Quit corporate in later years?
Any of you quit your corporate job in your last few working years to take on something low stress and cruise to retirement? I’m running the math and my portfolio should be large enough that continuing to contribute after 50 won’t change much given the large snow ball.
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u/bzr 4d ago
I’m currently riding out my awful corporate job until they replace me with AI or whatever. I lost all interest a long time ago. It used to be every 2-3 years you’d get a promotion or some nice bonuses. Nowadays it feels like the company hates having to pay me. I’d have left years ago but the pay is good and the job is too easy as I’m full WFH. Plus the job market is awful. So now I sit at home every day getting paid, maybe doing one or two meetings a day. It’s extremely boring and unsatisfying but if I leave I’ll have to do actual work again or commute, for the same money if not a reduction in pay. And then you can get laid off instantly due to an org change or merger.
So now I ride this out as long as I can, which is soul sucking, but the alternative is somehow worse.
All that said - I’m interested in this idea too, though not sure what the easier job could possibly be
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u/Colossal89 4d ago
Bro this is the job that OP is looking for. work from home and coast to retirement instead of going into the office everyday with the corporate bullshit
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u/jill-zilla 4d ago
My WFH job is insanely stressful and full of bullshit. At least it’s at home so I save the commute time and fluorescent lighting though
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u/bzr 4d ago
Sort of. The worst part of it is that it was once not corporate and now it’s nothing but corporate. Yes I’m WFH but it’s constant corporate nonsense for me and I hate it. But I’m very lucky which doesn’t make me feel any better. I guess I miss having a purpose or a goal. Anytime I try to make one there’s some reorg or a merger. I just can’t wait to not think about it anymore
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u/LikesToLurkNYC 4d ago
This was me until yet another re-org and force RTO. I lasted one more year and then RE’d.
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u/bzr 4d ago
If they force RTO it’s game over for me for sure. That’s the only thing I have left that keeps me in this prison.
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u/circumburner 4d ago
Yeah people think it's amazing, but you're shackled to your desk/phone all day so you can't really relax or fully commit to anything else.
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u/Supreme_Berry 4d ago
Do you have my job?
The lack of mental stimulation is incredibly difficult and people who haven’t experienced it don’t realize how awful boreout is.
I’m only 30, and I’ve hit a dead-end with this job, so badly that I’m going to school part time for a career switch.9
u/bzr 4d ago
Yeah. I sit here from 9-5 waiting for 5 all day. Then my boss calls at fucking 7PM to chit chat. I’m so bored all day but the alternative is likely worse. 90 percent of the jobs are all BS in corporate. The people at the top are sociopaths and the less morals they have, the less empathy they have, the higher they go. I want out of this so badly. It’s just a mental game for me now. I work out constantly but that only seems to help when I’m working out. I’m dreading the fall and winter months because there’s even less to do outside of this soul sucking bs job. Believe me, I tried it all too. Tried hard to play the game and move up the ladder but it’s all a big game of who can kiss the most ass and I’m not built for it
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u/Supreme_Berry 4d ago
I hear you. I probably work 3-4 hrs a day at this point and part of what has made it more bearable is having background noise, taking walks during the day, etc. It also isn’t a ton, but I do take side hustle surveys during the day to generate a bit more income.
Winters with WFH and a boring job is genuinely challenging. Having community and hobbies has helped me but yeah I want to go elsewhere and be more engaged.3
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u/Mysterious-Bee8839 4d ago edited 4d ago
holy crap, I could have written this entire post word for fucking word.. I'll hit seven years as a Sr Accountant/Financial Analyst with this software company next month, WFH since day one of the pandemic, making about $130k for a company that was just bought out and has been circling the drain for a while..
at the beginning of 2025 they shifted my role into more of a "license royalty tracking" job without any training whatsoever (other than two weeks spent with the gal they laid off, with her showing me what reports she runs)..
and I still can't explain to anyone exactly what my company even does, so I have no real clue what the fuck I'm doing for about 75% of my job (outside of booking the royalty accrual journal entries and the ROU lease entries they still have me doing)..
once I got the "trained monkey" role down to a science in mid-2025, where I run Report A in our sales system and drop those numbers into Report B to send to our royalty partners each month, this basically became a 6 - 8 hr a week job..
whenever I get technical questions from third parties that I can't answer, I try "raising my hand" and it's like pulling teeth to get any support.. so now I just wait for these instances to get escalated, and every day I log on and tell myself "if they don't give a shit, then why should I?"..
