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I'm fortunate enough to be paying off my house next year and strongly considering an early retirement. Granted I'm in my 40's, I just yearn to work on something

I'm fortunate enough to be paying off my house next year and strongly considering an early retirement. Granted I'm in my 40's, I just yearn to work on something I can poor my heart and soul into even if it fails. My dream is to write a video game and the only thing prohibiting that is lack of time. I've done an IPO, I've worked for FAANG/MAMAA, I've done keynotes at conferences, I've been an IC, Manager, Director. I feel like I've got everything I've ever wanted out my career and I don't know where else there is to go. At this point I just want to take everything I've learned and apply it to something I own, full time. That's the next dream I guess. It's a scary thought, but working for other people for another 20 years seems just as scary.

marcyb5st 5y ago
I relate so much to this. Currently working at Google and I'd like to work on something that I care about. However, I still am in my early 30s and I don't think I have enough saved to do that yet even considering that GOOG went almost 6x since I was hired.
- robbmcm 5y ago
  This thinking is a profound illusion I fell into. You might be surprised how far that money goes. And you also have the skills for more money to come in easily. You also probably spend way more than you need to survive. Particularly if you don't have a family. You get one life. Take the leap.
  - marcyb5st 5y ago
    Thank you so much for the kind words. I definitely have some thinking to do about it and you're right! Eventually I will have to take leap.
YZF 5y ago
I'm a little bit older than you, similarly positioned financially, somewhat different career path. I actually tried my own thing when I was younger and it didn't work out... And later it's always so hard to leave. The more you got the more you want ;) Job sometimes drives me crazy but sometimes I get great stuff done. Lucky for me I've mostly worked for/with nice/good people. If you think you got a handle on the business side of things I'd say go for it! That's always been the barrier for me, I think I can handle any technical challenge, but that's not good enough for a successful business...
kleiba 5y ago
Funny. I'm in my 40s also but decided on a career in academia (CS) when I was younger instead of the tech industry. What a mistake. I recently lost my job to due to a lack of funding and I'm a pretty difficult hire now: academia is done for me, if you haven't made it to professor by my age, you're obviously worthless. But for an industry job, I'm facing the dilemma that I'm formally highly qualified but have no relevant (industry) experience to show. That is, I'm too mature for a junior position but too inexperienced for anything else. To make things worse, I left the states over a decade ago, and thus have no relevant network there. Not that I have a network outside academia over here, either... I'm so far removed from your situation (being able to pay off your house and thinking about retiring) that it's not even funny. My wife and I were only able to buy a tiny town house last year (< 1000 sq ft, shared walls with two other townhouses left and right), and will hopefully find some job that will allow us to pay off our loan over the next 20 years.

marcyb5st 5y ago

I relate so much to this. Currently working at Google and I'd like to work on something that I care about. However, I still am in my early 30s and I don't think I have enough saved to do that yet even considering that GOOG went almost 6x since I was hired.

robbmcm 5y ago
This thinking is a profound illusion I fell into. You might be surprised how far that money goes. And you also have the skills for more money to come in easily. You also probably spend way more than you need to survive. Particularly if you don't have a family. You get one life. Take the leap.
- marcyb5st 5y ago
  Thank you so much for the kind words. I definitely have some thinking to do about it and you're right! Eventually I will have to take leap.

YZF 5y ago

I'm a little bit older than you, similarly positioned financially, somewhat different career path. I actually tried my own thing when I was younger and it didn't work out... And later it's always so hard to leave. The more you got the more you want ;) Job sometimes drives me crazy but sometimes I get great stuff done. Lucky for me I've mostly worked for/with nice/good people. If you think you got a handle on the business side of things I'd say go for it! That's always been the barrier for me, I think I can handle any technical challenge, but that's not good enough for a successful business...

kleiba 5y ago

Funny. I'm in my 40s also but decided on a career in academia (CS) when I was younger instead of the tech industry. What a mistake. I recently lost my job to due to a lack of funding and I'm a pretty difficult hire now: academia is done for me, if you haven't made it to professor by my age, you're obviously worthless. But for an industry job, I'm facing the dilemma that I'm formally highly qualified but have no relevant (industry) experience to show. That is, I'm too mature for a junior position but too inexperienced for anything else. To make things worse, I left the states over a decade ago, and thus have no relevant network there. Not that I have a network outside academia over here, either... I'm so far removed from your situation (being able to pay off your house and thinking about retiring) that it's not even funny. My wife and I were only able to buy a tiny town house last year (< 1000 sq ft, shared walls with two other townhouses left and right), and will hopefully find some job that will allow us to pay off our loan over the next 20 years.