FU Vacation Time

[Livethedream]

Just hit my first goal, 1,000 hours of combined leave at work. 600 vacation, 220 sick, 100 holiday credits, and 80 cto (overtime to time off).

I plan to hit 800 hours of vacation then I will burn every hour I earn each year for vacation/ time with family. 3 vacation, 2 cto, 2 (bonus for goals met).

Took me 6 years and 5 months. Looking forward to having a nice buffer of FU time off just in case!

Anyone else got some FU vacation time?

[Linea_Norway]

For me it doesn't work that way, because we can no longer transfer vacation to the next year. We also don't have a stash of sick days.

But last year I worked 22 hours of overtime (50% extra pay) that I had registered as "off-time". I decided to have them paid out. This was an easy way for me to make extra money with good pay.

But I also made many extra flexi hours in autumn. I saved those up and took an extra week off in February when the cross country skiing circumstances were best. We stayed at our cabin.

At other times I sometimes just take an extra days off, from those flexi hours. I love taking a normal weekday off while everyone else must work.

Now my number of extra hours is running low, so I need to build up from scratch. I recently registered a lot of overtime to be paid out. And I have 5-6 extra hours to take off. I need to build up to a couple of extra days in the summer vacation and some extra days in autumn.

[asauer]

My current job doesn’t allow rollover but I did at my last job where we could bank up to 100 hours.  Got a nice little leaving bonus when I quit.

[nnls]

Everyone in my team at work recently got spoken to by our manager as we all have over 500 hours of leave owing to us, we were told to take more holidays.

We can only accrue annual leave/ long service leave. Sick leave doesn't accrue but we get 3 months in a 12 month period, so thats fair enough.

My mum will have enough leave owing to her that she can take a full years paid annual leave/ long service leave as of October this year, and I think she has 500 sick days owing to her.  But she has worked for the same company her whole life.

[gaja]

I currently have 38 vacation days and 85 hours PTO. Sick days don't accrue (since we almost have unlimited sick days).

For me it doesn't work that way, because we can no longer transfer vacation to the next year.

Then your company might be breaking the law. They are obliged to let you transfer 10 of the mandatory days (lovfestet feriedag) and can let you transfer all of the negotiated days (tariff-festede dager, everything above 21). BUT: they are not allowed to let you loose vacation days. They can force you to take vacation, but if something happens and you are not able to take enough time off, they are not allowed to let the days disappear. The new regulations are a bit confusing for HR; it has gotten more difficult for the employer to transfer vacation. But the employee's rights are still there.

Unless you are in one of those places that shut down in five weeks during the summer. Those places have 5 weeks mandatory vacation, and there is nothing you can do.

[dude]

I can carry over 240 hours from one year to the next. I don't think my balance has ever exceeded 80 hours. I use that shit liberally!!

Can carry unlimited sick leave, but had a personal policy of keeping only around 300 hours, and using the rest liberally (dr's appointments, sick days, mental health days). Recently needed to take a few weeks for an injury, so I'm down to @160 hours, with exactly one year to go until retirement.

[mm1970]

Just hit my first goal, 1,000 hours of combined leave at work. 600 vacation, 220 sick, 100 holiday credits, and 80 cto (overtime to time off).

I plan to hit 800 hours of vacation then I will burn every hour I earn each year for vacation/ time with family. 3 vacation, 2 cto, 2 (bonus for goals met).

Took me 6 years and 5 months. Looking forward to having a nice buffer of FU time off just in case!

Anyone else got some FU vacation time?

Ahhh no.  Yes and no?

My kids are no longer babies, so I'm not using every single hour like I used to.

I have about 200 hours (5 weeks) which is quite a lot.  Taking a 2 week vacation this summer.

Our max accrual is 396 hours.  A hair under 10 weeks.  After that, you don't accrue any more.

[Livethedream]

Just hit my first goal, 1,000 hours of combined leave at work. 600 vacation, 220 sick, 100 holiday credits, and 80 cto (overtime to time off).

I plan to hit 800 hours of vacation then I will burn every hour I earn each year for vacation/ time with family. 3 vacation, 2 cto, 2 (bonus for goals met).

Took me 6 years and 5 months. Looking forward to having a nice buffer of FU time off just in case!

Anyone else got some FU vacation time?

Ahhh no.  Yes and no?

My kids are no longer babies, so I'm not using every single hour like I used to.

