Originally Posted by Unregistered

What you described appear to be symptoms of burning out. I felt it twice in my 30 yrs of working life. First time was at 40. There was just too much work, too many meetings and I started to fall behind in my work commitments. I became forgetful, irritable, cannot sleep well at night and wasnt nice to be with. When I find myself quarrelling with my wife and scolding my children more, I thought enough is enough. I also kena high blood pressure. I was prepared to call it quits when luckily a vacancy became available within the company. I jumped at it.

For 2 weeks or so, it was good. Stress was off. But it soon came back because it was still the same company, same bosses and some more they expected me to hit the ground running. Very soon, the workload piled up and I had to travel more - sometimes up to 4 trips in a quarter to Europe. I stuck at it for 4 years until I felt the same level of stress again. Then at 44, I really considered quitting. Blood pressure dosage also increased. Seeing that there was nothing to lose, I asked for a transfer back to my old position and was surprised and grateful that they granted it. I have been at it till now, 11 yrs later.

Financially I am glad I held on. Health wise I am not sure. I try to keep healthy by eating healthy meals and exercising regularly. Financially, in the 11 yrs that I stuck it out, on the average, we could save 2 yrs expenses for every year we worked. Now at 55, we are financially more prepared for retirement. Maybe because we are more financially secure, coupled with the fact that the children are grown up, and we are not concerned about career progression anymore, the stress level seemed manageable. Looking back, our net worth grew the most in the last 11 years. The two near burnt out stages really woke us up to urgently save up and invest while cutting down unnecessary expenses. The returns from our investment also speeded up our savings

Age Net Worth
40 1.8
44 2.3
55 4.5