~6 MONTH UPDATE at the end of the thread~
Hiya, been following MMM for a bit, and decided to take the plunge. So here goes.
Current Situation: 42yo, single, no kids (other than furry ones). I live in Utah, but am not planning to for the long haul. I've always lived below my means, but am not really Mustachian (in my opinion). I am struggling with making a decision about whether to stay at my current employer or not. More details below the numbers.
Gross Salary/Wages (2017): $89,491
Deductions:
401k: $17,898
HSA: $500
health insurance/dental/vision: $321
Adjusted Gross Income: $70,772
Taxes:
SS: $5,497
Medicare: $1,286
Federal: $9,874
State: $3,541
Current expenses (all values are per month):
Mortgage: $1,250.53
Principal: $368.57
Interest: $652.63
Escrow (includes property tax & homeowners insurance): $229.33
Extra mortgage payment: $250 to principal/mo
Car Insurance: $52.83
Car Maintenance/Registration: $20* (I do have to do the big 90k servicing soon)
Charitable Contributions $20
Electricity: $46
Fuel: $40
Home heating gas: $49
Internet: $60
Cell phone: $35
Recycling/Trash/Water/Sewer: $54
Sports/Rec: $100
Food: $300
Pets: $100 (including meds)
Emergency Fund: $200
*I do spend more than this but I have not been in the habit of itemizing everything. However, these are the knowns (more or less)
Assets:
401k: $236,700
Roth IRA (Vanguard index funds): $68,000
Taxable investment acct (Vanguard index funds): $15,800
ESPP stocks: $6,900 (just put in a sell order for about 90% of these - long term capital gains)
Capital One 360: $9,400 (1% APY, dumb, I know)
checking: $6,900 (also dumb, I know)
2007 Toyota Yaris with 90,000 miles: KBB says around $3,500 to sell it- HA! this car is the best, this seems low. I plan on keeping it FOREVER (or at least 10 more years)
Liabilities:
Mortgage: The original loan amount was $224,000 on a home purchased for $280,000 (20% down) initiated June 2016. Current principal $214,181 at a 3.625% interest rate, on a 30 year fixed loan. However, paying extra toward the principal at a current rate of only $250 extra/mo seems to make the payoff in 16 years rather than 29 according to my amortization spreadsheet.
No cc debt, car loans, or student loans.
The nitty gritty:
I saved up the above nest egg in ~about~ 6 or 7 years. Prior to that I was living below my means (I did have a small student load for a few years after graduating college, and I bought my car new 10 years ago, financed (and paid off in 2 years at an accelerated rate), but not saving aggressively (early on in my adult life I didn't have a ton of extra cash, and later I just didn't. mea culpa.) However, other than those two things (student loan and car) I have never really lived with heavy debt, carried cc debt, or lived very extravagantly. My home is the 2nd one I've purchased in my life, the first was with a partner with whom I am no longer with (we bought it as tenants in common and sold it (at a profit) when we left California, prior to splitting). I never intended on staying in Utah for the very long term, but when I bought my current house it was unclear what my future plans would be and it seemed like a reasonable course of action, the population here is increasing (and expected to at a significant rate for years), the RE market here is reasonably robust (the house is in a good area but not crazy expensive so I should be able to sell without issue unless something drastic happens with the economy). I don't regret buying it, I love living in it.
However.
My job. It isn't exactly the dumpster fire I call it in the subject line, but it might as well be. I dread going to work. I start dreading it on Sunday. It is stressful (I work in consulting), and thinking about work ALL the time, and not in a good way. When I am there I find it hard to motivate myself. Though I do make a *great* salary (don't get me wrong) I am increasingly convinced it isn't worth it. I've been with the company 10 years (!) so my benefits (like vacation time) are somewhat better than some of my peers, but I am not convinced it is worth it.
The spreadsheet calculators suggest that if I stayed the course I would hit the break even point for FI in just THREE YEARS. Can this be right? I currently (and have for a few years) contribute the max to my 401k at nearly 18k (company does a 0.5% match on up to 6% (so essentially they contribute 3%), put $5,500 into my Roth IRA, funnel $2,400/yr into my "emergency" account (Capital One 360) and usually contribute extra to my taxable account (this year I had some home repairs (not unexpected from the home inspection before I purchased, so my discretionary contributions may be somewhat lower this year). This is astonishing to me, as my assets would be far less than the 1 million or so I have been led to believe I would need to retire. They (the banks) say you need something like 80% replacement of your current income for retirement right, but I am already only living on something like 50-60% of it, with *NO* frugality at all. Between my 2 retirement accounts, the 401k and the Roth IRA, I have just over $300,000, in addition to the equity in the house and the liquid assets in the other accounts in the amount of around $39,000.
I desperately want to quit my job. Desperately. I have been saying it for months. Years, maybe. The longer I wait though, the worst it gets, the more unhappy I become. Stress is at an all time high. It is unlikely I would get another job in exactly my same field, and even if I did, I would likely not get paid as much (I still work for the same office in CA and still get paid the same!).
Is it reasonable for me to even contemplate this? For my sanity? Is it worth taking a lower paying job, even a much lower paying one, in a slightly different field probably, maybe in a different (cheaper?) part of the country, for my health and peace of mind, even if it means I have to work longer to retire? Should I do it? Would you do it?
And then - what should I be doing in addition? It bothers me a bit that so much of my net worth is tied up in a 401k that I can't access for almost 20 years. It's possible I am just looking for someone to push me off that ledge.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and any thoughts and suggestions you may have. And the face punches.