When someone hits $1m in net worth, most of that is typically in their 401K and home. That can leave a lot of people feeling and looking pretty average in terms of their day-to-day life.

I think this is where the real dilemma lies. The money is technically there, but not exactly liquid in a way that’s useful for shifting current lifestyle.

Leaning hard on coast fire makes more assumptions than I usually care to make, but I suppose that is a personal risk tolerance issue.

It’s hard to know when to say enough is enough. Setting down the shovel during the best earning years seems like a risky bet, when being wrong means trying to pick that shovel back up at 60 and beyond. At that point, time is no longer on your side for compounding.

I think about leaving the industry and getting a basic low-stress job all the time, but it always seems like something I’d regret in 5-30 years.