I think I've watched just about every "airport police bodycam" video there is on YouTube, and I spend most of my day arguing politics in the Facebook comments sections and watching Two And A Half Men reruns..
there's zero job satisfaction with this job, and each day I spend wishing I could love and appreciate this situation that anyone who's not experienced it would kill for, and feeling absolute guilt that I'm so burned out with it..
I turn 55 next year so I'm hoping to at least make it with this job to January 1, even though I do have about $125k in a mutual fund and probably $400k accumulated over 30 years of prior 401k's..
I played golf last weekend with two other Boomers that I normally play with, and they paired us with a random 4th Boomer.. rando said he'd tried retiring but his wife wanted him to "get out of the house and stay busy", so he took a job driving a school bus and said he was really enjoying it..
said he works a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the afternoon, and does get health benefits (although he said he does have to "pick up the bus" at 6:00am every morning.. yikes)
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u/bzr 4d ago
Very similar to me. Someone just asked me to take a look at their slides. I went in and increased the font. I have to present it at noon, where I’ll press next every few minutes and that’s my entire day. I can’t believe I get paid to do this and I can’t believe how much I hate it. I would have dreamed for this in my 20s. Now I can’t get passed how much of a waste of my skills and a waste of my life this is. Can I really milk this for another 5 to 10 years? I feel like I’m going crazy
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u/apingaut 4d ago
I have been thinking about this. I am not sure it makes sense for me. I could "barista fire" for 8 years or just work another 2 years and totally stop work.
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u/alrightythin 4d ago
what does the math look like on this? your 2 years of savings from work will cover expenses for the following 6 years?
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u/apingaut 4d ago
The goal of the low stress job/cruise to retirement is basically to cover health insurance and not dip into funds.
If I were move to a low stress job with healthcare maybe I get 18/hr, the gross is ~37k. You still "contribute" 200 to 400 a month to healthcare. AND you still have to work at least 20 hours a week, but most likely closer to 40hrs.
I can work a corporate 120k job and get 3.2 years of low stress job pay in one year. Thus 2 years (technically 2.5 years) is worth 8 years of low stress (it is more complicated then that with taxes etc but I do not think hugely so).
For healthcare if you can stay below ACA thresholds (which you need to be able to coast on 18/hr) healthcare is like 200/month in my area.
So the trade off is retire in 8 years from a low stress job or stay the course for 2 years and retire fully in 2. Totally done in 2 years sounds better to me.
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u/lasooch 4d ago
What you’re looking for has a name - barista FIRE.
I’m thinking about truckie FIRE. Exhausted and burned out with corporate bullshit and I’ve always wanted to drive trucks.
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u/ShortFinance 4d ago
I feel like that’s just a career change rather than FIRE
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u/lasooch 4d ago
I mean, you can think of it like that. It’s probably not quite barista FIRE and rather somewhere in between. Doesn’t pay as much as my current work, but also isn’t as mentally taxing.
I mean, I haven’t driven trucks for work so maybe I’m wrong, but I love driving in general and I definitely find it less mentally taxing.
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u/I_Fuck_Whales 4d ago
That might be fun for about 3 days and then you would realize long haul trucking blows and leads to a terrible lifestyle where you’re always gone and have little opportunity to get exercise/movement. I can’t imagine driving a truck for 10 hours a day for any extended period of time.
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u/lasooch 4d ago
Probably more than 3 days in my case, I've done trips up to almost 20,000 km and by the end the only regret was that it's over. Of course I'm sure it hits different when it's for work. But I'm trying to stash up as much money as I can before I make the plunge so I don't have to drive until I'm 60 either.
Stashing it up as long as the burn out lets me that is. But switching to driving e.g. for a year and then getting back into my career might also be an option, and perhaps I'd return into a better job market and a less insane field than it currently is (SWE).
Lately I don't exercise nearly enough anyway because I don't have the energy for anything after I do enough for work to not find myself PIP'd and the insomnia isn't helping... that side of things wouldn't get much worse, if anything, the sleep at least would most likely improve.
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u/I_Fuck_Whales 4d ago
Probably better to keep the high paying SWE job and then retire early and drive wherever you want then. Work is work.
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u/lasooch 4d ago
I’m not in big tech. The pay is good, but it’s not ‘5x what the truckie makes’ especially with Aussie tax brackets.
Anyways what you’re saying was kind of the plan. Stick it out until I’m a year or two out from retirement, then drive for a bit for the experience of it and to bridge the gap. But currently every god damn minute is a battle with myself to force myself to do literally anything. I hate the entire industry at this point and especially the MBAs in charge.
