Should I stay or should I go?

[Beridian]

I am really torn over a current opportunity to take a severance package and retire a bit early.  I have 33 years on my job with a large Fortune 500 tech company, I do technical support work and  work from home.  I work on legacy products that are rapidly being replaced so my demise is certain, it is just a question of when.  Best case scenario I might be able to last another two years.  Honestly my job brings me no joy, overall it is a source of stress, I get little to no satisfaction out of it.  The products that I work on are getting old and more failure prone so the stress is building instead of diminishing.  The only reason that I stay is they pay me 140k with benefits, plus working from home is a great perk.  Every day I can think of dozens of other things I’d rather be doing.

Here’s my family situation, I am 58, divorced with a special needs 19 year old daughter and 18 year old son.  My daughter has an intellectual deficit and spends a few days a week with me and rest of the week at a group home, she will likely never be independent.   I have joint custody of my son, he spends about 40% of his time with me, he will graduate HS in 2018 and start at a local college that fall (we have 25K set aside to help with his college expenses)

Here is my financial situation:  If I retire I will immediately be getting a pension worth about 2500 a month.  I will also net about 40K in a one time severance payment.  I will be covered by my employers medical plan but (I will have to pay the premiums).  I have 400K in retirement accounts and 20k in cash.  I owe 60K on my house it is worth 100K (this is my only debt).  I realistically estimate my expenses after retirement will be about 3600 a month including my mortgage and medical premiums.  So my pension falls a bit short, but I plan to make up the difference from my cash and retirement accounts, later with social security.  I can begin collecting social security at 62. The payments at 62 will be 2000 a month.  If my situation allows I can delay collecting social security and increase the payment.

From a strictly financial position I would seem to be an idiot to walk away from a 140k work at home job.  However I am thinking more about my life, what’s left of it, what brings me happiness and what makes me miserable.  If I were to retire I would want to socialize more, get more physically fit, spend time with my kids, travel, and pursue my interests.  I have been doing this job a very long time and I feel like it’s time for a change.  Ever since I was a kid I aspired to retire early, I view employment as selling your life away a little slice at a time.  If I were to retire early I would not seek another job, at least not for some time and then only something that I would find enjoyable.  If I stayed I could pay down the mortgage a bit more and save more for a year or two (I also max out my retirement account contributions).  A final note, the severance package they are offering may not be around in the future, alternately there is a possibility of a better buyout offer.

Thoughts?

[Livingthedream55]

I suggest starting with watching this 13 minute TED talk - really powerful stuff.

https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_ferriss_why_you_should_define_your_fears_instead_of_your_goals


In a nutshell, he walks you through a series of exercises to do whenever you face a decision or have a dream or desire to do something. It is about putting the "worst case scenario" on paper and then brainstorming ways to prevent or mediate the worst case scenario. It's "fear-setting" rather than goal-setting. He also walks you through looking at the opportunity cost of not taking a particular course of action. Pretty powerful stuff! I would love to see you do the exercises and report back to this community.

[rugorak]

Great TED talk!

Lets look at the math. You say you need $3600 a month and you'll get $2500 in pension. You'll also get $40000 in 1 time pay. 3600-2500 = 1100. 40000/1100 = ~36. So that is already 3 years you'd be set for. You need 4 to hit 62. So all you need to do is get your costs down a little bit and you should easily be able to stretch that out. And from how much you say you hate the job who cares if you are working from home or not. How much is your time worth to you? Is it worth reducing your costs by $275 a month? It certainly would be for me.

Also look at it the other way. Lets say you are just let go all together in 1 1/2 years. No 1 time bonus. Then you have even a harder time financially. Unless you are already living on as little as you possibly can I cannot see a reason to not take this deal. You also can always get another job. I mean I am sure you can find something that pays $275 a month part time without even having to do much.

[L8_apex]

Your income is much higher and makes me wonder where all the potential savings have gone.

  Yes, it's a bit difficult to understand the OP's numbers based on what's been provided. 

Regardless, if I had that kind of salary and that kind of expenses and was presented with a layoff offer, I'd try to negotiate to stay on for something like 12 months more under my regular pay, then have the layoff package go into effect.  You could pay off your mortgage and thus drastically (I assume!) reduce your monthly budget thereafter.

[Beridian]

Regarding my numbers, one reason I don't have more assets is that I took a pounding in a late life divorce (beware).   I do have trusts and life insurance set up for my daughter.   

As I said, from a strictly financial point of view its a seems a no-brainer to stay as long as possible and continue to build my savings.  But from a life satisfaction perspective I am really tempted to take the offer and move on to other things while I am still somewhat young, healthy, and functional.

[CindyBS]

What is the financial picture for your daughter and her care?  What happens when she is over 21?