The “Year of the Career” Rolls On!
From a career standpoint, this year has been pretty amazing for me and Mrs. SSC. I am being trained for a leadership role at my company, I earned 1.5x my bonus target of 25% and I received a little larger sized Restricted Stock Unit (RSU) reward as well. I feel like I rocked it last year! Mrs. SSC also has had a great year making the cut to a finalist for a tenure track geophysicist position at a well respected university. Last week she found out that they want to offer her the position! Woohoo!!! Details are being worked out such as startup funds and all of that sort of thing, but this train just left the station heading out of Texas. All aboard!
But wait… Didn’t I just say that I was being groomed for a leadership role at work? With all of those bonuses and stock being thrown at me what the heck am I going to do? My career is just taking off into that golden realm of “peak earnings” where I get to cash in on building up 10 years of experience and can strategize instead of problem solve. Am I just going to walk away from all of that? Well, here’s how that’s all going to go down.
I’m Retiring!! Erm, wait…
So, whenever I give my last day I could spit out a big headline post about how “I’m retired” but here’s the thing; I’m pretty much just transitioning to a Stay at Home Dad (SAHD) role where I will be the default parent in our house. I’ll be like thousands of other parents that are staying home and taking care of their kids. Hardly what I would call “retired”. While I won’t be working a traditional job, it’s definitely going to be way harder than my current job. You ever notice how many pics of parents are celebrating the kids going back to school at the end of the summer every year? A LOT! It’s hard work being a SAH parent.
A small plus is that both of the kids will be in school full time so I will have a break during the day. That will be filled with running the household and dealing with the day to day stuff like getting them to and from school, laundry, cleaning, groceries, extra-curricular activities, doctors, dentists, and loads of stuff I haven’t even thought about yet.
I’m okay with that and while I currently share some of those responsibilities now, Mrs. SSC is firmly entrenched in the default parent mode.
How am I Going to “Quit?”
I’d love to have an epic story behind it, but I don’t want to burn any bridges. Plus, I really like working here and all (okay almost all) of the people I work with. This truly is a pretty sweet setup for me from a career standpoint. I’m really happy that I’ve been successful here and found a great place to work when I left megacorp. I think that it’s time to move on and try to be successful at something else. Or nothing else. I don’t know how that’s all going to shake out, but I know I’ll have plenty of time to figure it out. Well maybe not plenty of time.
For now, I haven’t decided how I’m going to leave. I’m not important enough to give a long lead time as I’m just a cog in the machine. Also, as I’ve been sitting in meetings and think about bringing this work with me, I shudder a little bit. Maybe a clean break would be better even if I didn’t “monetize my exit.” Not everything is about money. I recently found out that if you have less than 7 years with the company, bonuses, Restricted Stock Units and more are just forfeited with no pro-rating applied. I’ll research it more, but it looks like a simple 2 week notice will be the most likely path I’ll go down. However, I will let them know I’m open to “remote options” if they want to pursue that.
Speaking of Money
Mrs. SSC was all about our Fully Funded Lifestyle Change, and she was the one that initiated our Canyon Lake plan but that was mainly trying to kill 2 birds with one stone. The first is her being able to stay active in teaching. The second is us being able to escape our current Lifestyle to a more family-centric focused Lifestyle. Except for when she was really unhappy working at megacorp, it wasn’t ever about quitting just to “not work.” She has found her dream job in teaching, and it has gotten even sweeter with an awesome tenure track position at a great university. She definitely doesn’t want to stop teaching anytime soon.
I’ll accelerate my timeline by a year, and off we got to Plan F, or Plan G. To be honest, there have been so many before this new one I’ve lost count. Either way this will be amazing for our family from an enhanced Lifestyle perspective.
I will write more on how this will affect our Canyon Lake Plan in upcoming posts, but for now just know this. We’re flexible, life changes, plans change and we just roll with it and make the best choice for our family.
Right now, that means taking this position and making the move to a different state.
Wrap-up
In less than a week we have gone from comfortable living to super focused on getting our house prepped to sell. Let me tell you that is another ‘Yuge drawback of living in a McMansion. There is SO much square footage to prep and clean. First world problems I know, but it will be nice to downsize and have much less space to maintain. So, that’s our news. For me, it’s adios to the oil industry for at least a gap year but most likely longer. For the family, we will be moving out of Houston at some point this summer and figuring out life in a new town. Man, did that change come around quickly. Change is fun and exciting and I can’t wait to see what happens.
What about you? Any thoughts on how I should leave? Have you had a similar change on your planned path this year? Let me know, I’d love to hear about it.
the Budget Epicurean
March 22, 2018Woohoo! I’m so excited by all these notices of people taking mini retirements and gap years. I’m thrilled for the Mrs getting tenure (that’s like a lifetime achievement alone!) And the kiddos will benefit greatly from full time male role model time I’ve no doubt. Congrats to you on the next chapter of your adventure.
Mr. SSC
March 23, 2018Thanks! It has been crazy out there this year with all of the mini-retirement and gap year notices. 🙂
We thought it would be a long shot when she applied last fall, but you never know if you don’t try. It shook things up around here for sure. Her Phd advisor was super excited because like you said, getting a position like that is no easy feat.
Mrs. Picky Pincher
March 22, 2018Wowza, lots of good stuff coming for you guys! I’m sure it’ll be a lot of work, but it’s still exciting. 🙂 I’m hoping that we won’t have any kind of excitement like that, but you never know. Mr. Picky Pincher’s industry is hoppin’ in Corpus Christi, so I could see us making a move there eventually (I hope not though! I’m the only person on Earth who hates the ocean).
Mr. SSC
March 23, 2018Corpus could be fun, unless you don’t like the beach and then it’s just a more humid version of where you are, lol.
I can’t wait to see how things change by the time fall rolls around. So many changes. 🙂
Mr. PIE
March 22, 2018Awesome news! Very happy for the whole SSC family. This is going to be a blast.
On the work notice front, consider giving them a little more lead time. It might pay dividends in smoothing a transition to either a new person or to your remote working possibility. If you are around a little longer, more time to have those crucial conversations to see if anything can be worked out. Fingers crossed!
Anyway, look forward to sharing our respective experiences with decluttering, home staging, and putting home on the market. Its a wild ride and I am on first name terms with the local thrift store. Mrs. PIE is driving eBay sales and working on an auction sale for excess furniture items. Yep, its crazy times!
Have you talked to the kids yet about the change?
Welcome to the Change of Life club and careering ever so fast to the next stage…..
Mr. SSC
March 23, 2018Thanks, I’m excited about the change! As far as work… I will probably give them a 3 week notice instead of 2. I really don’t feel like taking this job with me, unless something super great gets worked out on my end. That would be along the lines of “remote work ~20 hrs per week, with benefits and it could extend thru to february and I get abonus and RSU distribution still”. Then, sure, it would make sense but that’s so unlikely to happen. I’m reading Sam’s book about engineering your layoff but my companies policies are pretty restrictive for people in my spot with only 4 years with the company.
As of yesterday, we are ~95% decluttered and are looking to put the house on the market early to mid-April. According to a few realtors “good houses” are going like hotcakes – under a week – if they are in good condition. We plan to make sure ours fits that description even if I have to repaint every piece of baseboard along the floor. We recently repainted upstairs, so that’s fresh and new, same with our master bathroom. Carpet is less than a year old and tile everywhere else. We’ve got a good shot and getting rid of it fairly quickly, so we’ll see. Fingers crossed, for both your house and ours. 🙂
The kids are excited and have already been talking about “when we get to the new place” and my oldest was excited because in 3 years he can take a hunter education course and then we can go hunting. It’s funny because I’ve never hunted here, but plan to get back to it when we gt there. Of course, like most things, I’m more of a casual participant than a hard core one anyway, so we’ll see. 🙂
Good times all around even though it feels like we’re full speed barreling along on a crazy roller coaster at the moment.
Chris @ Keep Thrifty
March 22, 2018Congrats on the exciting change 🙂 I definitely hear you on the “retired” vs stay-at-home-parent thing. I went even more overboard by saying I’m “mini-retired” while I’m in essence a SAHD that’s also trying to be an entrepreneur. In reality, we’re all striving for a life of fulfillment with minimal headaches. I wish we had a better term for when you achieve that 🙂
Congrats!
Chris
March 22, 2018Agree Chris. I would say I’m implementing my “Fully Funded Lifestyle Change”, but that takes way too long and the blogger who came up with it couldn’t think of anything shorter or more catchy, so guess we’re stuck with retired. 😉
Congrats to you guys. In the same boat in finding that while exciting, these big changes can be stressful. Particularly with buying and selling homes and uprooting kids. Should give plenty of things for us to discuss!
Cheers!
Chris
Mr. SSC
March 23, 2018You could always use FFLC, it’s not any longer than FIRE, bwahahaha. 🙂 Kidding, but yeah, it’s all semantics describing the same type of situation. Some terms just rile up the internet way easier than others.
Yeah, there is so much new stress that just came up. Prepping the house for sale means no relaxing at night any more, staying on top of work and it has gotten busy, looking for a house remotely, planning trip(s) up there to actually look at houses, getting the kids school situation figured out… So much new additional stress.
I should have blog fodder for a long time, let me tell you. Should make for some interesting mastermind discussions too. 🙂
Mr. SSC
March 23, 2018Thanks! Yeah I mean we’re 91% of the way to our “never have to work again number” but then we’ll also jsut be living off of Mrs. SSC’s salary, so then does that really count as retired or just SAHD? who knows, whatever, I’ve got freedom to do what I want whatever you call it. 🙂
We should work on a term for that, there has to be something catchy we can come up with. 🙂
Jillian
March 22, 2018Glad to hear there are so many good things cooking! And it’ll be interesting to see if you can snag a remote, part time or occasional work agreement. I’m at the point (after a year of defrag) where I like 1-2 hours of “doing stuff.” Its a nice breaking from parenting, cleaning and errands.
Mr. SSC
March 23, 2018Thanks! As far as work, I think Id rather just have a clean break. I have a lot of irons in the fire and even yesterday had one of our friends tell me that he knows a lot of people where we’re moving so let him know if I want work.” I’m not even out of work and already have people offering to put me in touch with other companies and work situations. It DOES happen! hahahaha While I’m not worried about that aspect, I am glad that we won’t need it. So even though there are a lot of irons in the fire, I’m not sure it’s a fire I want to sit by anytime soon to be honest. Hopefully that makes sense, but I’m guessing if anyone could understand that, it would be you.
Plus, I was reading school reviews last night – yes, I just found where those reviews were online – and a lot of the elementary schools have very active PTO’s and parental involvement. I’d like to give that a try this upcoming school year and see what those opportunities lead to. Also, another spouse in the same situation as me has gotten very involved with volunteering so I will see what groups she’s working with and if any of them strike a chord with me, may help there too. I figure Ic an find some group/thing I’m passionate about and look for ways to get involved and volunteer if I need some socialization and sense of purpose.
However it all shakes out, I’m pretty excited about it.
Mrs.Wow
March 22, 2018This just made my morning! So happy for you guys. The countdown begins…
Mr. SSC
March 23, 2018Thanks! The countdown began last week, I’m already late to the party… Yipe!!! So much to do, so much… 🙂
JP
March 22, 2018I have enjoyed following your path to a FFLC. It’s nice to see the reality that your plans have changed over time and you’ve had the flexibility to change the goal based on that. Good luck!
Mr. SSC
March 23, 2018Thanks for following our journey! The plans have changed so much that it’s amazing to me even, and I’m the one working on all the different versions. It ought to be fun seeing how this shakes out for us.
Oldster
March 22, 2018Good luck SSC family. Having spent a good bit of time in Houston over the last several years (I too am in the oil and gas bidness – just in Appalachia), I totally understand your excitement to be somewhere else.
I taught at Arizona State before going to law school and ultimately moving out here, and can say without hesitation that teaching was my favorite thing to do. I’m sure Mrs. SSC will have a great time at it.
Have a blast!
Mr. SSC
March 23, 2018Thanks Oldster! I find change to be exciting. Even though it was moving from CO to LAnd most would see it as a downgrade, after 9 years in CO I was excited for something else. I loved my time in LA and spent SO much time on the water in bayous, lakes, and rivers paddling fishing and enjoying the scenery and wildlife. Now with 5 years in Houston, it has had its’ own pros and cons and has been a great place to have the kids spend their first 5 years or so. We’ve taken advantage of the museums, zoo, parks, Astro’s games, and more that is around in such a big area. Now, I’m excited to move somewhere else (place to be revealed later, probably but you can probably guess really close since you’re familiar with the oil business) and see what it has to offer. They have WMA’s (wildlife management areas) like LA and CO did so I can get back to hunting, tons of water to fish and paddle on, and it is sort of an oil-centric hub in its’ own right. I’ve already gotten offers from a friend of ours to put me in touch with people he knows and works with out there if I’m interested, so I’m not worried about getting work if I for whatever reason decide to go back to work. Yeah, contacts and networking!
Mrs. SSC loves teaching and has really enjoyed her time teaching here in Houston. For her to get a tenure track spot at this university is awesome, and the faculty and research/tenure requirements are not as cumbersome as other universities. It seems like it should be a great fit for our family from a schedule and family time perspective and it lets her continue following her passion. It’s exciting!
Ty Roberts
March 22, 2018Big changes- congratulations to you and the wife. I’d love to be a SAHD! With a bit of luck I’ll get to do that before my youngest moves out. Congrats again!
Mr. SSC
March 23, 2018Thanks! I’m pretty excited about the SAHD transition! I think it will be fun even if it’s going to be harder in some ways than my current job. We’ll see how it shakes out, but it should be exciting just the same. 🙂
Troy @ Bull Markets
March 22, 2018I’m semi-retired and now location independent. I want to try the digital nomad lifestyle, so I’ll probably travel throughout southeast asia next year and trade my own portfolio.
Mr. SSC
March 23, 2018Congrats, that’s awesome! Good luck on your travels and setting yourself up to have the freedom to do that!
Revanche @ A Gai Shan Life
March 22, 2018Congratulations! This is so exciting to watch. I don’t suppose we’ll see you out here in CA anytime soon, though since 3 of the four of you are still on school schedules?
Mr. SSC
March 23, 2018Thanks! Yep, we probably won’t be in CA anytime soon as her school is NOT in that state and her brother just relocated from there to the East coast. That’s not ruling out vacationing there though since we’ll now have summers off and can ALL go travel for extended periods.
Jacq
March 23, 2018Congratulations!! Here’s to a smooth move!
Mr. SSC
March 23, 2018Thanks! I hope the move goes smoothly too. Fingers crossed!
MrWow
March 23, 2018This is so fantastic and I’m so happy for you. It’s all about options, and setting yourself up to take advantage of those opportunities as they present themselves.
Moving isn’t fun, but what a fun new chapter. Super excited for you!
Mr. SSC
March 23, 2018Thanks! I’m excited about the next chapter however it works out. It’s great being in a position to take advantage of these opportunities when they present themselves.
Maggie @ Northern Expenditure
March 23, 2018I’m so glad you are still blogging. I’m pretty sure we’re blog kindred spirits – our blogs are all: “Remember how I told you exactly my last ten plans and now we’re doing plan 11 no one had any idea about?! That’s right. We have KIDS in the equation – which means no variable is constant!” Congrats on all the new moves! I love it all! (Does that date align with the kids getting out of school for the summer?)
Mr. SSC
March 23, 2018Hahahaha, exactly. Ours is still on the same thread, but instead of moving to Canyon Lake and Mrs. SSC commute and be gone 3 nights a week, we’re just moving with her to a lot smaller town and she can have a 10-15 min drive each way and I can move up my “leave work date.” We’re about 91% of the way to our “no work needed number” but with her loving teaching so much and wanting to continue that, it works out golden for all involved.
Even though it is plan eleven-teen that wasn’t mentioned to anyone except Mrs. BITA at FinCon last year. Even that conversation went like this, “There’s an outside chance all of our planning will be for nothing if Mrs. SSC gets this job she applied for. She doesn’t think she has a shot, but you never know.”
Guess who got the longshot job and now our plans are changing again? Mrs. SSC, lol.
But yeah, there is no more building a house, moving to Canyon Lake, living an hr from her parents, or any of that. I think this is a much better family-centric opportunity than the Canyon Lake plan to be honest, mainly because she won’t be gone 3 days a week. Even if that only happens 26 weeks a year, that’s still half the year not seeing the kids 3 nights a week. That’s a LOT.
If that means me leaving my job and accelerating that side of it, then I’m on board. Whatevs, I came, I saw, and I kicked ass in my 4 years here, so I’m good. 🙂 Time for the next chapter!
I’m excited to read about how yours unfolds as well. It’s definitely more exotic than ours, so keep those posts coming!
Mrs. COD
March 23, 2018What exciting news! Big congratulations to Mrs. SSC! This is fantastic news for you all. I love all your changes to the FFLC plan and how you just keep on rolling with it. We, too, keep on coming up with new adjustments to our immediate plans and who knows what we’ll do. Currently, I’m working on heading back to work in the fall if possible. I do sort of miss it, so maybe it won’t be too bad. You’ll be a great stay-at-home dad. I can definitely imagine some benefits to the kiddos being school-age when you “retire”!
I’m with you on the larger house being so much more of a pain to clean (and prep for moving). I need to just tell all the family that we’re becoming minimalists and see if that’ll stop them from bringing us junk!
Mr. SSC
March 26, 2018Thanks, we’re really excited about it!
You guys have your own versions of plan changes rolling around. It’s been interesting reading. 🙂
I’d be WAY more nervous if I was going to be a SAHD with a full time kid to parent. Not that I couldn’t do it, but omg, I’d be nervous. I know my patience would get tested, a LOT.
We’re definitely trying to keep the house smaller than our current one – which isn’t too hard, so far. And keeping the grandparents and relatives from adding more stuff is a never ending battle. Even this past weekend, knowing we’re decluttering, and prepping the house, more stuff made it into the house and yard and wherever from the in-laws. Sigh… They mean well. 🙂
Angela @ Tread Lightly Retire Early
March 23, 2018I love that you acknowledge that as long as there are kids at home, you’re not retired. Also why I’ve not had any interest in retirement as of yet. I love my kiddo to pieces, but I also love my adult time at work.
Mr. SSC
March 26, 2018Yep, I don’t see it being the “abundance of free time” that it gets sold as by many FIRE bloggers as long as I’m going to be default parent.
I hear you about work, especially after a long weekend or vacation. Nothing beats a Monday morning, coffee, quiet, just me relaxing in the office sort of “being able to just breathe” time. 🙂 Maybe I should be more worried about being a SAHD…
Mrs. BITA
April 3, 2018Congratulations to Mrs. SSC on her new position and to you on your kick ass performance at work. I hope your move goes as smoothly as such things possibly can. I can hardly believe that in the final stretch of the FIRE marathon you pulled ahead of me! You are a sneaky one, Mr. SSC.
Mr. SSC
April 4, 2018Well, we’re not ahead in the FI part of things, since it will be delayed a bit longer now, but yes, I will be leaving work before you now. 🙂 However, this is a pretty great development for everyone, in that it allows us to move up the timetable a couple of years and still afford a comfortable life with an even better schedule than we currently have. You will still be plenty ahead in terms of the FI side though, since we won’t be saving a lot and will just be watching the nest egg grow. Hopefully grow and not crater, but even if that happens, we’re still pretty golden for our later years. 🙂
Abigail @ipickuppennies
April 4, 2018Congratulations! I think it’s great that you’re prioritizing her career. Sadly, it’s not something a lot of guys would do (but might expect the wife to do for them).
I hope your last year rolls on in a peaceful — but profitable — fashion.
Troy @ Bull Markets
April 5, 2018I’m having a pretty big career change as well. I’m going from being a trader to being a trader and an entrepreneur. It’s more interesting and also more challenging.