I have about 200 hours (5 weeks) which is quite a lot.  Taking a 2 week vacation this summer.

Our max accrual is 396 hours.  A hair under 10 weeks.  After that, you don't accrue any more.

We’re in the little one stage, 9m and 3. Good for you, hope you enjoy your vacation! We look forward to the little one being potty trained and the start to new travel adventures with the kids.

[NV Teacher]

 I have about 210 sick days saved up.  I could take an entire school year off with full pay if I needed to and still have days left over.  I'm saving them because if I can get to 250 days by the time I retire I can exchange them for insurance at a reduced monthly rate.  If I don't use them and the exchange disappears I'll get about $2-$4 per day.

[EconDiva]

I get:

-15 vacation days
-3 floating holidays

Been that way since I started 4 years ago. 

No rollover, no payout...that's it.

[jlcnuke]

1. The funny thing about vacation time is that policies can, and often do, change. Your employer can put out a policy tomorrow saying that the rate of PTO accrual is changing, how much you can have banked is dropping, how often you can take it and under what circumstances is being reduced, or even just plain get rid of the benefit altogether.

Granted, the latter scenario is unlikely, but plenty of people have lost PTO because their employers made their policies more strict.

2. Nope, I'll never have "FU vacation time" because I value my time off too much to not bother taking what is offered. I carry over ~40 hours each year (of our 80 hours allowed to be carried over) only to take care of time off if I have an unexpected emergency/sickness/whatever.  I accumulate 30 days of PTO each year (plus company holidays) and I take effectively take them all each year (keeping my small 40 hour balance or so available as a baseline for emergencies).

3. To have accrued 1k hours at this point, that tells me you have worked ~125 days more than you had to in the past 6 years (I think that's how long you said it took to build that up), or about an extra 4 weeks each year for the past 6 years. I can't help but wonder if that should be considered an accomplishment, or something to be upset about.

I use my PTO for the same reason I want to FIRE, because my free-time to enjoy life is one of the most important things I have in this world and I can never get that time back, so I'd rather enjoy it along the way. Glad to hear you're planning on using it moving forward though.

[Slee_stack]

I can't help but wonder if that should be considered an accomplishment, or something to be upset about.

Definitely an accomplishment since the OP CHOSE to accumulate their time.  That time has monetary value...if not full cash value.  Perhaps the main negative is that there is no 'interest' that that time is earning just sitting there.  However if an employee's hour wage goes up...so too does the value of those hours.

With respect to FIRE, there is no difference between saving 'PTO time' or saving money...both allow one to 'retire' earlier with the same financial assets.

You are right on risk of a company policy change though.  That definitely can kink a plan.


Personally, I have 280+ hours of vacation banked...its also near the max of what I can roll year to year.   I WILL use that to retire almost two months earlier than if I didn't have it.  I don't accumulate any other time.  If policy changes...I'll be taking a 'paid sabbatical'.  That will mess up my plans a little...but I think I'll still enjoy it.

[Schaefer Light]

1. The funny thing about vacation time is that policies can, and often do, change. Your employer can put out a policy tomorrow saying that the rate of PTO accrual is changing, how much you can have banked is dropping, how often you can take it and under what circumstances is being reduced, or even just plain get rid of the benefit altogether.

Granted, the latter scenario is unlikely, but plenty of people have lost PTO because their employers made their policies more strict.

This is something to keep in mind.  I saw something similar happen with sick leave.  We could bank up to 480 hours, and then the powers that be decided that was too much and they slashed it to 240.  They've recently decided to stop allowing us to bank sick leave, so new hires won't have any sick leave outside of whatever they get via PTO.

[jlcnuke]

Also, many (possibly most) company's policy says that you lose it all if you're fired, quit without adequate notice, etc too. As with most things that "could" have value, I'm a big fan of the "don't count your chickens before they hatch" philosophy.

I can't help but wonder if that should be considered an accomplishment, or something to be upset about.

Definitely an accomplishment since the OP CHOSE to accumulate their time.  That time has monetary value...if not full cash value.  Perhaps the main negative is that there is no 'interest' that that time is earning just sitting there.  However if an employee's hour wage goes up...so too does the value of those hours.

With respect to FIRE, there is no difference between saving 'PTO time' or saving money...both allow one to 'retire' earlier with the same financial assets.

