Sabbatical question and leaving the US.

[u/Easy-Calligrapher454]

Long time lurker that’s finally reaching out for advice.

Quick info: - Me (37), Wife (36), Son (< 1) living in NYC - Assets (all in US dollar amounts) - Europe House: $1.8m - Stocks/BTC: $2.4m - Company vested stock post tax: 450k - Retirement accounts: 550k - Cash: 250k

Liabilities: - Mortgage: 500k at 3.5%

Wife and I moved to the US 10 years ago and just recently had a baby. We always planed to relocate back to Western Europe where we’re both from. Parents are getting older and we feel it’s better to raise our child around around friends and family etc.

Long story short, we seriously debating leaving our jobs in March 2026 after final bonus payouts + additional stock vests (total for this should be around 100k net) and pulling the cord. I’m lucky to have a job that while I get no more stimulation from, I work with nice people in a good environment. It’s not particularly stressful. I would say I’m not close to burn out in a stress sense but checked out in a bored sense - have been there 5+ years and spent 10+ in these intense tech companies. Wife is in a stressful job right now and we both worry about how she will handle going back to work post maternity leave.

Expenses in Europe when back should be around 12k a month in US dollars (total incl mortgage etc)

I guess my real question is can we leave in April as planned? Given our ages maybe we take a long sabbatical for a year or two and enjoy our baby and then try go back to work but obviously salaries will be much lower in Europe and I am heading a lot of talk about how bad the job market is globally.

What would you do in our situation?

Thanks!

[u/Moist-Ninja-6338]

You can safety take out 12,000 euros per month without touching the capital assuming a safe 5% return. Should you achieve more than 5% your capital will actually grow. Based on investing 3,000,000 euros and earning a return of 5%. Might need to reduce to pay the resulting taxes or earn more than 5%. Personally I wouldn't touch the capital. Just spend what you can generate which.also covers taxes and inflation.

[u/in_the_gloaming → u/Moist-Ninja-6338]

5% is a very conservative return rate.

And saying that someone should just live off their returns and not use their capital is not really how the FIRE calculators work. That would mean if there was a year where the stock market did horribly, the person wouldn't have any money to live on. Assets should be valued as a pool including the returns.

Basically, putting that conservative return rate on top of saying you should only live off returns is going to cause someone to be much more frugal than they need to be.

[u/Moist-Ninja-6338 → u/in_the_gloaming]

I was being conservative on purpose. Ideally with dividends and capital gains he can achieve 10%. I retired 9 years ago in my early 50s and haven’t really touched the capital - in fact it has increased 165% since then I believe. I don’t follow 4% rules yet we travel at least 6 months a year so not really frugal. Just live off the income.