I just reached nominal FI, five years ahead of schedule, but I'm not ready to pull the plug completely on my current job. I want to maintain some external motivation to get out of the house several days a week until I build up healthy new habits and develop my non-work-related social network and activities. I also want to let my portfolio grow a bit more as I gradually gain confidence in my ability to generate a secure and sufficient income stream without a traditional salary and benefits package.
But working full time is no longer necessary, and certainly not desired, so I told my management that I would like to reduce my work hours and ramp down to retirement gradually over the next three to five years. They were open to the idea, but re-classifying my current job to part-time was not an option. So I proposed job sharing. I was able to identify a well-qualified job sharing candidate: a woman who formerly worked in my group and whose youngest children are about to start school. She wants to start working again part-time and ramp up to full-time over the next few years, nicely in line with my ramp-down horizon. What a perfect match - win-win-win for her, me, and the company, as we will be able to accomplish a smooth and seamless transfer of knowledge!
I'm hoping this will open the door to more substantial part-time opportunities for others who want to live a more sane and balanced life, and that it will provide more options for other near-retirees, especially the incredibly experienced and knowledgeable boomers whose brain drain is going to be quite a blow to my industry. It will give the company experience evaluating the effectiveness of this sort of arrangement and figuring out the appropriate compensation structures to use for junior-senior pairs.
The benefit to me is the opportunity to decompress and gradually shift gears as I prepare for my next exciting phase of life - early "retirement"!