You are right on risk of a company policy change though.  That definitely can kink a plan.


Personally, I have 280+ hours of vacation banked...its also near the max of what I can roll year to year.   I WILL use that to retire almost two months earlier than if I didn't have it.  I don't accumulate any other time.  If policy changes...I'll be taking a 'paid sabbatical'.  That will mess up my plans a little...but I think I'll still enjoy it.

Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk

[sui generis]

As with many big law firms, my firm has transitioned to "unlimited PTO."  The only thing stopping any of us is shame and/or ambition.  It can be a good or a bad policy, depending on the cultural norms in the firm.  I haven't been around long enough, but I wonder how the transition went.  I assume they didn't pay people out, since even someone who might have saved up 1,000 hours was theoretically gaining under the policy.  Of course, the reason for the policy change is precisely that they don't want to have a liability they have to pay out upon the person's departure (whatever form that departure may take).  So the person with 1,000 hours now has "more" time off, because it's unlimited, but if they leave the company within a few months or even years, they not only don't get to cash out those hours, but they don't get to take them as paid leave until their official departure date, either.  Once you give notice, you don't get to take paid time off anymore.

[robartsd]

I just came back from vacation and have about 7 weeks total leave credits left (just over 1 week is sick leave).

Currently I earn a total of 332 hours paid time off each year.  Unused credit from 220 of the hours are payable upon separation from employment (120 vacation, 88 fixed holidays, 12 flexible holidays), 96 hours is sick leave (can covert to time served at retirement), and 16 hours is personal development time that does not carry over year to year.  We don't have a cap on accumulation, but sometimes employees with more than 6 months of payable credits are required to develop a plan to reduce the leave they have on the books.

In my state leave credits that are available for use according the the employee's discretion are "earned" and can not be taken away and must be paid out upon separation from employment regardless of the reason. An employer can choose to force employees to take paid vacation time to reduce the leave on the books if they want to. Leave credits that have specific requirements to use (generally just sick leave) can be subject to policy change and balances lost upon separation.

[Livethedream]

1. The funny thing about vacation time is that policies can, and often do, change. Your employer can put out a policy tomorrow saying that the rate of PTO accrual is changing, how much you can have banked is dropping, how often you can take it and under what circumstances is being reduced, or even just plain get rid of the benefit altogether.

Granted, the latter scenario is unlikely, but plenty of people have lost PTO because their employers made their policies more strict.

2. Nope, I'll never have "FU vacation time" because I value my time off too much to not bother taking what is offered. I carry over ~40 hours each year (of our 80 hours allowed to be carried over) only to take care of time off if I have an unexpected emergency/sickness/whatever.  I accumulate 30 days of PTO each year (plus company holidays) and I take effectively take them all each year (keeping my small 40 hour balance or so available as a baseline for emergencies).

3. To have accrued 1k hours at this point, that tells me you have worked ~125 days more than you had to in the past 6 years (I think that's how long you said it took to build that up), or about an extra 4 weeks each year for the past 6 years. I can't help but wonder if that should be considered an accomplishment, or something to be upset about.

I use my PTO for the same reason I want to FIRE, because my free-time to enjoy life is one of the most important things I have in this world and I can never get that time back, so I'd rather enjoy it along the way. Glad to hear you're planning on using it moving forward though.

Appreciate the thoughts. For 3 years I was in an apprenticeship and severely limited to the amount of time I could take off. Then kid #1 came while an apprentice and couldn’t take off much time for his birth. Kid #2 I was a journeymen and took off about 6 weeks in all, we don’t pay into paid family leave.

As our kids get old enough to travel and do things with I will start using my balance of time.

I only work 50 hours of OT a year, to get my 75 hours of CTO. I’m also pretty lucky that I have good working hours 7-3:30, Home by 3:45 so I get to spend quite a bit of time each day with my family.

We have a “soft” fire date to quit my job 2028, ild be 41. As we narrow that down I will divide my leave time that is banked, 1000/10 and burn an extra 100 hours a year.

I work for state government so many concerns about vacation policies people have in the private sector aren’t really an issue here.

[PhrugalPhan]

Definitely an accomplishment since the OP CHOSE to accumulate their time.  That time has monetary value...if not full cash value.  Perhaps the main negative is that there is no 'interest' that that time is earning just sitting there.  However if an employee's hour wage goes up...so too does the value of those hours.

