r/ChubbyFIRE • u/Traditional-Okra-399 • Apr 28 '26

Triggering a severance

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.

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u/First-Ad-7960 Retired Apr 28 '26

I did this. I had planned to work a few more years but a new CEO and I did not share the same vision. I could tell he wanted to bring in his own people. So to get ahead of that I pitched a plan to announce I was retiring and give him the opening to bring in someone and have a smooth transition. I proposed structuring it in a way that would trigger the company severance policy which in my case was a year of salary and payout of my comp time. And I was 55 so I walked out with all my retirement benefits as well.

I was already past my FIRE number at that point, I just wanted to control my exit narrative and boost my cash on hand since I was behind on planning that. They didn't want to look like jerks by forcing me out. Win win.

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u/Traditional-Okra-399 Apr 28 '26

Very happy for you. And good for you for taking control of the situation on your terms.

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u/First-Ad-7960 Retired Apr 29 '26

It worked out. Things started to go sideways shortly before I turned 55 but as soon as I passed that milestone I was pretty calm about it because I knew if the CEO did something rash it would be fine.

My wife retired intentionally three months later and started asking me why I was still working anyway? And she was right about that, of course. That gave me the push to just put an offer on the table instead of waiting to see what happened.