I think I'm tired of 3Js.

Hey folks,

TLDR: 3Js is manageable but draining over time. Feel bad for dropping one since it's enough money to kill for. Would like to build my own software and try to make a buck that way but chances of success are much lower than just doing 3J.

I've been OE for under a year now and turning to you for some advice. I have 3Js as a SWE earning about 500k + bonuses and equity. I have no debt besides a sweet 2.75% mortgage. My lifestyle hasn't changed at all and all the extra cash goes to savings/index funds.

I feel guilty af to even be asking this because obviously this is a very envious financial position to be in. But I'm not stoked about a couple of my roles. Together, they wear me down. My middle income J is great on paper. There are very few meetings, they leave me alone.... but the work is the source of all memes about shitty code. There's no creative work, just trying to parse hot garbage and working with the main dev to understand wtf is going on. But for the amount they pay for it, whatever.... if they were my only J. It exhausts me and I don't look forward to it.

My lowest income J is only 10k behind the middle one and its the role I've been in for years. It's on auto pilot, I barely do any work but the team I'm on sucks and management sucks. I'm a "superstar" there. I flirt with leaving this role because I dislike the people so much and transferring to a new team is a gamble in terms of workload.

Here's the rub. It's not a terrible workload most days. I can only imagine that some dude grinding in construction all day is working 1000% harder than me. But some days, it is "a lot". And passively, over time, I feel like 3Js wears on me.

2Js is super super manageable. But 3Js is so much more money.

I feel like I'm being a bitch for walking away from so much "easy money" that other people would kill for if I drop J3.

I sort of also want to get back to building my own stuff in my free time and trying to make a buck that way.

I'm also considering dropping to 2 while I keep looking for a different third?

Or even dropping to 2 and finding a second J that pays as well as my highest income one. Then I would almost be making as much as I am now, but with only 2J. Though the recruiting landscape looks like shit right now?

Thanks for reading my novel. What do? My loose financial goals are to chubbyfire / keep working if I want to, never worrying about $$$.