I can't say it happens very many places, but I did have a job where your vacation time was basically a dollar amount.  So when your hourly wage went up, your vacation time effectively went down.  I forget the details, but I had a promotion, and my salary went up maybe 5%, and my next pay stub showed my vacation hour balance drop by some crazy fractional amount.  I didn't complain as I wanted the raise, the minor loss of vacation time was a trade off I could live with.

[nnls]

Definitely an accomplishment since the OP CHOSE to accumulate their time.  That time has monetary value...if not full cash value.  Perhaps the main negative is that there is no 'interest' that that time is earning just sitting there.  However if an employee's hour wage goes up...so too does the value of those hours.

I can't say it happens very many places, but I did have a job where your vacation time was basically a dollar amount.  So when your hourly wage went up, your vacation time effectively went down.  I forget the details, but I had a promotion, and my salary went up maybe 5%, and my next pay stub showed my vacation hour balance drop by some crazy fractional amount.  I didn't complain as I wanted the raise, the minor loss of vacation time was a trade off I could live with.

that doesnt seem fair. My company doesnt do that thankfully

[SpareChange]

I have about 50 days worth of pto saved up. Max is 60. I cash out the max (10 days worth) every year and invest it. I plan on going PT with benefits next year, which would make the pto bank equivalent to about 6 months off. I'll keep it in my back pocket for now. Might use it as a kind of st disability policy.

[2Birds1Stone]

I work for a company with "unlimited PTO" which is a nice way of saying you get less time AND they don't pay anything out if you never take a vacation.

[MrThatsDifferent]

Just hit my first goal, 1,000 hours of combined leave at work. 600 vacation, 220 sick, 100 holiday credits, and 80 cto (overtime to time off).

I plan to hit 800 hours of vacation then I will burn every hour I earn each year for vacation/ time with family. 3 vacation, 2 cto, 2 (bonus for goals met).

Took me 6 years and 5 months. Looking forward to having a nice buffer of FU time off just in case!

Anyone else got some FU vacation time?

I don’t understand this. So, in 6.5 years you didn’t take any vacations? Why? Life is too short.

[Laura33]

I am also law firm, which means you can take as much vacation as you want, as long as you still hit your billable targets at the end of the year. 

My solution was to go to 70% for the next @18 months, because I have about 6-7 weeks of personal travel that I want to do.  That way I can enjoy the time and not worry about busting my ass to make it up when I get back.

My DH does have specified vacation (@3 weeks + holidays), and he can carry over only a certain amount, which he currently has maxed out.  We had one fantastic year where he got double vacation, because they changed from "you get your 3 weeks of vacation allotted to you as of Jan 1 for the entire year" to "you accrue vacation at a rate of XX hrs/week."  But the way they made the change, they gave everyone the 3 weeks as of Jan. 1, and then let them accrue another 3 weeks over the course of the year, so he got 6 weeks -- and since he was already maxed out on the carryover, he had to use it (gee, darn).  That year we took a month off, and it was awesome.

[Linea_Norway]

I currently have 38 vacation days and 85 hours PTO. Sick days don't accrue (since we almost have unlimited sick days).

For me it doesn't work that way, because we can no longer transfer vacation to the next year.

Then your company might be breaking the law. They are obliged to let you transfer 10 of the mandatory days (lovfestet feriedag) and can let you transfer all of the negotiated days (tariff-festede dager, everything above 21). BUT: they are not allowed to let you loose vacation days. They can force you to take vacation, but if something happens and you are not able to take enough time off, they are not allowed to let the days disappear. The new regulations are a bit confusing for HR; it has gotten more difficult for the employer to transfer vacation. But the employee's rights are still there.

Unless you are in one of those places that shut down in five weeks during the summer. Those places have 5 weeks mandatory vacation, and there is nothing you can do.

They want us to make a plan of how to use up the vacation days within the same year. If you get sick during a planned vacation, you can of course transfer the.
We don't close for the summer.
I can hear with my union colleague about the rules for transfer. But usually I am hapoy to use up my days in the current year. I can transfer 60 flexihours.

[Livethedream]

Just hit my first goal, 1,000 hours of combined leave at work. 600 vacation, 220 sick, 100 holiday credits, and 80 cto (overtime to time off).

I plan to hit 800 hours of vacation then I will burn every hour I earn each year for vacation/ time with family. 3 vacation, 2 cto, 2 (bonus for goals met).

