Gonna start thinking about a slow-motion exit strategy. Getting too old for some of this!
For me, it came down to location and money. Motivation was provided by a steady decline in the working environment; sounds like you're already there.
I put together a spreadsheet that had all my yearly and monthly expenses, then all my anticipated income after I pulled the plug. I wanted to exit the San Francisco metro area, so I also started getting estimates for what my current home would bring. From that I came up with a budget for both cost of living and what I could afford for to pay for the new property. I did all this about five years before I thought I could retire, and reviewed the cost of living and income projections every year. When the real estate bubble popped in '08, I really started looking hard at properties in the areas I was interested in. By '10, the market was starting to recover and when I saw a place that fit within the spreadsheet green zone, I was outta there, the only thing left behind was a trail of smoke.
Having that level of confidence in my financial future helped deal with a lot of stress at work, like having a get-out-of-jail-free card in Monopoly. Making big changes all at once like retiring and moving also caused a lot of stress, but nothing like what I was seeing at work. And here we are, eight years later, and, with the possible exception of insurance costs, the spreadsheet projections are still holding up well.
You are the captain of your ship. Understand what motivates you to make change, what things around you that you can change, and the array of futures that are at your beck and call. Then go out and chart a course to the life you want.:2cents:
