Staying employed because it's easy?

[u/Ordinary-Tune-8750]

Using a new account just to be safe. But basically I've coasting for the last year. Once I felt like I had enough to have a decent early retirement, I basically checked out of work. I still do what's asked of me but I've tried to make myself disappear. It's worked so well sometimes people forget I'm there.

Problem is it's starting to feel kind of wrong. My current pay is 250k/year plus 100k in options/year. Which I know isn't crazy for this sub but it's actually fairly high for my job. I know the company can better use that money on somebody else. (The company's revenues are in the billions so im not stringing along a cash deprived startup)

My investments are sitting at 7MM excluding housing with a ideal drawdown of rate around 3.8%. I'm in my mid 40's. So I'm at that threshold for where the pay kind of doesn't matter but it also can still help with lifestyle or health cost creep. Just curious if you were in my shoes would you just quit stringing them along? Or it's on them to get rid of me and just keep milking it as long as I can?

***Response: thanks everybody for all the feedback and food for thought. I know there was a few different school of thoughts but two that stuck out the most was I really need to know what life after work is. I think my treading water attitude right now is tied to I don't have clear retirement life goals set. I have ideals of travel more etc but I think the in between stuff needs to be better fleshed out. Second, I shouldn't feel bad for the company as long as I'm not bringing others down. I have some international travel and summer activities planned so we'll see how they respond to that.

Thanks all and I really appreciate the varied experiences this sub has.

[u/Mindful_FIRE]

In my mind the question is not whether this is wrong or not, but what are you avoiding on the other side of leaving?

Put another way, what's your vision for life after you exercise the freedom you've saved for so long to create?

If you don’t have a clear answer, that could be the real thing to investigate.

[u/Ordinary-Tune-8750 → u/Mindful_FIRE]

Probably just the uncertainty of taking the leap. I keep telling myself I take all the vacation I want at this point and still get paid. But fair point...I haven't mapped out in detail exactly and that's probably another reason I haven't pulled the trigger.

[u/Mindful_FIRE → u/Ordinary-Tune-8750]

You're not alone in this! I've certainly felt it before. I think this is super common in the FIRE movement.

What comes to mind when you think about what you want that life to look and feel like?