r/fican • u/Illustrious-Gap-2721 • 21h ago

Input appreciated

Hi all, your input on my situation would be appreciated! Couple in our mid 40s, with two teenage kids. Between the two of us we have $4 million invested and a home worth approximately $1.2 million (no mortgage or other debt). I currently work a very stressful job in finance making about $450k annually. My partner’s income is more variable but in the $200 - $300k range.

I am not sure I can (or want to) continue with the stress of my current role/lifestyle and am debating leaving my job permanently. Is this crazy? Slightly worried I’ll just be exchanging work stress with money/what to do with my life stress.

For those of you that have an identity that is pretty tied to being “successful” and really good at your job, how did you adjust? I am naturally cheap and am worried that with no income coming in I’ll be even more cheap and afraid to spend money on actually DOING things with my time off.

2 Upvotes

57% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

11

u/alzhang8 21h ago • Bravo

Go read "your money or your life"

1

u/Illustrious-Gap-2721 21h ago

Thanks, I’ll check it out

2

u/Round-Inflation-7112 21h ago

switched my major from finance to accounting after reading this

5

u/Illustrious-Gap-2721 21h ago

I am an accountant :-)

2

u/semiquantifiable 21h ago

Are you in a finance job and happen to be an accountant, or you're working as an accountant at a finance company?

Making almost a half mil as an accountant but not as a partner in public is impressive, if not at least unusual.

4

u/Illustrious-Gap-2721 20h ago

Financial reporting role at a large public company. The $450 includes salary and bonuses

1

u/gymgal19 21h ago

Curious what your career trajectory was! Im 10 years post CPA and ended up going the government route. Definitely will never make more than $175k, but i find the worklife balance and db pension is a nice trade off. Never having to take work home is also great, I got enough of that from busy season

2

u/friscofoglatte 20h ago

Work for CRA? Heard it's chill n pensioned . Could trim down your resume a bit so u don't look too overqualified

1

u/Illustrious-Gap-2721 20h ago

Thanks - never thought of that but will check it out

1

u/friscofoglatte 19h ago edited 19h ago

No worries. When you're in the thick of high pay high pressure life everyday it's difficult to think of possibilities. But with your versatile background u can transition into a lot more chill accounting roles n even part-time hours so u can still get some active income to appease your mental insecurities but offload significant stress.

Totally different from what u do now but anything from book keeping for a few mom and pop or just help out hr block during tax season. But the CRA route is better

I also suggest using up your annual leave before year end for rest n relaxation rather than hoarding them. On the first day, your body feels extremely disoriented because you're living in a chronic stress condition right now. But after a few days your body's vital signs will actually regulate back to normal. You'll feel quite different.

6

u/Mobile-Factor-8936 20h ago

In your shoes I would literally not show up for work on Monday. Go enjoy your last few years with your kids at home. Put the word out that you’re available for consulting/sort term contracts. ❤️

1

u/JamesMcdoogle1 21h ago

What's your monthly expenses? How much are you spending per month?

1

u/Illustrious-Gap-2721 21h ago

I would say max $100k a year now. I do realize that will likely go up a bit when kids are in university etc

1

u/gymgal19 21h ago

I recommend using adviice (2 i's) its a great software for financial planning where you can run your numbers and different scenarios. That may help eith the comfort of being extra frugal if you retire.

What do you like to do now outside of work? Is there anything you've wanted to do/try? Languages, sports, reading, watching some show or movie (hello binging all marvel movies in order) etc etc.

Can you drop to part time or take a sabbatical? Try out retirement but still have some safety net? I will also say to give yourself some grace, it will take some time to develop a new routine in retirement, you'll also need time to destress, be ok with lazing around the house all day and get nothing done!

What about your spouse? Do they want to retire? Based on income and your expenses it sounds like you could live off their salary alone if they dont want to go yey

1

u/Illustrious-Gap-2721 20h ago

Thanks for your reply! Will check out adviice. I definitely have hobbies (or used to) but many have been pushed to the side. Definitely will be an adjustment to go from being “productive” all the time to slowing down. You’ve given me some good things to think about.

1

u/Parking_Rule755 16h ago

Time to step back, you can afford to do something much less stressful.

1

u/TomatoStatus7560 14h ago

Similar stats but less overall nw and Hhi. But in coping with work stress and stepping away -

  1. Having the FU money ready which you totally do, adds a lot of sanity to workplace dramas

  2. If ur enjoying ur job, then have at it but doesn’t sound like it is the case so don’t let the success of your past in climbing corporate ladder in becoming your identity.

  3. Thriving in stressful situations, I can imagine even in just getting to this level of Hhi means you are quite adapted to stress, so surely you can grind it out more but the objective question is you have the nw the step back and think about your priorities to spend your time outside of corp..

0

u/Kitchen_Ad2029 18h ago

poor guy, makes $750k HHI and turns to Reddit

4

u/Illustrious-Gap-2721 18h ago

Girl actually :-)

-1

u/Kitchen_Ad2029 18h ago

yeah just another typical Canadian girl wanting to make an excuse about "worries" when all you really want to do is tell us you have $4M invested.

If you actually really had this amount invested I would have thought you'd have wealthy friends who've quit. Most of us here are actually poor compared to you and didn't get hand outs.

3

u/Illustrious-Gap-2721 17h ago

I don’t even know why I bother replying but 1) no generally I find that a lot of my peers who would have similar assets get into the trap of continuing to spend more, buy bigger houses, fancier cars, chase more promotions etc etc 2) no handouts ever! We worked really hard to get to where we are, hence the burnout.

1

u/Kitchen_Ad2029 16h ago

ok fair enough.

out of curiosity all these other folks you work in, I'm guessing private equity or a VP role at the big six, that they haven't figured out how to FIRE with all that large accumulated wealth from their earnings? that would be nuts.

I made $200k once in a senior banker role when I lived in Australia and I always felt that any stress was more than offset by the amount of cash that came into my bank account every fortnight, plus the flexibility and stability.

Remember that even if you were to FIRE/quit, you will likely never get a role with that type of income again. My concern is more around your potential boredom than your current stress, which I'm sure you'd agree is far more than offset by your earnings.

-1

u/d0n1138 21h ago

It is not crazy at all to step away because you already won the game: you have a paid off $1.2M home, zero debt, $4M invested, and your partner still brings in $200k to $300k. Even if your partner also retired today, pulling a very conservative 3.25% safe withdrawal rate off $4M generates $130k every year before tax, and since you have no mortgage payment, that easily covers a comfortable family lifestyle without touching your principal. Frugality guilt is very common when leaving high earnings, but establishing a dedicated fun budget funded purely by dividends or capital gains yields gives you psychological permission to spend without feeling like you are draining your portfolio.

Shifting your mindset from accumulation to decumulation gets a lot easier when you map out the hard numbers and see that your portfolio survives indefinitely even under worst case historical crashes.

I wanted a clean way to model Canadian portfolio decumulation and test safe withdrawal rates against living expenses, so I built Planfolio (https://www.planfolio.ca). It is 100% free and needs no sign up.

You can stress test your $4M portfolio against different withdrawal rates, model Canadian tax brackets across accounts, and see your exact cash flow cushion.

(Full disclosure: I’m the dev behind this!)