I’m 28, from Europe, have worked for a well known large tech company in Silicon Valley for over 4 years (and a few startups before that). I currently have a bit

I’m 28, from Europe, have worked for a well known large tech company in Silicon Valley for over 4 years (and a few startups before that). I currently have a bit under $500k “in the bank” (mix of cash, stock, bonds, index funds). I intend to leave tech in 2 years when - according to my current savings rate - I’ll be a bit under $750k. I intend to travel and do my own thing for a year or three, and then go into teaching (primary school). I’ve worked with kids in various settings since I was 17, so I know it’s something I love doing. The goal is for my saved income to be an additional safety net/reservoir of money for buying a home in addition to my potential teaching salary. Outside of Silicon Valley, I can live under $30k a year, which will be roughly 4% of my total savings. Not super aggressive, but not super conservative either. The way I see it, tech will have (ideally) provided a very healthy jumping point to my subsequent non tech career. I think that’s the way to do it, because I honestly can’t see myself starting a family with my current workload/obligations/etc. Working remote is a distant option, but not super appealing for some reason. I’ve been writing software since I was 12, I don’t intend to stop - just that after a bit under a decade in the tech industry, I realize it doesn’t match my ideals in the ways that teaching does. Plus, I figure I can keep contributing to open source etc with the summers off and what not. Who knows, maybe this is very idealistic, and I will fail miserably and in 5 years I will be begging for my job back - but at least I tried, and I think with my experience and resume I won’t have too much of a hard time getting employed in tech again. Some of my friends in SF are surprised at how much I’ve saved in that time. I’ve certainly made sacrifices - not going to Tahoe every other weekend in the winter, cooking at home more often than going out for overpriced SF restaurants, etc.- but I don’t feel like I’ve had to particularly deprived myself. I do have the luxury of having gone to school in Europe and paid as a TA/RA in the US, so I have no school debt - certainly a privilege. Just another anecdata point in case it is useful to anyone. Happy to answer any questions - i feel like money talk is still kind of taboo and should be discussed more openly.