Well, my wife and I just went from full time to part time (75%). Our company (we both work for same company but on different areas), allows for a monthly time card. so, what that means to us is that in a given month there might be 20 billable days, so we have to work 6*20 = 120 hours in that month. Company doesn't care if we work 3 8 hour weeks and take the 4th week off. Or work 6 hours a day for 4 straight weeks.
So, we get the best of both worlds.
We have a 4 month old son who goes to daycare. Prior to my son being born, I suggested cutting down to part time to my wife. She was lukewarm at first, but has since made a 180 degree change. She loves it. I love it.
We are now 3 months into this. A couple of things I've learned:
Our previous income was ~200k. With a 25% paycut plus additional daycare fees, our effective gross is more like $140k. We are still maxing out our 401ks. But, that last 50k was a large part of our "early retirement savings", on top of whatever we were putting into 401ks. Prior to cutting hours, we would save about 4k a month (on top of 401k). Now, that number is closer to $1k a month.
That kinda sucks, but we're pretty close to our 4% number right now. So, I figured "I'm paying for a semi-retirement". I've seen lots of talk in this forum about sidelines, and side hustles, etc. My thought was: I'm an engineer making a fair amount of money, and I doubt I'll ever beat my hourly rate. So, why not just work less hours and eliminate the stress and the parts of my job that I don't like.
I've got two older daughters from a previous marriage, so our plan is to continue working part time until they get out of school so we can be present in their lives. And then my wife and our son will cut bait and begin a more nomadic lifestyle.
By that time, I think our spending should be closer to 3.75% of our savings, and I'd like a little margin.