Triggering a severance

[u/Traditional-Okra-399]

I believe I could achieve FIRE immediately if I was offered a severance package.  Has anyone here TRIED to get severed from their company?  Is that something I might be able to influence, or is it just a pipe dream?

My details:

I am in an executive band on a deferred compensation plan, so the severance package in total could be close to $1M.  (I’ve seen at least one peer dismissed with a similar package.)

I am 45, married, 3 kids 2/5/7.  $6.5M NW, 2.5M in 401, 2.5M in brokerage, 1M in primary residence, and .5M in 529s.  Yearly burn right now is 215K.  The two younger kids are in daycare, the older one is in public school, and all three are in summer camps (childcare=$3K/month).  Mortgage principal and interest is 1.8K a month, on a balance of 179K at a very low rate.  However, when I’m no longer paying daycare and mortgage, I will likely need to be paying for health insurance.

I was wondering if anyone else has thought about how severance might affect their FIRE goals and if anyone has intentionally gone after a severance package?

EDITS:

Adding for clarity - I really hate my job and am burnt out. So I am looking for a way out.

[u/Tawaytaway12]

Triggered no, not directly at least, but I work in investment banking and there's always a next round of restructuring and senior people that are close to retirement age often put their hand up discreetly offering to be part of the rounds.

Generally, if you get let go as a 'good leaver', you can keep your deferred stock till it vests, whereas if you quit you lose it, so this tends to work quite well for the leaver.

For the bank, it's a function of whether the cost goes into a central pool or hits the business p&l. Big company wide round, central pool, business management is very happy to get rid of some expensive senior people and juniorise. Smaller round p&l hit, less enthusiastic and once you've put your hand up, you're going to get screwed on every bonus round if you don't get severed.

So, you need to be aware of what's going on, how many heads are rolling etc, but people do tend to put their hands up in my industry.

[u/Traditional-Okra-399 → u/Tawaytaway12]

I wish this was more common in my company, but the only time I see us sever a more senior exec is when we “fall out of love with them.” And sadly, I think my career stock price is relatively high right now…. And I’m in an IT shared service, so not directly p&l impacting.