I worked for a tech company for 8 years and got laid off. I got 6 months severance and have been unemployed since (another 6 months). I have about $200k locked in investments and another $100k in savings. I live at home and pay very low rent and have a low cost lifestyle. I thought I was receiving EI (Canada's version of unemployment insurance) but I haven't collected EI this entire time (yeah I'm a bit of a fuck up lol). I just realized I can collect about $25k worth from the government over the next 6 months and I'm thinking about just staying unemployed and getting EI.
I recently went through 4 rounds of interviews with a company for the same shit I was doing before and have been having anxiety attacks about the thought of going back to that soul sucking garbage. Is it a terrible idea to take another year off work collecting EI, working on projects around the house, looking after my mental health, maybe doing some training to get intoa different field? It would be a two year resume gap but I can definitely afford it. Do I need to be concerned about getting back at the grind and saving for retirement etc?