It is simple.
Stop worry about LR. It eventually will happen.
When you work at Cisco, save most of your money. Live cheap.
Once LR'd, if you can say last at least 15 years, you will have enough to not have to get another series of high-paying, time consuming, and stressful jobs.
Post-LR, I make a third of what I made at Cisco now three year out (by choice).
Stop letting the money control you.
FIRE is nice if you never get an illness. Without insurance, 1 bad medical instance and you lost it all. Ask someone in a hospital stay for 6-weeks because of Covid without insurance. That's right, the hospital will go after that thing you call early retirement and wipe it out. 6-weeks will run you about $1M for Covid. After negotiating, you would probably get it to $600k...maybe $400k. Watch what happens when a massive chunk of that FIRE money is gone.
There's no FIRE if you don't already own a house on the west coast. The wages at Cisco no longer provide a middle class lifestyle for those renting. Good luck owning a house or retiring on ESPP.
easy to say FIRE – financial independece retire early this is a very big movement now
It's easy to say "stop letting money control you" when you have money. Money is what makes life work. And whoever said "money doesn't bring happiness" was never flat broke or homeless. If you are smart and save...yes, you can eventually ease off the work cycle and focus on more important aspects of life (and hint.....work/Cisco is not one of them).
My Cisco salary goes toward rent. At the moment, I expect to afford a home in the Bay Area in about 150 years. Also my health insurance is tied to employment at Cisco.