u/Mundane-Astronomer-7

Hi all, as mentioned in the title, the idea of not receiving a salary over next 6-9 months actually scares me (37m). It's like I am casted adrift and not knowing when I'll next see land. Context is that I realised that reached coast fire early this year. I tried to keep working but at a slower pace (practically coasting) at my work as a machine learning engineer in a hedge fund, and my team members noticed and the resentment is just building. I then realised that I'm burnt out and I really need to rest Otherwise, I think my number works:

Investment: 820k (coast fire)

Total nw: 1.3 million (include property and other assets)

Savings: 9 months of sabbatical + 3 month of emergency fund

Sabbatical intention is to take long deep rest and test drive retirement life while I still have the market value to come back into the market.

What helped you overcome this fear, if you had it?

I have 2 specific worries from stepping down and away. They are deep rooted psychological programming. so please have some empathy. it's not a switch i can just turn off.

I am currently an Machine learning engineer in a hedge fund. and frankly, the stress is getting to me. i hit coast fire earlier this year. What is keeping from leaving are: 1) the portion of my salary in excess to my monthly expense is a great discretionary money / traveling budget / extra investment to speed up toward full fire, 2) i am afraid that even lower pay job would be stressful and had difficulty at times too.

what made you walk away for a lower paycheck and what did you to to prepare yourself psychologically for it? TIA

edit. i forgot this community loves numbers. my numbers are:

- currently 37 year old with 800k in investment (ETFs), and 1.3 million in total net work.

- 4k minimum expenses

- monthly mortgage mostly covered by tenant

- looking to reach full fire with 1.5 million

For me, I kept investing a token amount, nothing much, 25-30% of what used to put aside. I thought it was a good insurance to kept DCA-ing to build in the additional buffer. If the market stays good, It can either help me achieve FI sooner. Otherwise, I reckon the DCA-ing will make the crash feels less painful if it happens.

my objective is simple, die with zero, live to create memories while I a(36M) am still healthy.

- first, I reduced my investment to a token amount, nothing much, it's a third of what I used to put away. just an insurance for worse than expected market performance.

-the remanding? half in short term goals. we love traveling so we save up for that next holiday in every 3 months. another half goes into discretionary spending. restaurant we want to try, the plants and pots we have to buy, etc.

what do you think?

just want to let something out of my chest and I know this community will be able to appreciate it. 37m here looking to retire at 45. I just crossed mid point of my FIRE number in my investment portfolio. I just have to double my investment one last time. everyone can do it. just stay in the grind!