Thanks. It's a job I've enjoyed a lot. It involves lots of travel and I set my own agenda and in principle I cannot get fired.
The problem is that certain expectations are required which I'm finding more and more trouble meeting and I would feel bad not meeting them. To be clear no else has to pick up my slack.
I may have been in a similar situation back in 2012, when I first joined this forum (almost exactly 9 years ago, wow!) and started a "should I retire now?" thread. My Megacorp had put on the table an early-retirement offer that I was eligible for. I was 54 at the time. Most of the folks here said I could retire from the numbers. That was also in agreement with the Megacorp-provided financial planner. But... beyond the numbers, I still liked my job. Like yours, it required a lot of travel, but I had a good team, good management, skills that, in Megacorp's view, would be difficult to find in a single person, a lot of control, and "ridiculously" good (in my mind) compensation. But, I did not assume any of that would last. in my job, I would evaluate every 6 months my contribution, how I was perceived by others, and my "odds" of getting fired. For retirement, I continued to save and plan in case Megacorp did fire me (as they were doing regular rounds a couple of times a year). I also watched my health to ensure the job was not impacting it.
I retired six years later, in 2018. The job had changed enough so that, while the technical side was still fun, my team was smaller (down to 2 still expected to do the work of many more), the administrative side was getting sillier. There also seemed to be more project calls where there would be a "cast of thousands" to say they participated, but only a few of us actually doing the work. This actually was more boring than stressful to me
. Over that time my pension payment increased by about 38 percent (to where it would cover our basic regular expenses), and our savings and investments almost doubled (positioning us into what many would deem "Fat FIRE"). At that point, it felt right to retire.
Two major-non work impacts were also a factor: in 2012 we still had one more child to go through college (payments ended in 2018), and my mother was still alive (in my culture you sacrifice to take care of your parents if needed - she died in 2014).
For, me and my circumstances, the additional years were worth it. I'm actually healthier now than I was in 2012. But these are my circumstances and not yours. Just sharing them to show you my thought process. Good luck in whatever you decide!
