I'm "mid career" and work from home which affects the perspective. Getting anywhere close to replacing my salary working for myself would be a hard multi year challenge with a big maybe at the end. Working for someone else means working again, taking away all the benefits of quiet quitting to maybe be rewarded or maybe end up back in the same boat getting taken advantage of. You can't know until after you've given them all the effort and they hold all the cards to reward or not on a whim. Or I can play with and homeschool my kids. I can diy things around the house that save me the money I didn't get in raises. I can read. I can exercise and take better care of my health. On and on.