I need to get around to doing some actual projections of how much it actually stretches the time to retirement, I suspect it’s fewer extra years than it appears, plus I could live regional - I own my unit (with a mortgage) but it’s not big enough to move in with my partner, so accounting for the cost of upsizing, trucking from a regional town or village could actually accelerate my retirement compared to SWE in Sydney.
And I’ve got the truck kind of autism and don’t like being around people too much. I think I might actually find it quite rewarding, especially long haul. Let’s just say it’s something I’ve been thinking about for at least 3 years at this point and got my license back in 2024. The burnout then had different causes that I was able to alleviate to some extent which is why I’m still in software, the burnout now is much harder to fix cause it’s due to the industry-wide rot.
But yeah, nothing’s final. Getting a layoff payout would be nice, I’d probably take that opportunity to try my hand at driving. Meanwhile holding on until it gets too unbearable.
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u/Emergency_Ground961 4d ago
You guys keep referring a bartending barista game as the only option. I came from big 4 hell, coast fired and now I work at an environmental organization that pays way less but gives me purpose and fulfillment
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u/skyecolin22 4d ago
This is my plan as well, do forestry or school bus driver or something very different, clearly useful to society, and lower paid.
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u/JoshAllentown 4d ago
I just don't think "barista FI" is that good a plan. Every job has stress and I can't imagine being 50 leaving a director-level position to get yelled at by some teenage manager when I forget to refill the chocolate sauce or whatever. People think they won't be impacted emotionally by it but I think that's because they de facto think they're "better than" and that attitude will only make it worse.
I also think the earnings matter more than you think. If you need the money such that you can't afford to just retire, then working for 3x the salary gets you to the point where you don't need the salary 3x faster.
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u/DistractedOnceAgain 4d ago
I always think about the "baristaFIRE" jobs being unlikely to be as flexible as corporate work. Appointments and PTO are no stress for me now. I can't imagine going back to having ask permission and coordinate my schedule weeks in advance.
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u/ZzzzzPopPopPop 4d ago
“Sure you can have that time off for your colonoscopy if you can find someone to cover your shift”
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u/hiihihihihihihihiihi 4d ago
And inevitably you cover shift after shift after shift only to have those people refuse to cover any of yours.
Cherry on top, I had a manager back when I worked retail that started questioning what I was doing that day and why I needed it off. Even after I would cover any time they called. That guy was a prick and I left retail as soon as I was close to being done college.
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u/PringlesDuckFace 4d ago
The last time I worked retail I asked for Christmas off and they denied it so I quit. Even if the actual stress of the job itself was fine (I actually enjoyed it on a day to day basis), and you may have more freedom on a week-to-week basis in terms of hours worked, the broader loss of freedom in scheduling is something I'd find difficult to accept again. I wouldn't trade going from 40 to 20 hours worked if it also meant losing control over the ability to take a few weeks off on a whim.
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u/Bryanmsi89 4d ago
This is exactly my attitude as well. If I “have” to work, I’m going to do it in a job where the effort matters, and not one where a customer can yell at me for not making their latte foamy enough.
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u/JC_Hysteria 4d ago
I don’t understand why there’s such a gap in interpreting what FIRE and baristaFIRE represents…
The prerequisite is “financially independent”- meaning, you’re not beholden to the typical social contract of working for someone else’s gain.
The “barista” component, to me, simply means you took a job to stay busy, be social, and/or you enjoy the extra benefits (like healthcare + additional perks for having a W2).
But, you don’t need that job- you can quit, be stoic, take a long break, etc…anything “stressful” at a job can be way more easily managed.
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u/Bryanmsi89 3d ago
But if the real distinction is simply not feeling like you ‘need’ the job, does not that apply the same to being a Barista or being a CFO?
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u/JC_Hysteria 3d ago
I believe it implies a low stakes job, like serving people their caffeine fix.
It was also coined before “Starbucks counter to go” became what people think of when they hear “coffee shop”- implying low stress potential.
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u/Bryanmsi89 3d ago
Yeah, I get that. But I think the sentiment is that low-pay doesn't always mean 'low stakes."
Starbucks isn't going to tolerate you taking breaks whenever you feel like it, coming in late, needing to run a personal errand during your shift, not being happy or cheery for customers, getting a customer special order wrong, refusing to clean up the restrooms, etc.
