People often describe me as unhappy, yet I'm one of the only people I know whose life would barely change if they won the lottery. In other words, I'd still be doing the exact same work I'm doing now, albeit probably with greater freedoms/less stress than I do now. I guess that means I'm "content" or whatever.
I've spent a lot of time thinking about this; certainly more energy than it deserves since I don't buy lottery tickets.
If I somehow got enough money to where I never have to work again, I think I'd still do software engineering at a company, but I think I would stop focusing on how much I'm being paid, and more importantly, I'd stop being scared all the time.
I've been "laid off" (really fired) twice in the last year (and there's still time for a third!), and it's led to a near-constant state of fear on my end. Every time my manager schedules a meeting, I'm petrified that it's gonna be outlining the details of my severance and COBRA. Every night, I'm psychotically checking my email to make sure that I didn't forget some requirement that's going to piss off an executive. I'm constantly afraid to speak my mind at my job because I'm afraid that if I say something unpopular that it will be the final straw, and I'll be stuck spamming LinkedIn again.
If I had millions upon millions of dollars to my name, I think I'd have less anxiety about everything. If I get fired, who cares? If I get a bad review and don't get a promotion I want, no big deal. The job would be there to supply me with a stream of interesting problems, not an existential requirement.
ETA:
Just to be clear, my managers at my current job are perfectly nice, they've never done anything to make me feel like I should be walking on eggshells, I'm just dealing with some trauma.
To make your problem worse, employers often use the threat of unemployment (which comes with the implied threat of homelessness/untreated illness/etc in this country) as a cudgel to get more out of workers than they are paying for them. I hope you get into a situation that gives you peace of mind soon, because they are for sure out there.
Yeah, at least for the last six or seven years I've been much better about putting cash into savings (and relatively low-risk index funds/ETFs), so it's certainly less scary now than it could have been.
It's just a tough market right now, it can take months to find another job, and feeling like you're unable to hold down a job is a decidedly un-fun feeling.
Maybe all the cryptocurrency that I stupidly decided to buy in 2021 will be returned to me and the value will make a comeback and I'll be able to avoid the paranoia, but I'm not holding my breath.
