Financial/Career advice wanted

Cliff's:

I'm an operator at a plant but I want to do something different. I'm in my mid 30s and have saved a decent chunk. How much should I save before I leave and take a pay cut (at least temporarily)?





Details:


1. My job. I am, unfortunately, a plant baw. Not kidding. I don't particularly like it, but the money and benefits are decent. We can discuss plant bawness elsewhere, ha.

2. Saved it. Having learned I didn't particularly care for it, I began saving as much as possible over 15 years ago when I started. Maxed out my 401k and paid cash for everything....in hopes that I could retire early. Worked significant overtime as well.

3. Life. I got married and had a whole mess of kids, so retiring entirely, at least early, isn't going to happen like I planned. I still want to transition away from this job to something I enjoy and with a better quality of life.

4. Stats. I am in my mid 30s. Our house will be paid for by EOY, and we have no other debt. Vehicles are new. I would like to upgrade our home in approximately 5 years, with a marginal cost of approximately 200k. I have approximately 500k in retirement savings between Roth IRA and my 401k. I have a pension I'm vested in as well. I believe my "cash out", if I were to leave my job, is somewhere around 100k. I keep 50k cash in my savings at all times. Our kids are in good schools that do not require tuition.

5. The crux. I realize that while I have done well to have saved/invested what I did, it isn't enough to retire (now) on. But what I also think is that I have saved enough to where I don't necessarily need to keep stashing away money the way I have been. If I just leave my current investments alone, without adding much, it should grow at a rate to make me comfortable when I reach legal retirement age. I hope.

6. Options. Assuming #5 is true, and I don't need to continue to save as much, I can afford to take a pretty big pay cut, at least for a while. I would enjoy building furniture, for example, and I can realistically make 50k a year, with unlimited potential (unlike my current salary cap, albeit decent). We can live off 50k a year.

7. When? So when can I quit? I think that in 5 years or less I could have the cash(200k) needed for the home upgrade we want. Sooner if I use some or all of my pension "cash out". I'm not getting any younger though, and 5 years seems like forever right now. I'm content in the house we are in, so if I quit next year we would be comfortable in our modest, but paid for home. My wife is tired of me being a plant baw and wants me to leave yesterday. She doesn't care if we live in a mansion or a double wide on some land. She doesn't work (for now) though, so the provider pressure is all on me. I know every year I work makes it exponentially easier to transition, but at some point I just have to go. I want more of a metric for when, if that makes sense, and hope you all can help me.

8. Thanks for reading.