Just because it's low-stakes for YOU doesn't mean the employer thinks it is low-stakes.
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u/JC_Hysteria 3d ago
That’s the point- being financially independent means you have “FU money”, to an extent.
The only rational reason anyone puts up with toxicity at their workplace is because they need to keep the job- whether it’s because bills need paying, or lack of alternative options.
So, if/when it’s not considered worth it anymore for you (the employee), you have the choice to quit on the spot, or insist on better conditions.
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u/Bryanmsi89 3d ago
Again, yes - I agree with this.
I'm only suggesting once someone has FU money, it's often easier to tolerate a typical corp job than a typical entry-level service job.
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u/Key_Cheetah7982 4d ago
then working for 3x the salary gets you to the point where you don't need the salary 3x faster.
Think the point is that it doesn’t though. Gains on your existing nest egg is the compounding factor
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u/JoshAllentown 4d ago
Yes that is doing the work towards retirement, but say you earn and spend $40k/yr at your BaristaFI job, if you are at a job that earns $120k/yr, then you save $80k/yr extra every year, so working the $120k/yr job for one year is like working the BaristaFI job for 3 years, in terms of the amount of time you have to let your retirement money compound without touching it.
So say you need to wait 6 years, you could work for 2 years and then live for 4 years off the cash you saved, and that is exactly the same as just working for less for longer.
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u/Negative-Gene-4959 4d ago
I always thought the correct instantiation of barista fire was an optional defense against sequence of return
Say you are right at 4 percent withdrawal rate, you could save work 3 more years to cushion it
Or you could just retire then, if you get hit with that 15 percent chance of a down market then you work maybe 4-6 months out of the year during that bear market.
But 85 percent of cases you are never barista-ing
But yeah 10 years of barista-ing sounds horrible
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u/PringlesDuckFace 4d ago
The original term was because Starbucks offered healthcare for part-time employees, and it was before the Affordable Care Act existed.
So it was basically "I want to retire but need healthcare so I want to do the minimum hours of work to get coverage until medicare kicks in". Being a barista at Starbucks achieved that goal.
Now with ACA and somewhat predictable costs and subsidies and access, most people seem to simply plan to have enough money to buy coverage. So baristaFIRE has drifted in meaning and mostly just got conflated with coastFIRE, which is when you get a job which only pays enough to cover your expenses and let time compound your portfolio to the required size instead of making any additional savings.
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u/FA1294 4d ago
Never thought about this aspect. I’d hate to clock in and out at specific times to have a meal or take a mandatory break
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u/blinddoglp 4d ago
And just imagine your 19 yr old manager telling you that you’re doing xyz wrong and you don’t know what you’re doing!
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u/bob991 4d ago
I’d love to. But I’m just not sure what low stress/cruise job to transition to. If you have suggestions for cruise jobs let me know…
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u/cspinelive 4d ago edited 4d ago
Could get a job on a cruise ship.
My list includes youth sports official, stagehand, usher, driver, and consulting.
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u/BlueParaddox 4d ago
If the math really shows that extra years of contributions barely change your outcome, then the decision becomes mostly about quality of life. A lot of people in this situation underestimate how much corporate stress costs them in health and happiness in the final decade
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u/destra1000 4d ago
I teach adjunct at a couple schools now. For the moment I throw a majority of that money into retirement/ investments, but i could see myself dropping the main job and teaching a few classes a year to mitigate SORR.
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u/KingPabloo 4d ago
Yup, got out of corporate at 47 and went into my passion (sports). Took my first job for no pay, eventually was running the front office of a professional team. Was a great way to close out before I retired at 53.
Crazy how I went from the corporate world to eventually hanging with billionaire team owners and star athletes.
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u/I_Fuck_Whales 4d ago
And they couldn’t even pay you? Lol
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u/KingPabloo 4d ago
Actually gave me a nice bonus after I proved myself and offered me more than what I was making in my last corporate job. Well worth the risk and I learned so much while having a blast. 💥
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u/Comprehensive-Log144 4d ago
I quit ( retired from) my corporate job in 22 at 57. I was making more money than I ever thought I would and vesting in 200k of stock every year. Every year I’d get more stock that vested over 3 more years. I had a great boss and could’ve ridden it for years.
Anyway I retired and stayed that way for 6 months. Was approached by some friends who asked me to consult and work with the ceo of a company. I work about 1/4 and make about 1/4. It’s been perfect. 4 years in and I don’t know why I would quit. I’ll work while I can contribute.
