5 year-follow up
Merry Christmas, everyone! I thought I'd provide a 5 year update for all of you, but mostly for myself, as I have found myself returning to this thread many times over the past 5 years to just see how things have gone, and how much farther I have to go.
I took the advice of most responders, and decided to continue plugging away at the same job. Still married to DW, still no kids, still living in the same house. So that's all the same. I've become somewhat accustomed to the daily grind of employed life, even making some effort to take on new projects and responsibilities at work, and I have no doubt that I could do this for the long haul if required, and I would even derive some satisfaction from retiring at a more typical age from a more typical career with a standard list of accomplishments. No doubt, if we had kids, that's exactly what I would be doing.
But in my heart of hearts, if I did that, even with kids, I know I will have felt some regret for having squandered an opportunity to live life to the fullest, to have no regrets about not having spent enough time with those I love, and to have not travelled to places I have always wanted to go, to not have seen more sunsets or sunrises, and to have not taken the time to really just appreciate life. The last year has only strengthened my conviction to retire early, as I have learned how precious our time is on this earth, and that money is only a means to an ends, and should not be the ends in itself.
So here is where I am financially:
Retirement funds: 1.5m (from 450k in 2015)
Non-retirement funds: 5.8m (from 1.2m in 2015)
House: 500k (from 450k in 2015)
Total NW: 7.8m (from 2.1m in 2015)
Non-retirement funds have grown significantly due to some wise (/lucky) investments in mostly tech stocks. In retirement, for the first several years at least, we would likely move closer to family, where the COL is significantly higher, so I expect an equivalent home in the suburbs would be in the 1.0m range, though we could conceivably spend in the 3-4m range in order to actually be in the city. This is perhaps the only reason I can think of to continue working for a couple more years.
All FireCalc calculations I have done with various conditions are 100%. ACA seems to be on a more solid footing than in 2015. So all signs seem Go for ER in 2021!