Anyone broken free from professional life? Warning: rant

Ha! I'd say both sides of the fence are hard in their own way. Everyone would love to do whatever they want with their time with no financial worries, but that's never going to happen. Being stupidly simplistic it's a regular pay check and potentially less fulfilling job vs financial insecurity and potentially more fun.

I'm 32 now. Started out as a sheep farmer straight out of agricultural Uni. Did a bit of estate management and conservation too. Got a bit tired of being so isolated with all my friends in the cities. Moved to London to work as a derivatives solicitor in the Magic Circle. Couldn't be more different from my previous life. Hours are equally punishing, money better, quality of life much worse. The move was very much worth it though as I met my wife in London.

Leaving work at the end of the month. Totally selling up to go travelling with our baby and dog. Just need more family time to be happy. Will be working part time to keep things ticking over until we figure out where we'd like to settle. We've just found it impossible to find the time to figure that out with the day to day chaos of London. Some kind of smallholding supplemented by other work would be the dream, but we'll see how realistic that is!

Bonne chance everyone, I'd say crack on with your change sooner rather than later. I can obviously not speak for anyone else's situation, but I've never regretted trying something new even if it didn't pan out. My priorities have definitely changed with each little phase of my life, so I don't think you can be super rigid about goals and ambitions, as a few years down the line you might realise that you need to devote more time to something else.