I'll turn 50 this summer, my initial goal (when I was 48 ) was to gtfo of the consulting engineering biz within 5 years (by 53). That's still possible, but more likely it'll happen at 55. Honestly, if I got laid off next month I wouldn't be crying on the drive home. Severance package plus the buyout for my ownership stake in the firm would set me up pretty well for minimum 10 years, and a lot longer if I invest well. Sadly, the discipline of engineering I do has few experienced people, so if I got shown the door, my replacement would be hard to find. Hell, we spent 4 years just to find a junior eng with the right basic experience.
Plan for now is to keep the spending down, throw pots of cash into solid investments, then walk away for good. Might decide to start up a small biz designing home automation systems, though. That shit is pretty fun.
Kn.
When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity.
When many people suffer from a delusion, it is called religion.