Thanks for this note. This resonates with me a good bit. To this day, neither of us really identify with the RE part (we’re in our mid-30s), but my wife struggled to leave her job, even when it wasn’t particularly meaningful to her. We had plenty of discussion about those key elements of contentment. We came to the conclusion that the means to generate the paycheck (which was great) were outdone by the downsides of the job. For now, at least.

At first, she couldn’t fathom the idea of RE. RE at 54 and 52yo was not computing with her mindset. We would discuss it from time to time. She could see the math, but it was more the idea of leaving work. We met with a Certified Financial Planner to double check our numbers and he confirmed it.

Over the last four years, we have developed other interest outside of work. In some ways, we wish we had more time. Also, some days at work we wish we could leave it sooner….Ha ha. This has helped her to get into the mindset of RE.

Now, we are three years away from RE and looking forward to it. It took time with discussions and planning to start the path to RE seven years ago. We couldn’t just flip a switch and assume we both would be on board with RE.