Author Topic: Anyone reduce their schedule before retiring?  (Read 4205 times)

albireo13

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Anyone reduce their schedule before retiring?
« on: December 05, 2017, 04:09:47 AM »
Am currently in 2019 plan.  My biggest problem with my job (despite MegaCorp brain dead environment) is the long commute ...  50min each way.    When I was young this was no prob.   Now, at 61yo, I have lost tolerance for it.  I have back issues and sitting for long drives is not good.  That plus I despise the waste of time and money involved in commuting.


   Anyway, I am thinking of going from 40hr/wk to 32hr/wk schedule ... at least request it.   I think I have a good shot at it.

It would reduce stress and make last year or so more enjoyable.  On the other hand, maybe I just stick it out and sock away more for retirement.  I go back and forth.

  Has anyone else done this the last few years to ease into retirement?

Linea_Norway

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Re: Anyone reduce their schedule before retiring?
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2017, 05:00:42 AM »
Here are some who have done it:

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/post-fire/calling-all-downshifters!/

We might also do it in our last year to get used to the concept of retiring. Although this is more DH's plan than mine.

According to my MIL many years ago, working 4 days a week does not reduce the stress, because everyone expects you to do the work of 5 days a week. But working 3 days a week feels really like part time work.

omachi

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Re: Anyone reduce their schedule before retiring?
« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2017, 10:16:27 AM »
I went to 32 hours, am still fairly young, no health issues, and won't be retiring for a little while yet. It's definitely worth it.

I'll note that I haven't found it to make the commute or work any more enjoyable, but the extra time off and the better balance it strikes are really nice. Also, the income lost is at the marginal tax rate, so a 20% time cut for me was only a ~12% pay cut.

No regrets about the decision whatsoever. If I had a 50 minute commute though, I'd be asking about working at home for a couple days too.

Cwadda

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Re: Anyone reduce their schedule before retiring?
« Reply #3 on: December 05, 2017, 10:19:53 AM »
Am currently in 2019 plan.  My biggest problem with my job (despite MegaCorp brain dead environment) is the long commute ...  50min each way.    When I was young this was no prob.   Now, at 61yo, I have lost tolerance for it.  I have back issues and sitting for long drives is not good.  That plus I despise the waste of time and money involved in commuting.


   Anyway, I am thinking of going from 40hr/wk to 32hr/wk schedule ... at least request it.   I think I have a good shot at it.

It would reduce stress and make last year or so more enjoyable.  On the other hand, maybe I just stick it out and sock away more for retirement.  I go back and forth.

  Has anyone else done this the last few years to ease into retirement?

What about negotiating for the golden egg?  Have you asked management about working remotely full-time?  Or going into the office 1 day a week?  You might be able to work out a new situation in exchange for different pay terms.

All they can say is no.

Prairie Stash

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Re: Anyone reduce their schedule before retiring?
« Reply #4 on: December 05, 2017, 10:26:44 AM »
My wife, at 36, went to 24 hours/week (three days). It turns out that because of marginal tax rates etc. her pay didn't drop 40%, more like 30%. Combine that with some other stuff and we're probably only out 20% of her pay. On the other end, we also figured out that if we let investments grow an extra year (by working more years) it more than compensates for the lower savings amounts. So less hours/week means she'll work fewer hours overall till retirement,so if she needed to work 8000 hours before, its more like 7000 hours (total) now. Of course its spread out over more years, but she gained 1000 more hours of leisure time over a traditional schedule.

I'm planning the same strategy. Fewer hours worked over a couple extra years.

Retire-Canada

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Re: Anyone reduce their schedule before retiring?
« Reply #5 on: December 06, 2017, 09:52:12 PM »
I'm about 2yrs out from retirement and working 3 x 8hrs. There are a fair number of MMMers doing some form of downshifting:

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/post-fire/calling-all-downshifters!/

Vegasgirl

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Re: Anyone reduce their schedule before retiring?
« Reply #6 on: December 07, 2017, 08:21:39 AM »
I'm in the class of 2018 (December) looking at one more year of work.  Back in September I decided to use down my leave balance and only work four days/week.  I still am taking some time off for the holidays and a couple planned vacations in 2018 prior to FIRE.  I'm in the same boat as OP with the commuting and just exhausted from it.  I either take off on Monday or Friday to prolong the weekend.  It's worked well so far this fall.

GnomeErcy

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Re: Anyone reduce their schedule before retiring?
« Reply #7 on: December 07, 2017, 08:31:46 AM »
I'm planning on moving to part-time consulting once our house is paid off and we can take some more risks. Maybe a year or two after the house is paid.

I figure if I can consult for 20hrs a week @ $100/hr, 26-34 weeks out of the year, that should be roughly what I'm expecting to spend in retirement. It'd be a great way to scale back for a year or two, let our retirement funds grow a bit, and test out our lower budget.

RedmondStash

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Re: Anyone reduce their schedule before retiring?
« Reply #8 on: December 08, 2017, 09:33:52 AM »
I did, and I'm very glad I did. I worked 25-30 hours per week in my last job, for 3 years, and it was great. I'm very fast at what I do, and it was kind of an under-the-table understanding; people were still impressed by how much work I got done even by full-time standards. I worked some part-time gigs before that too, though a few (short) full-time ones in the previous few years.

Working part-time made a huge difference in my quality of life and my health. And it didn't push my FIRE date out by much; I basically negotiated for full-time pay based on my proven productivity.

Syonyk

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Re: Anyone reduce their schedule before retiring?
« Reply #9 on: December 08, 2017, 02:11:10 PM »
I'm... maybe a decade or so out.  Could be closer, except for quality of life issues we moved from somewhere we despised (Seattle) to somewhere awesome (rural Idaho near family - important with a kid).  I'm working ~32h/wk, remotely, and love it.  The pay cut was significant, but the three day weekends every week are awesome, and leave me with a lot more time to do stuff myself that I might otherwise pay someone to do.

And productivity is excellent, even though I'm remote.  Or, as I'd argue, because I'm remote.

RedmondStash

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Re: Anyone reduce their schedule before retiring?
« Reply #10 on: December 09, 2017, 01:58:28 PM »
I did, and I'm very glad I did. I worked 25-30 hours per week in my last job, for 3 years, and it was great. I'm very fast at what I do, and it was kind of an under-the-table understanding; people were still impressed by how much work I got done even by full-time standards. I worked some part-time gigs before that too, though a few (short) full-time ones in the previous few years.

Working part-time made a huge difference in my quality of life and my health. And it didn't push my FIRE date out by much; I basically negotiated for full-time pay based on my proven productivity.

This is similar to me.
I make more working 30+ hrs/week than a lot of my colleagues working 40+ because of how I’ve chosen to work and how efficient I am. I also find that because I spend so much less time at work, that I’m a lot more focused when I am there. I make every hour count because I don’t get as much time there to get things done. If I’m at work, I’m getting shit done, there’s very little wasted time.

Yep, this.

albireo13

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Re: Anyone reduce their schedule before retiring?
« Reply #11 on: December 11, 2017, 05:14:22 PM »
Hmmm .. so much of my time is burned in scheduled, BS meetings which add nothing to getting the job done.
I'm thinking that with shorter work weeks this would decrease.

JoJo

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Re: Anyone reduce their schedule before retiring?
« Reply #12 on: December 13, 2017, 06:31:11 PM »
I'm at 70% in 2017 and probably changing to 62.5% in 2018.  I worked out a sweet deal where I work 40 hours a week when I'm here and I get to take the time off in chunks.  With holidays, it was 104 days off in 2017, taken in chunks of 3, 7, 7, and 3 weeks throughout the year. 

I totally have enough to retire but I want to see some of my projects come to an end.  I was thinking about retiring in March but my overlords from Europe are coming over in February and I feel guilty if I retire right after that. 

SpareChange

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Re: Anyone reduce their schedule before retiring?
« Reply #13 on: December 14, 2017, 11:08:27 AM »
Pretty sure this is what I'm going to do. My workplace and career are very flexible on the number of shifts worked. There's an app we can use to add/trade shifts. Employer doesn't care who works as long as there's coverage. I think I'll continue FT until my net worth hits at least 300k, and then drop down to a scheduled 16hrs/wk...the minimum needed for health insurance. I should be earning 6 wks paid time off a year by then, with 50-60 days sitting in my pto bank. I can easily live on that with room to spare without touching the stash. I can then add shifts if/when needed for fun stuff.

It will definitely push back my full FIRE date by years, but it would take a minimum 5 more years FT to get there, and I don't think that would be the optimal way to go. Tired of working FT, and I'm not getting any younger:).