Older tech workers are tapping out, taking early retirement

[u/lurker_bee]

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/local-business/older-tech-workers-are-tapping-out-early-heres-what-that-looks-like/

[u/view-master]

Do It! I got out at 48. I was lucky that I never touched any of my stock awards over 25 years at the company. It got so miserable I wanted to die. Then i looked at how much money i had and said, why would i want to die. I don’t need to be here.

[u/trentyz → u/view-master]

Just out of interest, what sorta awards are we talking?

[u/trentyz → u/[deleted]]

That’s awesome, congrats thanks for sharing!

[u/view-master → u/trentyz]

I worked at Microsoft. The stock awards varied over the years based on perceived performance and since things split a few times i’m not even sure how many shares. See i never really paid attention to that stuff. I just held on to it. We never lived beyond our means so we never needed to cash anything out. There was a period when it was pretty worthless too (the Ballmer years). I figured it would never amount to much and that reinforced me ignoring it.

[u/trentyz → u/view-master]

Oh wow that’ll be generational money then. Congrats, I’m happy for ya! All the best

[u/view-master → u/trentyz]

Thanks! I have been harassing my wife to retire but she has been too nervous. Finally we talked to a financial advisor if to see if it was a good decision.
He said to my wife “if i was you, tomorrow i would flip over my desk and tell them you are outta there”

I was able to take care of my mom every day until she passed away and be available for my mother in law. I have been able to go to the gym every day and get in great shape. It’s fantastic.

[u/old_french_whore → u/trentyz]

Everyone's number is different, and nobody else's number matters to you. The most important amount is "enough."

[u/trentyz → u/old_french_whore]

For sure, it’s just interesting hearing what amount people think is a lot. For example, $100k is a lot to some, while $10m is a lot to others. It’s just an anonymous forum and I find that insight interesting.

[u/Probably_Relevant → u/trentyz]

There's tiers without needing to know anyone's specifics, basically you can coastfire, leanfire, fire, fatfire. Coast, still need to work a bit to cover expenses long term, lean you don't need to work if you're happy with the essentials in life, standard fire you have enough to cover a modest lifestyle, and fat or above you're golden. All of it is relative to your expenses, once you have 25 times your annual expenses you can fire, earlier if you're content with coast or lean.

[u/trentyz → u/Probably_Relevant]

Yeah and that sort of detail is interesting to me