81–89 of 89 posts
Not sure if this is a popular sentiment, but the Bay Area is expensive. I would probably move to a cheaper area for a while if I wanted to work on cool stuff on my own for a while without taking a nice salary.
If you are smart you can live in Bay area with under than $800 per month everything included (rent+food+bills+gas+insurance). That's what I am doing right now and working on my start-up at the same time.
After a decade at the same employer, I was completely burned out -- I had worked 60+ hour weeks for many years, with nothing resembling a "real" vacation since ~2004. I didn't enjoy the bulk of the work. I wasn't learning anything applicable outside of my employer's niche. I was being given projects that I was completely unqualified to work on (but I was the least unqualified person, so they fell to me). After one pa…
You bring years of experience at whatever you decide to put your mind to. Show it.
I think it might help to change the way you look at this. It is not only a problem but also a big chance to find something that fuldills you again. I went to the same situation but with lot less savings. It was damn hard and still isn't all sunshine, but i do not regret leaving my boring well paying job at MS for a second. Problems will occur but they are also solved on the way.
Read Books on the topic, make a solid plan, and then learn to trust in yourself and let go. Might sound oversimplified but sometimes you have to make a change in order to get what you really want in the end. You're not alone in this. There were thousands that did the move. Best of luck.
Do it, and make sure to use your time off wisely. You have enough savings, you're single. If you're gonna do it, now is the time. I'm in a somewhat similar situation. I've been working in the Bay Area as an ASIC validation engineer in a big semiconductor company for the past few years. I'm 30 years old. I've also gotten quite bored with work, so on the side I've been doing some mobile development (Android then iOS).…
5+ years bankrolled on savings from working full time? Well done. I mean damn, well done. You are not crazy to give it up. I can't speak from experience; I am in my early 30's and gave up a lower rate about six years ago to good result, but that's just anecdotal. It seems to me you have a very strong position: You have serious industry experience and, from your description, very strong financial responsibility. It's…
You summed up my inner dialog perfectly. I used the retirement calculator my brokerage firm has on their website. According to their Monte Carlo simulation, I have about 10 years to financial independence (90% chance that my money doesn't run out before I die), income, savings rate and expenses remaining at the same level. That happens to be around $1 million in savings in today's dollars. It's tempting on the one ha…
You could probably get three to six months off pretty easily. If just asking wouldn't work, you could hint a relative is on their last legs and make a firmer request? A few months would probably clarify the issue in a way we can't for you.
Consider looking for a new job. Partly to judge the market, and the market's take on you, and partly to actually look for something much better. You could negotiate a six-month late start and have a vacation while you decided if the job really was for you.
Maybe you could already afford to retire - in Costa-Rica or Thailand for random example - and could buy and rent property there as a fallback nest egg in case this really was your retirement, but otherwise not costing so much as to hurt your savings assuming you'll want to try to retire here.
And lastly, what's the chance that retirement savings is going to be here when you want to retire? Are you paying attention to where it is enough to avoid the next bubble? Land would still be valuable to live on, rent, while currency-denominated assets could easily hyper-inflate. Some assets can be seized, or lost in war, others - or remotely stored ones - perhaps less.
All that said, do it! Don't make any commitments, just start by taking vacation, ask for leave when that's out, and quit when that's done if you still want to stay away.
I may be echoing others, but I to say to go for it. As for the "gap", this is simple. Start a business. If you're going to be making and selling mobile apps, you'll want a basic corporate entity behind you anyways. Now, instead of being "unemployed guy building apps" you're "Founder of Mobile App Development Consultancy" or something along those lines. Given what you stated about not liking the corporate world, that'…
That's exactly what I'm already working on. I have a domain name secured, an app in the Android app store, and if I do make the jump, I'll change my LinkedIn to "Founder, LLC" or something like that. I could use my C# skills to port the app to WP7/8, and I might even buy my first Apple computer and learn Objective C. Exciting prospects!
You sound like you are having the usual symptoms of wanting to do your own thing. Remember that if you don't try you will never find out. This is me speaking from experience. Best of luck!