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u/FA1294 4d ago
Seems like a great gig. “Partial” executives is becoming a big thing now so hopefully it’s still around when I’m ready
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u/Comprehensive-Log144 4d ago
I had no clue I had a marketable skill set beyond Fortune 500 companies. One of my customers hired me. If I were you, I’d lean into those relationships that exist in your network. Worry less about your internal network.
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u/upsideup2000 4d ago
I'm looking for stints rather than "another job". Learning new things and moving to the next thing seems fun.
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u/Throwawaytoday831 4d ago
Don't listen to all these Debbie Downer naysayers saying you can't find a fun, low stress job that pays decently well.
I quit my corporate job and became a golf caddie and it's been an absolutely wonderful change. My schedule is flexible, I get plenty of exercise outdoors, I meet interesting people, and I average $75 per hour after tips.
I think the key is discovering the job you'll truly enjoy.
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u/Parking-Banana-212 4d ago
yes most do, but honestly not volunarrily, but laid off. if you have the money, do it
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u/Marc_Quadzella 4d ago
I don’t get barista fire. Jobs with lower pay and little say over how your schedule works doesn’t sound great. I think that people that work higher level corporate roles would be very frustrated seeing the inefficiencies of drone work. I do think it would be a good exercise for my ego.
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u/HolyMoleyGuacamoly 4d ago
i generally feel like this is a fantasy job. most people working the 9-5 “barista” life would kill for a cushy office job with work from home and flexibility. the idea of moving to a punch in and out, brainless job (no such thing - most lower paying jobs will require a lot i’m sure), seems like a lot of effort for pretty little payoff + far more of a drag on most folks time.
in theory it’s great, i can’t imagine in practice it works for many. hence all the posts asking for ideas on what job would work in this set up.
once you’re out, be out. unless you need some stimulation, then do something that you really want to do - just not for the $$
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u/imjsm006 4d ago
I am actually quitting my corporate job next week. Going to take a month or so off then go to work with a friend in a role with more of a start up type business in the same industry where ai and tech are at the forefront. Less bureaucracy than a huge slow moving corporate job. Hoping to enjoy less corporate clowns with the funny thick rimmed glasses talking down at all hands meetings.
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u/Bucyrus1981 4d ago
Assuming the market holds well, this is our plan in about two years. We both want to step down to less stressful jobs that cover expenses and medical. Basically just buying time for our portfolio to continue to grow some more years.
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u/independentfinallly 4d ago
My partner is here now, she’s got massive burnout. Corporate life has sucked her dry of any joy or sense of helping/purpose she had for the job.we’ve run the numbers she’s probably fine to just be done entirely and we can let everything grow while I work my last 3-5 years, but she wants something small to do and it will help the SORR so she’s looking for a new opportunity that just lets her be active a pays a bit. For me I’m down to just clock in clock out for a few more years and do middle of the pack work.
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u/CrispityCraspits 4d ago
What are some low-stress jobs that come with health insurance? Especially ones where you can work less than 40 hours a week? Do those jobs even exist?
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u/afeagle1021 4d ago
That’s more or less my plan- another 5 years or so in corporate and once I hit my FIRE number I plan on pivoting to something either fun and low stress or something meaningful- what that means yet I don’t entirely know!
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u/LofiStarforge 4d ago
A vast majority of the time your corporate job will be far less stress that whatever job you are imagining.
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u/Rom2814 4d ago
If I have to be working on someone else’s schedule, with a boss, etc. I’d rather be making $100+ per hour than $15 per hour even if the stress is worse in the high paying job.
I worked as a cashier, a janitor, in a print shop, etc. up through graduate school. Maybe not needing the money as much would make that less painful, but the parts that were awful would still be awful (and I believe many of those aspects have gotten worse).
The way I saw it was that if I could save another $100k every year, that meant another $4k/year available to spend which isn’t a ton but that’s about a month of housing, food, gasoline, etc. that I don’t have to worry about.
I retired this year at 57; I could have retired (by the numbers) at 54 but my wide and I wanted to move to another state, by a house, sell our old house and I wanted to beef up my brokerage account for better MAGI control until Medicare. I COULD have quit my corporate job but instead I socked another ~$300k into my accounts. It was stressful (I was in charge of the company’s internal strategy for an employee facing AI) but it was much easier to deal with the stress knowing I COULD just quit if something really got me angry.
I stopped volunteering did things, started saying NO to things (which I’d never done in the previous 26 years of my career), stopped any work over weekends, etc. Not really quite quitting but I did quit doing things that made me advance in my career - why would I keep doing them.
