Save your money, one illness can just wipe out everything you have.
I wouldn’t advise doing anything in this economy. Taking six months off of work, can result in your job being eliminated in those six months. If you quit you’re gonna have a hole in your resume which is bad in this economy, and it’s a whole different world, trying to find a job after you’re 40.
I didn’t believe it until it happened to me. I couldn’t believe how many people don’t want you once you hit 40.
I would keep this in mind. But if you do decide to do your own thing, get your own health insurance. If you don’t have pre-existing conditions, a high deductible plan isn’t all that bad. Plus if you get an HSA-eligible plan, you can use that to lower your tax burden, too. For example, I’m 35, I have a Blue Cross HSA plan with a $3500 deductible, 0% coinsurance, and it’s $175/month.
Burn it all to the ground. THE GROUND!
I was pretty much in your situation. I worked for another 10 - 15 years and socked away some every month. Retired with my wife before my 60’s, and we live more extravagantly now than we ever did, not that we lived poorly before retirement.
Almost all of my friends spent their money freely after paying off mortgages and kid’s educational costs, and they aren’t able to live very well in retirement.
Hmmm…dessert before or after the entree?
No love for this idea at all, eh? Well, it was worth a shot.
What they said; they described my own savings plan, actually.
This.
But ensure the housekeeper is very hot and open minded. And likes wearing French maids outfits.
And get a good supplier of blow.
Take a couple of payments worth and buy something really cool or go on a really cool vacation to celebrate the fact that you don’t have a mortgage to pay anymore. Then throw the money into savings accounts or investments like the rest have said.
Thank you all for your thoughts. Here’s the plan as of now:
I’m leaving my job in about a month. It’s fairly low paying anyway. I will go on vacation for a month or so this winter, driving across the country. I’ve never done that, and fear I never will if I don’t soon.
After that… I don’t know. I have enough savings to live for several years on an austerity budget. Hope it doesn’t come to that, so I’ll be trying to find a low-stress job near home. Even if it pays less than my current job, it will be nice to not be commuting all over creation.
When I mentioned to a friend that I could find myself flipping burgers, his response was that such a job would be “beneath me”. I disagree, although I take his point that I might not enjoy it very long.
The basis of my decision is this: I will not play it safe, or even take a more apparently prudent course out of fear. Not having a family, I feel it’s not that unreasonable a risk to take it a bit easier and try to change my situation. I’d rather it wasn’t in the midst of a recession, but I don’t think we’re headed for the Grapes of Wrath. I’m betting I’ll be OK.
This.
The economy as we used to know it has changed forever. If you don’t plan/save for your retirement in a big way, you will lose. You are free to throw this in my face in 15 years time if I’m wrong. But I won’t be.
Paid off your mortgage, now what?
Start paying mine! 
Seriously, though. This reminds me of a story (author unknown):
An American tourist was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked.
Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The tourist complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, “Only a little while.”
The tourist then asked, “Why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?”
The Mexican said, “With this I have more than enough to support my family’s needs.”
The tourist then asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”
The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life.”
The tourist scoffed, " I can help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat: With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You could leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually New York where you could run your ever-expanding enterprise."
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”
The tourist replied, “15 to 20 years.”
“But what then?” asked the Mexican.
The tourist laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.”
“Millions?..Then what?”
The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”
That sounds kind of similar to a constant question from our selling our old house and buying a different one last year - did you buy a bigger one? No, we did not - there are two adults and two cats in the house - how much room do you think we need? We have rooms we barely use now, with a modest 1000 square foot house. It’s funny how the default assumption is that we’ll keep trading up to bigger and bigger, when we don’t need it.