I don't think it's all that common. In my case, I was laid off by a west coast tech giant and actually got something of a severance for the first time in my life. Instead of finding another job right away, I bought a used school bus and converted it into a motorhome. Since I thereby already knew how to drive a big bus, getting a job as a school bus driver was a natural progression. Mainly I do it for the health insurance which is otherwise pretty useless and insanely fucking expensive.

Yes. Whether it's rewarding or profitable or safe will vary wildly with where and when and who knows what. There may also be license requirements and in some places you'll need to drive a truck or something professionally before you are allowed to drive a bus. And any work with children may have extra requirements. Either way, it's customer service and a lot of techs consider that the most stressful thing there is.

Worth looking into, though, if there's any chance you might like it.

Edit: Oh, and traffic! I hate traffic. I can't imagine having to pilot a bus in traffic. I don't know how I forgot to mention that.

Looks like they paid off the big debts with the Big Tech salary first, then took the lower pay job. So yeah, if you grind out the big bills first it’s absolutely possible.

It's all a numbers game really. But chances are the savings and spending you made while working a high paying job will greatly work in your favor when shifting to a much lower paying job. 5 years of 12% 401k savings (6% plus employer matching) while working at 100k will save equivalent to 10-15 years at 50k thanks to compound interest. Nice furniture, clothing and electronics you bought while working a high paying job will still be there while you work a lower paying job. Ultimately if you can downshift your spending, you can downshift your income, and cost of living is going to be a massive factor. If you can move from a HCOL area to a LCOL area you can kinda become a big fish in a small pond. I know a person who works remotely for a bay area tech company while living in rural Wisconsin. They have the biggest house in the town they live in because they make 4-6x what a local middle class household would want to make to live comfortably.

But for such a shift you have to be prepared to make changes to your spending, to how you view values of money, etc.

One side note: if you do move to a rural area, you have to plan on spending more on your vehicle. When you live in a rural area you might easily find yourself with a 40 mile daily commute, or going to a town 50 miles away for a specific store or service regularly. When you look at a rural area vs a city the age of folks' vehicles drops dramatically because of the sheer number of miles people are putting on their vehicles