Surely step one is psychological. I feel like being able to accept a lower paycheck is critical to leaving tech if you’re at the over specialized part of your career

That is not merely psychological unless you're very early in your career and life, with no dependents, etc.

Technically, leaving your family to live as a hermit is also a psychological decision.

That's financial and circumstantial, not (just) psychological.

Psychological in the sense that my kids will need to psychologically accept that they now live under a bridge?

Callous, but that’s your fault for building a life that requires tech money to maintain. I don’t get the point of comments like yours, just to make one feel bad for escaping the golden handcuffs.

There are plenty of people that have children and live decent lives earning less than $200k/year + benefits.

I'm making under 200k now. If I got out of software I'm pretty sure it would still go down.

Sorry for making you feel bad.