My exit was planned. I told my boss in 2009 that I would need to leave and go back home to the US at the end of 2012. My daughter was graduating HS in 2009 and would graduate college in the spring of 2013, and would likely be married by about the same time. We did not want to be working overseas when grandbabies came along. Further, I knew what my income would be, and I knew my basic expenses (in Japan) so I knew pretty much how my savings would grow, from the input side, but not from the capital appreciation side. So I had a rough idea of where I'd be at the end of 2012. I knew it would be enough. My income including base, cost of living allowance for living in Japan, bonus, and stock plan was well into the seven figures, with well over half taken in Japan, US and California taxes. Basically we lived on the cost of living allowance, while all our friends were using their COLAs and their salaries in very extravagant living as expats.
At the end, however, when the sense of inevitability became overwhelming, I'll admit to trying to grab at every branch and weed as I went over the cliff. I knew I had enough. That wasn't the problem. Everything I knew, everything that I was, my entire social network, my professional identity, my friendships, all of it, circling the drain. My replacement wasn't ready, and was in fact a failure. I begged for another year to set that failure right...I didnt want to leave my legacy without a strong leader. At the end of the day, the answer was "no". A new person from overseas was hired...someone who knew nothing of the market, but who was familiar with a new global strategy the company was trying to implement.
So, I got on the plane and went home, as had been planned. The company kept their promises to me. I kept my promises to them. I watched their results for 3 years, and couldn't take it any more, sold all of my remaining stock, and don't look at them much anymore. The results have been awful. While I was on my non-compete period, I was approached by a couple of firms that wanted me to go back to Japan to replicate my successes there, and to do the one thing I wanted to do but never had the chance to do. But it was during my non-compete period. I asked them if they'd wait out my non-compete I'd do it, otherwise my integrity would not allow me to participate. So I missed that chance because of 6 weeks left on my non-compete. That is the only job I would have taken, because of the chance to do something I'd wanted to do.
All in all though, I'm glad I'm out. Once I was actually out, that circling the drain feeling went away, and I mostly found other things to do to keep my mind occupied. We still have plenty financially. I do get bored from time to time. But it never lasts long. I do want to go back to work from time to time for the sense of accomplishment, but when I think of the rigidity, the always-on lifestyle I had, I shudder at the thought. Now, for the most part, its just me, DW, and the dogs. We see DD and DSIL about every 2-3 weeks, which will dissipate now that she is going to have a baby in a few weeks, because they live too far to visit that often, and they are likely to move further away in the next 6 months.