Took me 6 years and 5 months. Looking forward to having a nice buffer of FU time off just in case!

Anyone else got some FU vacation time?

I don’t understand this. So, in 6.5 years you didn’t take any vacations? Why? Life is too short.

Haha not even, I still took about 2-3 weeks off each year.

[FIRE 20/20]

I'm surprised about all the hostility about saving on this forum.  While this is savings in the form of time rather than money, it's still savings that will allow the future OP to live well at the expense of OP's past self.  OP put these gifts on the Conveyor Belt of Time (http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2014/11/11/are-you-giving-the-shaft-to-your-future-self/) over the years and now current and future OP are unwrapping the gifts. 

[bluebelle]

my company doesn't allow vacation roll-over.  And doesn't officially allow salaried folks to accure time off for time worked (or pay it out for that matter), but my boss is cool.  Problem is, I'm too busy to take too much time off, but I have lots of flexibility in my days since I work from home.   Hubby gets 6 weeks vacation, and can carry over 3 weeks.  He used to be able to carry over unlimited vacation, but now he can 'only' carry 3 weeks and has to take 6 weeks off, poor baby.  But when we FIRE in two years this month, he'll get paid an extra 9 weeks, no wait, it will be more than that, he'll be accuring more vacation while he's on vacation.....and it goes on....

[Slee_stack]

I'm surprised about all the hostility about saving on this forum.  While this is savings in the form of time rather than money, it's still savings that will allow the future OP to live well at the expense of OP's past self.  OP put these gifts on the Conveyor Belt of Time (http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2014/11/11/are-you-giving-the-shaft-to-your-future-self/) over the years and now current and future OP are unwrapping the gifts.

Isn't it bizarre!?   I agree that there's a really weird disconnect occurring in this thread.

Have spendypants consumer clowns bodysnatched folks here?    Life is too short!!!  Why SAVE anything?...YOLO!!!!

I appreciate the risks to be considered.  Hopefully folks know if any of their 'bank' is callable... 

[mathlete]

My work situation prevents accruals that are that large. Sounds awesome though! Good job!

[sui generis]

I'm surprised about all the hostility about saving on this forum.  While this is savings in the form of time rather than money, it's still savings that will allow the future OP to live well at the expense of OP's past self.  OP put these gifts on the Conveyor Belt of Time (http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2014/11/11/are-you-giving-the-shaft-to-your-future-self/) over the years and now current and future OP are unwrapping the gifts.

Isn't it bizarre!?   I agree that there's a really weird disconnect occurring in this thread.

Have spendypants consumer clowns bodysnatched folks here?    Life is too short!!!  Why SAVE anything?...YOLO!!!!

I appreciate the risks to be considered.  Hopefully folks know if any of their 'bank' is callable...

Well, there are two issues here.  The first is that I don't think the philosophy of MMM was ever to be miserable to save, but to save within your well-considered values.  Not taking much time off is clearly not within many people's values here and it's shocking to think (assume) someone else is willing to sacrifice (or actually is sacrificing) that much of the present for the future.  So I think to be fair, people are just questioning - is this really consistent with your values? Not to mention physical and mental health.

The other issue is that, as you've alluded to, depending on employer, state and country, there are some real questions here about ownership of this "property."  Property rights over vacation time are simply not as clear, across all jurisdictions, as property rights with respect to money are.  If you've saved money, you may be risking it in the market or whatever, but no one can legally take that money away from you.  There are, however, a lot of instances in which employers may be able to take away PTO.  As some people on this thread attested, they or people they know did suffer uncompensated taking of their PTO, so it's a good question for people thinking about saving up that time.

[I'm a red panda]

We can only carry over 15 days in a year (we accrue 20 a year).

I used ALL my vacation time last year on maternity leave, so now I don't have extra; just trying to accrue enough to have a bit of a cushion (and maybe save for a possible future maternity leave)

But in general, we are encouraged to take at least 15 days a year. They really don't like us to carry over- because they don't want people not having days off. It's good for people to get a break, and all the managers in the company are encouraged to make sure their employees do.

[south of 61]

I have 1125 hours (500 hours sick, 520 hours vacation and 110 hours personal) that has accrued since I started this job in 2013.

I really like having a safety net - all vacation pay and up to 450 hours of sick leave are paid out on resignation.

