100%. The guy is leaving something behind that doesn't fulfil him in pursuit of something that does, and what do the best minds of HN have to offer? "Well actually"

When I told my family and friends my plan to leave my great FAANG job to retire early very few of the responses were positive. It was really disheartening after working so hard for so many years towards that goal.

You are the status quo. By leaving, you are breaking their new (since FAANGs are a recent thing) social structure. They’d definitively not support you.

Jealousy and resentment as well

I think it's more likely that he's a success story, and it's disheartening to see your example of success quit and "stop doing anything."

This is of course unfair to him and he shouldn't be beholden to other people using him as an exemplar, nor is it likely that he's done nothing since retiring, but it's an understandable reaction.

That's sad and somewhat surprising to me, as someone in a similar situation. Pretty much all of my friends are also in FAANG and all of them either completely sympathize or are also actively working on their early retirement goals. My family was a harder nut to crack but they're coming around and the most important one (wife) is now onboard.

Did you leave where you were living and retire to some other area?

Most family and friends I’ve spoken to are completely fine and generally supportive.

Even when I quit my $1m/yr job, people were like - “if it feels like prison and is making you miserable - do it. Life is too short.” I took up another job at a 60% paycut. That turned out to be terrible too. So now I’ve not been working since June and traveling and living in different areas. They’re all supportive cause they’re like, “you’re living the dream. No responsibilities. You have money to live off of. Do it!”

It’s hard to imagine finding anyone who isn’t supportive of retiring early and is actually your friend.

> Did you leave where you were living and retire to some other area? We did not.

My job was great. I was working from home (precovid), my manager always did his best to unblock me if I was blocked and let me go if I was going. My biggest fear was not liking being retired and having to come back to a worse job somewhere else.

Also, my friends and family are not in tech. My income to them was very significant.

> It’s hard to imagine finding anyone who isn’t supportive of retiring early and is actually your friend.

They do love me, that I know, but we've been indoctrinated with what success is in the u.s..

I have a lot of friends not in tech and even they were supportive and understood.

That said - I had absolutely terrible (toxic) jobs that most people couldn’t last even half the time I was at.