Thanks in advance to any and all thoughtful replies!

I have recently come into some money due to my company's stock options. This event was life-changing in that it allowed me to pay off all debt, and now I have $150K after taxes. My income is $137K in a secure job in a good industry. My wife just quit her job to focus on the next phase of our lives and on herself a bit, but she plans to return to work in the Fall which should add about $30-40K income per year. In terms of 401K, I have $126K in a 401K where I am contributing 7% of my salary and taking full advantage of the company-match.

We just placed an offer on a $590K house, and our offer was accepted. We are pre-approved through our bank for a $600K mortage, and will not have to pay PMI or closing costs as our bank is running a promotion which we plan to take advantage of. Here are the scenarios we're considering:

Scenario #1) Put $80K down payment on the house, and carry a $510K mortgage which will lead to a monthly payment of ~$3700 once insurance and taxes are included. This leaves $70K for investment purposes, which we'd likely place in a mix of mutual funds targeting aggressive growth with assumed returns between 10-15%.

Scenario #2) Put $150K down payment on the house, and carry a $440K mortage which would lead to a monthly payment of ~$3200 once insurance and taxes are included. This leaves no money for investment purposes, but frees up $6K per year in additional cashflow.

Regardless of which scenario I choose, I estimate that I'd still be able to contribute the 7% to my 401K, and set aside $30K/year from savings & bonuses. I'd like to make my assets work for me so that I may be able to retire early--I'm 34 now and would love to leave corporate life within 10-15 years.

So any guidance/advice is appreciated with the understanding that I still plan on talking to financial advisors and continuing my own diligence. It's all good problems to have right?

Pretty hard to know your situation well enough to be too confident in offering advice, but i think you might want to have some liquid assets in case unanticipated expenses arise. That could be one argument in favor of #1.

I don't have a good grip on what most people do, but a house that costs 4.4 times your income, leveraged to the hilt, and you with pretty much no savings, sounds like a lot to bite off. So, your emphasis on generating savings going forward seems very appropriate. Can you really save $30k/year after taxes, new housing costs, etc.? Great if you can, but even if you reach that goal, I hope you mean that your "leaving corporate life within 10-15 years" means you want to work in a different environment, not quit working. If you meant the latter, you should do some calculations; it doesn't sound at all realistic.

The $30K savings per year is mainly due to my bonus structure and definitely makes the cost of the house more palatable. The bonus structure should remain unchanged as it is standard in my industry/region.

RE: Leaving corp life, I'd still work but would prefer non-profit and less stress in exchange for less salary.

i've noticed that people, including people in the financial industry who ought to know better, underestimate the amount of money they need to retire or scale back their earnings. Watch to make sure that you don't overestimate returns (if you assume an earn rate that isn't risk free, you have to understand that there will be a lot of variability, too, and so you need additional $ to pay your expenses in the states of the world where investment returns don't meet your expectations), don't fully consider inflation and taxes, and assume that their expenses will drop when they aren't working (why would they?).

Additional things to consider are that your expenses will tend to rise over time, even with no inflation, that the disutility of reducing your expenses is much higher than the utility of adding the same amount, and that common notions of how much you need in retirement as a fraction of working income are strongly linked to (1) the slowing down someone does when they get old, so not applicable to a middle aged retiree, and (2) middle income families where social security income represents a meaningful portion of their retirement income. In other words, do your own evaluation.