> "I'm quitting! But I'm not telling you anything about how I plan to pay for life."

I quit the rat race in my late 30's. I saved and lived a frugal life while earning a great FAANG salary during a time of economic growth. I used my savings to buy income producing rental properties and aggressively payoff mortgages. I now do woodworking most days and love it. The pay is low, but at least the hours are long .

I used to work on some of the most popular applications in the world. I would see my work in keynotes and read about my work here on HN, but none of that compared to making an urn for my cousin when my uncle passed away. Or selling a few items at a winter market at my kid's elementary school.

Thank you for explaining how you did it!

No problem. I don't often share the details because I don't want to assume that what worked for me would work for others. Here are a few more details:

- There is a rule of thumb that you need 20-25x your annual expenses in networth. So if you spend $8k a month, you can retire at a net worth of just between 2 and 2.5 million.

- Whenever I refinanced I always round down to the nearest loan term. A lot of people refinance and start their 30 year mortgage clock over. My goal was to have no debt.

- Because I was saving towards a multiple of my monthly expenses I did some extra things to lower those expenses before quitting like getting solar so I don't have an electric bill and getting a $5k used electric car so eliminate fuel costs.

- If your net worth is in equities you can take ~$80k in capital gains tax free each year. This puts your $80k withdraw closer to $100k in an equivalent salary.

These are some awesome tips, thanks again for sharing them!

Do you have any more details anywhere (blog, etc.)? I'd love to read about it.

Just as the OP here frustrated me by not explaining their process, others like you really help and make me happy to read about how they do/did it.

It inspires me to make changes in my own life to live more conservatively financially. I already make an effort to do so but its nice to be reminded that there is more you can do. Solar + Electric car should be next on my list.

Do you have a recommendation for a good used electric car?

Isn't it the classics of downshifting? Move to a cheap place, do some remote work, maybe time to time. Plan not to need much health care %)

Maybe, but they never say!

It's strange to me how often I'll read a post like this that conveniently leaves out the crucial detail. Leaves a suspicious feeling in me that they have some nest egg or something they're not telling us about.

In most of the world basic health care is provided to all residents at low or no cost

Edit: to the user, paid for via taxes/etc.

Basic, yes! But try to avoid breaking a leg, or getting a bad case of COVID, because you definitely can do a lot to lower such risks.

How do you plan to not need healthcare. "Just don't get sick?"

???

I think insurance policies cap maximum out of pocket costs. I'm on a cheap policy ($300/month) that caps annual out of pocket costs at $12K. I have that $12K on standby if something really bad happens but it's been years and no issues yet.

Do not embark on such a project if you have some chronic conditions. Start in a good shape. Generally keep a healthy lifestyle: no heavy drinking, no junk food dinners, enough motion, etc. Stay away from high-risk pastimes like snowboarding, motorcycle racing, etc. Wash your hands and do other trivial things to keep infections reasonably away, especially when far from thickets of civilization.

Things like that. Do what you can not to get badly sick or injured, because medical bills can quickly burn through your savings.

No doubt, but beyond the practical advice you've offered, a lot of health in the long term comes down to luck. Some people eat perfectly and still develop cancer at age 34, others never develop it despite "living a hard life".

On average, health insurance doesn't seem optional.

:-/

Poetry has its place as well, he just wants to convey the emotions he's currently experiencing and what he thinks is driving it.

Retire on a boat for like $3-4k/m and live pretty well, see the world. That's still a lot tho and your money will run out in a few years, unless you figure out a way to make $50-60k/yr on a boat (so you have some cushion, because you won't be employed all the time in this scenario).

Couples routinely live like this for $2k/m, so it is possible.

I temporarily "quit the rat race" years ago with savings from a tech job which paid decently but not today's crazy salaries. Travelled all around N America coast to coast and back, worked a couple of ski seasons etc. How I did it was eat cheap but healthy food, while travelling had no rent costs. Had a 17-yr-old fuel efficient Japanese car, sometimes slept in it, camped for free in national forests, stayed at hostels. (this was well before AirBNB) . The way I saved up enough was always having fairly frugal habits, never bought fancy clothes or gadgets etc. It was a lot of fun. Wouldn't have wanted to do it for ever. It gets transient and less fulfilling after a while. Met many wonderful people, but, they move on. Its not like having a set of local friends and family. I'd argue that in today's tech industry it should be possible for most people to do what I did (before they have a family). Only caveat might be that rents have increased in last 20 yrs a lot... but then.. so have salaries in tech. I think its good to see it as a temporary adventure. In the long run this caused lost earnings, set my career back a little for a while, but with tech having such wonderful opportunities, this doesn't matter now, cos after that, worked normal jobs again for years, and repaired the "financial damage". I guess a lot of people with my skills are richer now, but, does it matter? Seems worth it for the experiences. I must say, it is indeed a privileged thing to be able to do. It largely depends on being born with the type of brain/intelligence that lets you work as a coder. Couldn't have done that so easily otherwise. That said... I met many people travelling who funded their travels by all sorts of means. One guy worked 80-hr weeks at a supermarket for months to fund a big trip. Others did all sorts of things. One girl worked at a strip club. I remember a lively debate in a youth hostel common room about whether such "selling your soul" was worth it for all the adventures she used the money for. ;). One caveat - of course healthcare is a cost issue. In my case I had health coverage of a sort by various means. This has surely gone up in cost since.

Hey, author here. I understand your criticism.

Please see this comment where I've hopefully answered your questions: https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=34426360&goto=item%3Fi...

Thanks for clarifying! And good luck to you, I think you're making a hard but correct decision.