Turning down high paying job. Am I crazy?

[BuckeyeRed27]

Generally good advice, but I would like to add a couple notes.

For retirement contirbutions, there are income limits to a Roth IRA. If you make over a certain amount you may not be eligible to contribute. You can also contribute more to a 401k (currently $16,500) than you can to any IRA (currently $5,500).

Your situation sounds awesome, in that you have all guanenteed income sources to secure your retirement. That gives you a lot of flexibility for your investments. I know you really love dividends, but I would still say in general that if you are growing your portfolio you want to be a little more diversified than just buying dividend paying stocks. If you are taking income from your portfolio, while dividends should be a part of that, they are still stocks are are prone to shocks and it is a good idea to look at fixed income sources (bonds) as well to lower the risk and possibly increase yield and guarentees to your monthly income.

[RedEye]

I don't think you could ever be crazy turning down mere $ for comfort and happiness.

[oneupper]

Generally good advice, but I would like to add a couple notes.

For retirement contirbutions, there are income limits to a Roth IRA. If you make over a certain amount you may not be eligible to contribute. You can also contribute more to a 401k (currently $16,500) than you can to any IRA (currently $5,500).

Your situation sounds awesome, in that you have all guanenteed income sources to secure your retirement. That gives you a lot of flexibility for your investments. I know you really love dividends, but I would still say in general that if you are growing your portfolio you want to be a little more diversified than just buying dividend paying stocks. If you are taking income from your portfolio, while dividends should be a part of that, they are still stocks are are prone to shocks and it is a good idea to look at fixed income sources (bonds) as well to lower the risk and possibly increase yield and guarentees to your monthly income.

I'll add a couple of things to this, being a Junk-bond Junkie.

I applied a strategy with my late parents of junk bonds plus leverage that served them very well. After they sold their condo, they had practically no other assets or retirement accounts. But they also had no income outside of Social Security. And those checks weren't large either.
So I bought them a diversified portfolio of "better" junk bonds (B+ or above, mostly BBs) and leveraged the portfolio at a broker with low margin rates (1.5% or less).
Because of their low bracket and high medical expenses, they paid no taxes and the money managed to outlive them. (Dad passed away at 95 last year).

I also apply this strategy with some of my income-seeking foreign clients, since their tax situations are different (no taxation of foreign assets -US is foreign for them-). US clients are trickier, since dividends get a more favorable tax treatment than interest for US persons AND retirement accounts, which would be great for such a strategy because of their tax-deferred characteristics, don't allow for leverage.