We have very generous leave entitlements and I feel like I take plenty of vacation / personal leave. We went overseas for 2 weeks last year, and I often take one day of leave to make a holiday weekend a four-day weekend. And I really appreciate personal leave now that I have a kid.

[10dollarsatatime]

I'm allowed to bank 320 vacation hours.  Anything over 320 that isn't used by the last day of the year just disappears.  I started the year (and the last few) with 319 hours.  So I HAVE to take 3 weeks of vacation this year so as not to lose any.  Darn.  I also accumulate comp time at what feels like an alarming rate sometimes.  I'm expected to keep banked hours around 40, but currently have 160, so that's another 3 weeks to take off this summer.  AND I accumulate about 180 hours of sick time every year.  If that's not used, they buy out half of it at half my pay rate in November.  I don't have a problem with this... it's the closest thing to a Christmas bonus we've had since 2008.  Also, I've called in sick once in the past 10 years.  And I've been doing it for long enough that even after the payout, I'll still have at least 200 hours of sick time banked.

[Cali]

Our company maxes out at 240. We’re going to unlimited pto as of 1 July. All those people who have worked her 20+ years and banked a fortune in pto are about to burn it. Doesn’t seem fair really but thankfully I’m not in that boat.

If I worked at a state agency and could bank like OP I would probably do a fair amount. In the private sector you’re just signing up for a ticking time bomb you hope lasts and only explodes after you’re retired and out of harm’s way.

[Schaefer Light]

Our company maxes out at 240. We’re going to unlimited pto as of 1 July. All those people who have worked her 20+ years and banked a fortune in pto are about to burn it. Doesn’t seem fair really but thankfully I’m not in that boat.

If I worked at a state agency and could bank like OP I would probably do a fair amount. In the private sector you’re just signing up for a ticking time bomb you hope lasts and only explodes after you’re retired and out of harm’s way.

That's exactly what I would be afraid of if I was sitting on that much PTO.  A lot of people at my company felt ripped off when they did something similar with our sick leave.  The people who had been using sick leave as extra vacation got the full benefit while the people who had behaved ethically by saving sick leave for actual illnesses had half of their banked time taken away.

[Slee_stack]

Well, there are two issues here.  The first is that I don't think the philosophy of MMM was ever to be miserable to save, but to save within your well-considered values.  Not taking much time off is clearly not within many people's values here and it's shocking to think (assume) someone else is willing to sacrifice (or actually is sacrificing) that much of the present for the future.  So I think to be fair, people are just questioning - is this really consistent with your values? Not to mention physical and mental health.

The other issue is that, as you've alluded to, depending on employer, state and country, there are some real questions here about ownership of this "property."  Property rights over vacation time are simply not as clear, across all jurisdictions, as property rights with respect to money are.  If you've saved money, you may be risking it in the market or whatever, but no one can legally take that money away from you.  There are, however, a lot of instances in which employers may be able to take away PTO.  As some people on this thread attested, they or people they know did suffer uncompensated taking of their PTO, so it's a good question for people thinking about saving up that time.

Questioning is always good to catch the potential risks / downsides.

Otherwise, I'm not sure why misery due to banking time is automatically assumed.  Less happy?  Maybe.  Happier in the future?  Maybe. 

I would argue that whatever path takes you to a MAXIMUM happiness over your lifetime is probably the best one.  Some people would prefer to get all their work out of the way as quickly and efficiently as possible. 

Technically, many suggestions/threads on this forum are ideas on how to improve one's own efficiency or to ultimately reduce one's time to reach FIRE (or in the OP's case, FU).

Banking vacation is merely one additional tool a person may use to pull in their walk date.  Any tool that grants the user more power is a plus in my book.


We congratulate people on their side hustles (committing time) and making money, but turnaround and criticize someone banking time by....committing time.   Its a peculiar disconnect.

[mm1970]

I'm surprised about all the hostility about saving on this forum.  While this is savings in the form of time rather than money, it's still savings that will allow the future OP to live well at the expense of OP's past self.  OP put these gifts on the Conveyor Belt of Time (http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2014/11/11/are-you-giving-the-shaft-to-your-future-self/) over the years and now current and future OP are unwrapping the gifts.

Isn't it bizarre!?   I agree that there's a really weird disconnect occurring in this thread.

