Great hearing from you! I think you're taking a wise approach. I inverted things from the way that you did them-- I spent a year studying for the MCAT alongside work (had taken all the prereqs 10+ years earlier as a part of my degree). I used MCAT prep as a litmus test for my seriousness about the whole thing, and after it went well I quit my job to stack up post-bac courses and tick the various remaining application boxes.

It's funny that you say that about the lottery-- my wife and I were unsatisfied in our careers and were very focused on financial independence/early retirement and had set a pretty aggressive retirement date. As we were each thinking through what we would do on the other side of retiring, I realized I'd probably make the run at med school that I'd been considering for a long time. At that point, it stopped making sense to wait.

There's no question that it's a pretty significant upheaval. Fortunately, my wife has been very supportive throughout and even encouraged me at several points to make the jump. We had to move across the country, and we've had a kid in the process. Timing with COVID ended up working out well, as we don't really have the feeling of lost time and opportunity that others seem to.

Good luck in making your decisions from here-- it sounds like you've been thoughtful and intentional about the moves that you've made, and I hope you figure out what's best for you and your wife.