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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have a relatively high earning job (am on a reduced hour schedule and make approx. $450K) that I'd like to potentially scale back from in 2-4 years to pivot to something with far less income potential (closer to $100K).  Husband makes around $140K, stable, not likely to dramatically change.  [b]We save quite a bit now[/b], but would need to dip into savings to cover our expenses if I took the job with less income.  In particular, the major expense we have now is our house -- we bought much larger than we needed to accommodate my dad, who died 9 months ago. We'd be happy to downsize, but would want to move back into DC (in NoVA now) and given our very low interest rate (2.75%!), would need the house to be substantially cheaper so as to meaningfully reduce the mortgage payment.

So the question: insane to stay in our too-expensive house and use our savings to fund our lifestyle?  We have about $1 million in retirement, $2 million in savings (basically all in index funds in brokerage accounts), $300K in 529s for our two young kids, and $500K home equity.  [/quote]

Do you really?  With 180k in baseline housing costs?  Somehow I doubt it.[/quote]

I guess it's all relative? I'm in late 30s, seems like $3.3ish isn't terrible, but I'm sure we could have done more.  We're not huge spenders, with the large exception of the house, and that decision had a lot to do with circumstances and isn't what I would consider  our typical approach. [/quote]

It doesn't have to be your typical approach, because it's not a one-off.  It's not like you went nuts and bough DH an expensive car one time.  Your housing costs are more than 50% of your take home.  I don't think it's possible for you to be saving quite a bit with that information.

What you do have is a nice nest egg at a youngish age, likely from savings before you bought this massive house.  Those savings could set you up to retire well and have a safety buffer in the meanwhile even if you take a paycut, so long as you leave it alone and let it compound.  But instead you're thinking about cannibalizing that achievement to further retrench in support this "one atypical decision based on circumstances."[/quote]

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