I'm in my mid 30's with a 3yo child, feeling unfulfilled in my career and curious if any of you sacrificed comp to make significant career changes. Eg: "retired" to start some form of physical, small business. Think along the lines of coffee shop, sports training facility, etc.
Background:
- NW is 8M liquid, 1M in the house (not counting this for retirement purposes, don't plan to move). Remaining mortgage is ~2M.
- Current expenses are ~250k per year, majority of which is mortgage, property taxes, schooling for the kid.
- I'm a senior staff engineer in FAANG. I'm feeling stuck and finding it much less enjoyable than when I started in the industry. Obviously career growth tends to be harder the more senior you get, but I don't see any realistic path to director.
- Current annual TC with stock appreciation is ~1.1M, with the spouse making another 400k on top of that as well. This makes it pretty tough to switch to another company, I don't think I can get that comp elsewhere.
- Ideal retirement number is closer to 15M.
I believe my most secure financial path is to accept that my career has plateaued and ride it out in my current gig at least a few more years to build the nest egg. My comp is a high enough number that it makes the day-to-day tolerable. On one hand I feel like I'm capable of much more in my career, but it's hard to turn the sure thing in this market.
A riskier short-term option is to change companies for a role that I find more fulfilling with greater potential career growth. This surely means lower compensation in the short term. But this is also a tough tradeoff since I very well may not end up enjoying a different company any more than my current role.
If I stick it out for several more years and build up my retirement funds, instead of a full retirement I'm interested in the idea of starting something with a physical presence where I feel like my contributions have more direct and meaningful impact over the success of the business. This path would not be explicitly trying to maximize income since for that I'd just stay in tech. But it would be trying to create a successful small business.
Any experienced perspectives? Has anyone been in my position and tried and find a more fulfilling career path, either in the same industry or something completely different?