.5 or 2) before you hit your magic number. I wouldn't add 0.25-0.5 years to a 1.5 to 2 year time frame. Maybe if you're thinking 5-10, but that's not what I'm reading between the lines.

[mozar]

I track costs carefully and the yearly interest on our non-retirement investments has started to exceed our yearly living expenses.

It's true that you don't need career growth due to already being FI. But you also mentioned that you are interested in doing the program for personal growth. It's sounds like there is a high likelihood of getting a better job after this program, if that's what you want. You can also ask your current job for a sabbatical. If they say no you can quit.
I see more pros than cons for the program.

[Rdy2Fire]

Well as someone who comes from the tech field (I don't know of this program and not a programmer), if you are feeling burnt out or no longer interested in what you're doing then you should definitely take the opportunity to do this if you plan to work for X more years.

With that said, would this program be of value to your current job? Maybe you could get a leave of absence, even if you really don't want to stay there, just so you know you have a job when it's over to return to, until you find something else? Maybe your current employer would see a value to you having this new/better knowledge? Another thought, is depending on how/when you leave, you MAY be able to get unemployment, which would depend on your state, if your current employer would fight it and the 're-training' guidelines of the state.