Oof. Got news today that a coworker in their 40s passed away this weekend. They worked Friday and died Saturday. If that's not a punch in the face to retire early, I don't know what is. I certainly want to have as much retirement as possible, and not die after slaving away for years without being able to enjoy it.

Got pulled aside by my boss for being a bit lazy, which is totally fair (I've been coasting a bit). But by some miracle, he gave me a positive review for the year. I think what that means is that he was considering me for promotion, but didn't feel I was ready.

I'm at the point in my career where promotions are pretty rare (like every 5-8 years instead of 2-5 years), so I'm going to push this year to lock in that promotion and then probably dial it back down a bit. Doing the math, a promotion doesn't meaningfully change my FI date (at most a year), but having that higher title might give me more leverage when I either change jobs or ask to reduce my hours, since I'd be in a more advisory role than a "doing things" role. I still want to work when FI, so I'm hopeful this will be a good move, so I can just drop most of the "doing things" bits and keep the advisory bits (I'll shift the "doing things" to hobbies and whatnot).

Anyway, this year could end up being pivotal for me. I should be getting an extra week of vacation as well due to seniority as well, so we're also thinking of a big international family trip. I usually don't use all my vacation as-is, so I'll probably take some more random vacations and whatnot just to get a taste of FI (e.g. go mountain biking when everyone else is working).