I don't hate my day job. For a job, it's pretty good. I work with a great bunch of people and my boss truly cares about hiring and keeping only quality employees. I was thinking of leaving once during a particularly frustrating time and when he got wind of the that, he pulled me into his office to ask me about it and made sure that everything got resolved because he did NOT want me to leave. However, there is something else I'd rather do with my life. My other job is my own small side business- teaching piano. That is what I want to do with the rest of my life. I feel like I'd be settling for less if I just worked my office job until I was old and tired. Retirement for me means teaching piano as my sole occupation. I want to teach until I am a crazy little old lady... until I drop dead. So I guess the reason I want to retire early is not to quit a miserable job, it's so that I can continue to work my dream job until I kick the bucket. Not working was never part of the plan.