[neogodless]

You can spend $80k a year for 35 years and keep your investment in any vehicle that just barely keeps up with inflation. If that nut achieves just 3% annual gain over inflation, you'll still have the same nut in 35 years...

Can you explain the "can't" part of early retirement? The "won't" is of course your decision and no one else's. But why do you say "can't"?

[pcglue]

I fully admit the "can't" is mostly in my head. Need to work up the courage to do so, due to many reasons. Societal (what a bum!), family (what kind of role model would I be for kids?) and just fear of running out of money due to black swan event. I wouldn't say my fear is completely irrational, but it's not all rational either.

[jjav]

80K in California for a family with two kids isn't really that much.

Probably we've all seen the articles on how 100+K income in Silicon Valley falls as "low income": https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44725026

And those pre-teen kids will be college kids later at which point OP will need far more than 80K/yr.