Would it be really stupid for me to quit my job? I’m 55, husband is 53. We don’t have kids. I spent the first part of my working career as a musician, so barely survived financially, forget saving money – though I did emerge from that without debt. In my mid-30s, I started working office jobs and worked my way up to the place I’m in now, where I earn $62,000 a year. I got married in my early 40s; husband has always earned about double what I have. For most of the years we’ve been married, we have saved the maximum in 401Ks, and then opened some Roth IRAs and have been putting the max into those as well for a while. We obviously live well within our means. We don’t carry any debt except for the mortgage. We own an investment property (long story, but it was kind of a stupid purchase, and we’re planning to sell it this year).
The problem is that I don’t like my job. The people are nice, workplace is good, pay is okay, but the work is extremely boring and unfulfilling, and there are long stretches of misery. I want to develop work that will be more satisfying. We’ve looked at the numbers, and we could manage on husband’s income, but I would be forfeiting a chunk of retirement savings along with our really comfortable safety margin. Also, as my husband says, we’d be reduced to one point of failure. OTOH, I wasn’t planning on working at this job past age 60 unless I had to. Our pooled retirement savings are currently a bit north of $1 million. We have more than 50% equity in our house, and we own the investment property free and clear.
For the past year I have been working toward getting out of this job. I have some freelance things lined up, but of course those aren’t steady and will not pay as much. I could possibly suck it up and stay in the job for a few more years, but something else would have to give. And the next few years are, I think, crucial if I want to have any chance at all of setting up an alternative work life, especially in music. If I wait, I will be too old and may not have the health and energy levels I need to do this stuff. The music I would do anyway, whether it paid or not, but it’s getting beyond frustrating trying to do this in my spare time. Everything is suffering.
So what do you all think? I appreciate any opinions.
switch2richnow 