I can retire in 10-15 years, or retire in like 35 years.
I think a lot of people are missing this. 10-15 years of grinding and I'm free.
Do I want to work until I'm 65, when I have the option not to? Hell no.
There's your danger sign, right there. It's not even the realistic plausibility of shifting down a gear (and for what? dooming yourself to never be able to run top speed again, who's to say you won't keep doing that, shifting down over and over to no avail, and then be working some shit job at 80 years old, just as miserable, never able to escape?)
Did I just do your mental voice there?
It's not even the realistic plausibility. It's THAT MENTAL VOICE and the pressure you're putting on, allowing no wavering from the path. I put it to you that it's possible that mental voice is unhealthy and not a reality thing. 'Cos that's the one I had, which is why I can do it on command. But I learned I wasn't being reality-based.
You're talking about "grinding"--you get that that's grinding your psyche and your personality too, right? I'm going to be very blunt with you: do you think, with the attitude you're expressing, do you think you will be a person people want to be around once you're "free"? Because dude. You sound miserable.
The journey can be worth it if you can pace yourself. But you've decided destination uber alles, it sounds like, so I can only wish you good luck.
You can be free in 15 years but you'll never be able to buy back your youth.
One might also die in a couple of years from the big C, heart, covid, even a car accident...
So, those 10-15 years might never even arrive...
What else are you going to do? If every form of “work” you encounter is just a means to an end, then I guess I can understand. But don’t underestimate how much you might change personally in 10-15 years, and how much enjoyment you might find in the future forms of work you engage with.
Like, live?
Or do you believe if you don't passionately "change the world" by working at some BS startup/FAANG you don't really live?
> It's more like--great I make a ton of money. now that you're here, try to keep it going.
Why? Like-so--in the long run, we're all dead. But, unlike many, many working folks in this country and in the world, we are pretty privileged to be able to enjoy a very comfortable life in this industry without worrying that we defer The Good Stuff so far that if we get hit by a bus tomorrow we'll never have had it.
Like, I've been there, I've asked myself if twice my total compensation in a pressure cooker would make me happier, and I realized it wouldn't. Maybe you're different. But you also sound pretty unhappy about it, and I just came in from playing fetch with my dog and I'm neither worried about retirement nor about what sort of a shitshow tomorrow will be.
YMMV.
> There are some success stories, but do we hear of people who left their high paying jobs only to be just as stressed in their new positions?
I'm sure that happens. But the whole point is preparation, isn't it? I've picked most of my jobs pretty carefully and after pretty long interview processes (my current one was a quick process because I've never vibed with a place like I do here, but that's an outlier). It means you're interviewing companies as much as you're being interviewed, but that's just fine.
I keep a little more in the e-fund than maybe my coworkers do, because there's always the chance that it takes a little longer to find that job. But it's never been a problem for me.