throwAway97557

Moving out of the bay made a big difference for me. I'm now somewhere in the middle of the country. I have twice the house to live in and 200x more land to roam for about half the price. With the extra land, I can also grow a lot of my own food.

The openness to remote work has been huge. I have colleagues in the bay and NYC. We get paid the same but my money goes twice as far.

At the same time, I've always been a frugal person. When at FB, I budgeted like I was making about 1/5 of my actual income since I always saw it as a transitory windfall.

I don't think I've done anything outside the standard box of lowering my expenses and investing anything I've saved.

I left FB a handful of years ago and the RSUs left me in this position (low 7-figs in investments/savings). I still work full time, but I only work on things I care about, which mostly involves non-profits and social work. I like getting a paycheck and knowing that I'm still growing my nest egg, but I care very little about getting promotions and raises since they're a borderline rounding error compared to what I've saved. If the salary can cover my monthly expenses and I like the mission, I'm happy to take the job. That's what I've found financial independence to bring.