Many things that can make you happy don't need that much money: spending time with friends & family, getting regular exercise by walking around outside, borrowi

Many things that can make you happy don't need that much money: spending time with friends & family, getting regular exercise by walking around outside, borrowing books from the library etc. My big realisation during my late 20s was that I'd grown jaded from working on other people's commercial software projects, and it'd sure be nice to have enough financial independence to quit that career for good at some point so I could spend more of my time doing things with more self direction & creative freedom. Money is useful for paying baseline living expenses, and also useful to use as "fuel" to help get you where you want to go. Where do you want to go? What are your long term goals/hopes/dreams? Is your job helping you progress toward those dreams or goals? If not, worth having a hard think about what you want from life and considering changing a few things. With a relatively well paying software job, relatively low expense ratio & enough luck (no surprises with large financial costs) it's possible to funnel surplus income into investments until investment income covers annual living expenses. Then you can wave the day job goodbye and do whatever or switch to a new career that's more lifestyle focused and less of a grind, or have a solid foundation for taking a lot more risk (let investments pay you a basic income while you start a business that might take a few years to grow before it can generate you a decent wage). https://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement https://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement