Many high paying jobs are meaningless for the reason they are high-paying: they (the company) needs someone to do the job, and the combination of required skill and meaninglessness means that nobody who can do the job really wants to do the job.
If a lot of people who could do it wanted to do it, the pay would drop. The other way around also applies: if a lot of people want it, and a lot of them actually can do it, the pay drops as well.
But now that not a lot of people want it (because it might be meaningless and/or unfulfilling) and it requires a specific skillset and isn't highly available, you get in exactly your position.
Instead of focusing on early retirement (which signals that working seems to equate 'bad'? and being free from the 'bad' is the ultimate goal?), focusing on what you actually want (instead of focusing of the negation of what you don't want) might get you much more of a direction to look for work/life.
In the end, money and by extension, wealth, doesn't really mean all that much. It's what you end up doing that has the meaning. And 'doing' doesn't always require a lot of money (or wealth in general).
Regarding technology, you'll have to find out what it is in technology that you actually want. Some people want to think about things and try things out. Others want to build things. Or perhaps you're in to managing people and enabling them to do the thinking/building/operating. All of those types of jobs can be done remotely (as in: fully remote). This means that you are neither bound to a specific city, nor to a specific office building to 'go to'.
The other part of the story, the city where you live, that's a different problem. If you simply don't like the city, then there is no way around it (like doing something with your job), you'll end up leaving the city so best to start working on that.
Retiring doesn't equate having fun. Neither does travelling the world. That's just an instagram crutch. Perhaps the problem lies in stress, top-down management or 'targets' or something. There is plenty of work where those don't apply. There is also plenty of work there those do apply. It's very easy to be stressed or getting 'managed' when you are retired and not working. The same applies to targets.
Perhaps it's my personal experience (or your personal experience) but there is a huge difference between the way 'work' can express itself in its various incarnations. Work that requires being managed, having some rate, ratio or target to hit, fight-for-your-bonus or work more than 35 hours a week no longer something I'd personally be willing to accept at this stage. Depending on what you have to offer and what the company has to offer, that is a choice you can make with plenty of options left to pick from.
If a lot of people who could do it wanted to do it, the pay would drop. The other way around also applies: if a lot of people want it, and a lot of them actually can do it, the pay drops as well.
But now that not a lot of people want it (because it might be meaningless and/or unfulfilling) and it requires a specific skillset and isn't highly available, you get in exactly your position.
Instead of focusing on early retirement (which signals that working seems to equate 'bad'? and being free from the 'bad' is the ultimate goal?), focusing on what you actually want (instead of focusing of the negation of what you don't want) might get you much more of a direction to look for work/life.
In the end, money and by extension, wealth, doesn't really mean all that much. It's what you end up doing that has the meaning. And 'doing' doesn't always require a lot of money (or wealth in general).
Regarding technology, you'll have to find out what it is in technology that you actually want. Some people want to think about things and try things out. Others want to build things. Or perhaps you're in to managing people and enabling them to do the thinking/building/operating. All of those types of jobs can be done remotely (as in: fully remote). This means that you are neither bound to a specific city, nor to a specific office building to 'go to'.
The other part of the story, the city where you live, that's a different problem. If you simply don't like the city, then there is no way around it (like doing something with your job), you'll end up leaving the city so best to start working on that.
Retiring doesn't equate having fun. Neither does travelling the world. That's just an instagram crutch. Perhaps the problem lies in stress, top-down management or 'targets' or something. There is plenty of work where those don't apply. There is also plenty of work there those do apply. It's very easy to be stressed or getting 'managed' when you are retired and not working. The same applies to targets.
Perhaps it's my personal experience (or your personal experience) but there is a huge difference between the way 'work' can express itself in its various incarnations. Work that requires being managed, having some rate, ratio or target to hit, fight-for-your-bonus or work more than 35 hours a week no longer something I'd personally be willing to accept at this stage. Depending on what you have to offer and what the company has to offer, that is a choice you can make with plenty of options left to pick from.