Helene, you sound like you have good plans, but it must be hard to be just waiting those "2 more years" to get there. I get it when you say you are sick of the commute, though. I've structured my life to be totally unstressful in that regard; I work 2 miles from my house! Except for my first therapy job, where I drove to client's homes for 2.5 years, I haven't driven more than 6 miles to work since 1999. The job that DH just took involves some traffic, but it's not that far, about 18 miles. He is hoping after he settles in, he will work flexible hours. In his last job he went in early (6 AM) and left by 4 when I was teaching, and he continued to do that even after I switched to a different schedule.
I'm still working because it's a no-stress situation. If I had changed careers even 5 years earlier, I would have started my own practice. Clearly, it would have been way more financially lucrative. But, I didn't want the work of running a business, or the stress of it all. I know i am lucky, because DH's salary allowed me to have this choice. Indeed, he stuck it out there longer than he should have because of the money. But, it paid off. He was able to take a job he really wanted, without regard to the salary, just like I did, because of the fact we are just about at the retirement savings we targeted, we sold our house and moved to a smaller place, and we essentially have no costs, except utilities, clothing, food, and having fun!