[kelnos]

As others have pointed out, try to get a financial advisor who can look at your situation and give you some objective advice.

But also understand that you're probably not going to make the best decisions about this from the perspective of extreme burnout.

First step might be to talk to your boss about your workload and see if there are some changes that can be made to make you happy again. If that doesn't pan out, maybe think about finding a new job. Even if you choose not to, just going through the process of seeing what's out there will give you some valuable perspective.

I don't have much idea as to how difficult it'd be to find another job in your 40s/50s if you take an extended break from work for a while, but my intuition is that it'd be harder than simply switching jobs now. An alternative might be to find a new job now, but negotiate a start date that is a month or two out from your planned last day at your current job. This won't work at some employers, but many will be fine with it.

On the other hand, consider that $2.8M at $80k/yr is 35 years of expenses. Your expenses will almost certainly grow over time, but even if they triple, that's still over 10 years of runway. If you wanted to take a year off, but then had trouble finding a job right away, you'd have no problem (financially) taking 6 months (or 12 or more) finding your next job. Hell, you could train for an entirely new field and work your way up from an entry level position to something mid-range in that time.

[pcglue]

Thanks for your reply. It really encapsulates all the best advice I've gotten from all places.

> But also understand that you're probably not going to make the best decisions about this from the perspective of extreme burnout.

I'm (overly) aware that my burnt out state may not lead to the best decisions. That's why I'm stepping cautiously and not making any rash changes.

> First step might be to talk to your boss about your workload and see if there are some changes that can be made to make you happy again.

I'm currently in talks with management to see what can be done. It's not really the workload, but the type of work I'm doing that's been the problem. But because I'm burnt out and diminished, the normal workload which is not normally a problem is becoming one. But I also fear I'm just too burnt out to remain working here in any capacity.

I'm gearing myself up to find another job, to avoid having to job hunt while unemployed in my 40s, and hopefully be able to take a month or two before starting. Job hunting/interviewing is hard in the best of circumstances; it's doubly so in my current burnt out state.

> [Long runway, can retrain in another field]

Also under consideration. Front-runner is GIS. Always had an interest doing geo-analysis/maps.

[kelnos]

> But I also fear I'm just too burnt out to remain working here in any capacity.

That's a key (unfortunate) insight. Sometimes the only way to fix burnout is to step back and just not do what you were doing for a while, sometimes a long while. Employers usually won't be ok with that, though :(

And yeah, totally get that interviewing while being burned out is really hard too.

Best of luck to you. I really hope you manage to figure things out. The important thing is that you know there's a problem, and you're taking steps to try to fix it. Even if that process is not easy, things will get better.