This is how I see it. It could also be more towards "financial freedom" instead of "early retirement". Financial freedom in a sense that you don't have to work for money anymore and can live on your investment/saving with some fix withdrawal every year. That also means that you can choose to work at the places of your interest but don't pay much and you will still be okay!
I left FB a handful of years ago and the RSUs left me in this position (low 7-figs in investments/savings). I still work full time, but I only work on things I care about, which mostly involves non-profits and social work. I like getting a paycheck and knowing that I'm still growing my nest egg, but I care very little about getting promotions and raises since they're a borderline rounding error compared to what I've saved. If the salary can cover my monthly expenses and I like the mission, I'm happy to take the job. That's what I've found financial independence to bring.
I'm looking to do something similar, leave behind the high stress and find something more meaningful to work on that covers the bills while my nest egg matures. I admittedly have not looked into what's next as much as I should have, but do you have any tips on how to make such a transition?
Moving out of the bay made a big difference for me. I'm now somewhere in the middle of the country. I have twice the house to live in and 200x more land to roam for about half the price. With the extra land, I can also grow a lot of my own food.
The openness to remote work has been huge. I have colleagues in the bay and NYC. We get paid the same but my money goes twice as far.
At the same time, I've always been a frugal person. When at FB, I budgeted like I was making about 1/5 of my actual income since I always saw it as a transitory windfall.
I don't think I've done anything outside the standard box of lowering my expenses and investing anything I've saved.
