I don't think you'll ever regret having that time with kids! Financial situation is solid to start living your life intentionally. You got this!

Don't forget the tax implications. Search for Colorado Taxaide and there is a mfs/mfj comparsion. It has been expanded to do more that that. Plug in your current income, then the new income. The difference is "free money". Subtract the taxes off the gross to compare what your net income would be. I think you will have 60-70% of your current income, not 50%. The other question you need to ask is if you want to stay married. I felt like a single mom with my husband working 70 hours a week. Take the new job and experience life, man.

Congrats on starting a family and the nest egg you have accumulated. You highlight two options: continue your sprint to FI or pivot to a 40 hour workweek possibly slowing getting to your ‘enough number.’

You put in the hard work and built a sizable portfolio that is now wind in your sails to help carry you to FI. You now have compound interest working for you so you no longer have to do all the heavy lifting. The pay you have been earning in overtime is going to be earned in the market if you stay broadly diversified in low cost funds and just stay the course through market volatility.

Also, you work in the trades. I suspect that if you took the 40-hour per week job you would have ample opportunity to earn extra income in a side hustle where you then have control over if and when you work extra. So I don’t think you are necessarily forfeiting extra pay with the other job - it would just be extra pay on your terms.

Your schedule doesn’t allow much time for reading but maybe you could get the audio version of Morgen Housel’s books on the psychology of money and spending - or listen to his interviews on YouTube. He has a lot of important insights into the mind games that can wreak havoc on our ability to enjoy the fruits of our labor and keep us tied to the treadmill.

Wishing you all the best.

You will never get this time back with your young children. Don’t pass up that gift.

I don't know all of your numbers, but you might play with a free online tool to get an idea of how close you are to FI based on your two scenarios. I guessed at some of your numbers to make this graph on engaging data dot com. Knowing you may be closer than you think could help in making the decision.

If you want a more robust answer on how close or far you are, you could try out a tool like ProjectionLab or Boldin. Both have free trials.

You might also pick up the book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying by Bronnie Ware (or read her own "Cliff's Notes" version here) for some motivating perspective.

The whole thing essentially comes down to whether you place higher value on more time with your family now, or higher value on reaching the FI goal sooner. As children get older, they need (and want) less parental involvement. So, if you keep your foot on the gas 5 more years (for instance), will your kids benefit from more time/attention from you at that point rather than now.

Also, you don't mention if your wife is employed outside the home or whether she is a full-time mom. That is an immensely important factor. If one parent is home full-time, then that is great for the children. If both parents are working, then in my mind that makes it even more important to find opportunities for more parental time/involvement with the kids. Also, you are probably Coast FI, but I'm not sure for what age target (since your spending will almost certainly decline substantially in the coming years). You'd need to project things like your mortgage going away and child-related expenses ending to get an accurate picture if when you could realistically FIRE based on coasting with your current savings.

So, all of that said and knowing what I know now from my own FIRE experience and what I've read about others' experiences (like Mr. 1500 Days, Doc G, etc.), if I were in your shoes I would downshift now. Starting with $1.5M today, if you don't save another dollar and coast until age 50 you end up with most likely with around $6M, which would support a $240k/year spend at 4%. In fact, after typing that, I think you might actually be far closer than you think at the moment. I wouldn't be surprised if you only need to coast 5-ish more years (i.e., work only covering your expenses without adding to the portfolio) to arrive at a portfolio that could cover your current spending. You really should punch all the numbers into a Coast FI calculator or other simulator and see what it spits out.