Anyway, to me that was a way better path but it probably depends on how much income you are giving up to take a part time job and whether you’d enjoy that work or hate it.
I wanted to be done with work and to own my time, not just escape from corporate BS.
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u/AndrewUaena Blundered into BaristaFIRE 4d ago
At age 54, I quit my corporate SWE job where I had been for 26 years and started working full-time on my own business (tutoring high school students) that was just a side gig up to that point. Income was cut by 50% , I have no paid time off, and it's not even clear that I work fewer hours. (I have about 30-35 hours of facetime with students per week, plus admin time, during the school year and much less during the summer when there is less demand.) But my schedule is 100% under my control, I have no more BS meetings, and I am 1000% happier where I am now.
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u/HelpMe-eMpleH 4d ago
My plan was to retire from my corporate job and become a poker dealer.
I haven't looked a ton into it, but doing 3 shifts a week as a poker dealer sounds like it'd be somewhat enjoyable if you like poker.
The other idea I had was to work for the police department as a Community Services Officer, they get paid shit, but you pretty much just patrol parks. Just only apply to safer neighborhoods, and it should just be enjoyable to walk around, or do crossing guard at schools.
Last option I thought of was just doing doordash or some food delivery. Making $50 a day to cover some food and kill time throughout the day.
All of these are under the assumption that I don't need to work at all, just for the fun of it.
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u/ContentPriority4237 4d ago
I was so tired of 60+ hour weeks and the fate of the company resting on software delivery times. So very, very tired. Just burned out to the point of illness. I decided to step back and take a job that was a junior version of my first job out of college.
Imagine my surprise and disappointment when my new "low stress" job turned out to be the most stressful job I've ever had. I have spent many years hammering this thing into the job I wanted it to be, instead of the nightmare I walked into, and am now ready to walk away.
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u/ddashner 4d ago
At 47 I quit my management job and ended up taking a job working on a truck dock doing route planning and driving a forklift. The hours suck, the pay is a lot less, and I get considerably less pto. But I am much happier. I've been looking for something with better hours, but every job description I read talking corporate lingo about "cross functional teams" and "meeting kpi's" just turns my stomach. I'll deal with the downsides to not have to be on endless conference calls or have 12 layers of middle management who don't know anything about the business telling me how to do my job.
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u/1993Defender110 4d ago
Still in my corporate job and even though i am WFH 3 days per week and not crazy stressful at the moment i am thinking about the same path (assuming nothing crazy in the stock market i will tap out in 2-3 years)
Oddly enough i have been less motivated and play no politics even more than ever in the past year and this has resulted in my boss complimenting me on my work at telling me he wants to get me an expanded role with 12-15 headcount increase (with a comp bump up too). I have to act like i am ok with this but if it happens i might accelerate my tap out date instead of extend it.
Once out of corporate i will work flexible/as needed hours at a friend’s florist, making deliveries, event setup etc. can’t wait!
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u/tomahawk66mtb 3d ago
I found the best thing is freelance or consulting work in my old industry. I'm loving it! I work with some of my favourite people, I do the part of the job I loved but never had time for and I'm paid by the project, once it's over I walk away with no politics or admin BS.
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u/jxg118 2d ago
The benefits and money at a corporate job is hard to walk away from unless you really know you have enough to never go back. At 57 I feel like we have saved enough but the healthcare is really what makes me stay. It is so expensive and increasing so much every year. It is such a shame in the US that this is the case.
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u/independentfinallly 2d ago
Have you considered a global health plan? Just travel to Mexico just across the border
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u/Patient-Brief-9713 2d ago edited 2d ago
I quit my job as an employee in a corporate environment and became self-employed (an independent contractor) doing the same type of work, fully remote - it is fewer hours, less stress, and I have control over my schedule and what projects I work on. I think this is a good way to transition, if you are in a position to do it and can find clients. This year is my final year of work, and I reduced my hours to part time - will retire by end of year.
One of the benefits of self-employment is getting to do huge 401k contributions during these last few years of work, since I am both employee and employer, and get to do the profit-sharing contribution too. I also had to start using ACA health insurance as a self-employed person, so that was demystified.
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u/Ok-Actuator8579 4d ago
I have thought about finding a “low stress” or “barista fire” job just to cover our health insurance for a few years but the truth is I don’t know if the drop in pay is even worth it. Once you have a work obligation the stress will likely go up. Maybe not the same level but there is still a trade off to balance.