Well my wife left $200k a year to spend time with the kids and be in their life more, she works 2 days a week now as they are getting older, I think the time with kids is way more valuable then the money.
I have a good buddy that owns his own company, he has busted his butt and is planning to sell it and retire at 55, kids out of the house and he’s buying a yacht, he missed a lot of time with kids.
I personally would rather work till 65 and have spent the time I do with my kids and being there for them vs retiring early.
Half the time I drop my kids off at school and pick them up, run them to all their various activities and do a few trips a year, I can’t imagine not being there.
When I was young my VP at the time told me how he regretted not being in his kids life when they were young, I decided at that point my kids would always come before a pay check, I made that decision years before having kids and it has worked out well, I have a great work life balance, I make a decent living but less then had I worked 80hr weeks and put work first and I will not be retiring early, lol.