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26 years ago this coming December, I did what you basically posted. Ironically, I had 26 years with a corporation that was being over ran by Ivy League grads. They hated anyone with another degree and from another part of the country.

After about 10 months of firing as many front line managers and people without Ivy League degrees, they offered a great separation package after Thanksgiving, and gave us a few weeks to decide.

I had our CPA look it over, and she said, “Take it, run and don’t work for a year due to taxes.”

Some friends in the home office took care of me like getting a new vehicle to replace one with 20k miles. So I bought both at great prices and got a credit union loan to buy the new one.

Between a good bonus, vacation unused and earned for the next year, plus some extra monthly pay until I was 62, I basically made the same pay the first year of retirement as my last year of full employment. We got killed income tax wise.

My family doc told me taking early retirement probably saved my life due to cardio issues just below the surface.

Our sons’ and daughters’ and our siblings son’s and daughters basically now,have every kid finishing college with good degrees and jobs.

One of our grand kids has 2 more years of school and has worked summers, term breaks and holidays with a great engineering company. He is the last one sucking up cash at college. If his parents move to another state, he can declare us as his home to avoid out of state tuition.

I sent his parents, (son & DIL) and my wife’s siblings with kids as recent college grads and jobs your post.

Then, I suggested this might be a great time to pull the plug as you suggest and to move to Florida or ??.

Then, become IC’s and work from home for whom they want to work with and when they want to work.

Last year one of our adult son’s ended up with a terrible direct boss. He got a different job without that boss in the same company. His wife is looking at doing something different with the rest of her life. Later this year, that son can take early retirement and maintain the excellent health insurance coverage.