setab, I pretty much liked my job. I worked for someone else, then started a small firm in the same field. But when you see the possibility of FI coming around the corner, your perspective changes. My partners are still at it; though I'm not privy to their finances, I know based on estimates of what people are able to live on here, that their continuing to work is not solely about keeping their heads above water, it's about accumulating toys.
Many people will never reach FI, but for those who have it within their reach and don't take it... ??
Working for yourself has its own set of rewards, but you do trade in one boss for twenty. It's a matter of the whole mindset.. you are trading your time and life energy exactly for what?
Others have mentioned the book "Your Money or Your Life", and while it isn't the be-all and end-all of FI books, I think it is required reading for anyone considering RE. It will really get you thinking about every transaction in your life as a quid pro quo.. a trade-off.. The fact that you are even reading this board probably means that the trade-offs are starting to get out of balance with the direction in which you think your life should be going.
all the time some of you spend managing your assets and portfolios. To me, that seems like "work."
As far as time spent managing portfolios and what-not, I dare to say that it gets easier as time goes on. If you are serious about growing your nest egg, it takes more time and energy to decide/commit how to distribute $10k in savings appropriately than it does $10 million. The people here, as someone else noted, who really delve into the nitty-gritty of it often do so for pleasure -- sure, for the most part because they've got a lot of time and money and brain-power to spare that they would otherwise have been deploying on behalf of someone else rather than themselves. I don't think anyone here devotes 40 hours a week to it, or 20.. or 10..
And even if they did? It's a whole other feeling to be in the driver's seat rather than the passenger's seat.
If you like your job alright, there's nobody telling you you should quit before you're ready. You seem to be focusing on the people who are the already-FIREd-wheeler-dealers and not on the numerous ants who also post here and keep socking it away with an eye towards RE.. Believe me, the working world takes on a whole 'nother aspect when you can look a boss/client/subordinate in the eye while thinking, "
I'm here because I
want to be here;
you are here because you (feel you)
have to be here."
It depends on how much you like your job, how much it defines who you are, how painless it is on any number of levels (commuting, travel, family leave, health, management support or lack thereof). It's not cut-and-dried.
If you can develop the FI mentality, work towards RE AND keep a job you like, you have a win-win situation, no? Then you have the power to call the shots.