Have spendypants consumer clowns bodysnatched folks here?    Life is too short!!!  Why SAVE anything?...YOLO!!!!

I appreciate the risks to be considered.  Hopefully folks know if any of their 'bank' is callable...

I think it depends on whether you CAN bank the time off, your age, your job, the amount of time you have off, etc.

When I was in my 20s, I worked fairly long hours.  I had pretty generous leave time (4 weeks + holidays + sick).  I came to the realization in my mid-20s that I really needed vacation time every six months.  My stress levels went through the roof if I didn't take any.  Not good for work or my health.

Fast forward a couple of decades.  A few jobs later and I have ... 4 weeks off.  Plus 9 holidays and 5 sick days.  Sigh.  But I also have two elementary school aged kids, and I'm in my 40s.

I absolutely NEED a week off every 3 months, or the stress just knocks me out.  I can't sleep.  I get stressed out.  I mean, I still function but it's really not fun at all.  When you add up the amount of days that we have to take off for:
- teacher in-service days
- end of year/ beginning of year days (school starts and ends on Weds, yeah thanks a fucking lot)
- school holidays that are not actual holidays
- extra days at spring break and easter
- 2 weeks at Christmas
- sick days

Then there's not a lot of "extra".  We make it work between the two of us, but it's incredibly difficult to "bank" time when you have small children, and it doesn't get a whole lot easier when they are in school.  It's definitely not worth the stress.

My spouse has a crap ton of PTO saved up because he's busy as heck.  He doesn't get enough sleep, hasn't exercised in a year, and gained back the 10 lbs he took off by cutting back on carbs last year.  Um, yay?

Luckily I live in CA, and vacation/ PTO is a earned benefit, and they have to pay it out for you.

[mm1970]

Our company maxes out at 240. We’re going to unlimited pto as of 1 July. All those people who have worked her 20+ years and banked a fortune in pto are about to burn it. Doesn’t seem fair really but thankfully I’m not in that boat.

If I worked at a state agency and could bank like OP I would probably do a fair amount. In the private sector you’re just signing up for a ticking time bomb you hope lasts and only explodes after you’re retired and out of harm’s way.

What do you mean by burn it?  Is everyone in California?  I googled

"When changing from an accrued to unlimited vacation policy, in some states, such as California, the existing amount of accrued vacation is treated as a nonforfeitable wage and must be banked for use or paid out before the switch, Mandelman noted."

[Holocene]

I can no longer roll over any vacation hours from one year to the next.  I'm fine with that.  I have plenty of FU money and wouldn't have any issues for quite a while if I lost my job.  A few years ago, everyone at my company was forced to take 5 days off unpaid.  I decided I kind of liked those extra days off and hardly noticed the pay cut, so I've actually been taking an extra week of unpaid vacation for the last couple of years.  Once I took into account that almost 40% of that money would go to taxes anyway (Fed, State, FICA), I decided it was worth it.  That extra week is really nice during the year and won't really affect my retirement savings or FIRE date in any meaningful way.  If I could, I'd go to a 4 day week for 80-90% pay (32-36 hrs).  But that doesn't seem to really seem to be an option so I'll keep slogging away for now and just retire a few months earlier.  I'd prefer a 3 day weekend every week though.

We do have a pretty generous sick leave policy as well.  I don't remember the details exactly because I'd never use it all up, but I think it's a week for every year of service, up to a max of 26 weeks.  It doesn't carry over, but next year you get just as much + 1 week more.  I've only ever used maybe 1 day a year.  I hardly ever get sick (thankfully) and I feel too guilty to take a "mental health" day.  Maybe as I get closer to FI, I'll be more willing to stretch the definition of sick.  I kinda doubt it though...

I'm kind of amazed by all the hours some of you have saved up.  I'd definitely be worried about a policy change where you'd possibly lose some of that time, or be forced to use it all up at once.  I've already seen the vacation policy at my company change a few times.  Though if you're still taking off 2-3 weeks every year and can bank almost half a years worth of leave in 6.5 years, you must have a pretty generous policy.

[Linea_Norway]

Many years ago my DH was working as a group leader and had one colleague with the same subject experience as he had. The male colleague got a baby and decided to take half of the parental leave, his wife doing the other half. So he ended up not working for half a year. DH had to find a solution and ended up doing most of his colleague's work himself, being the only qualified person in the department for that kind of work. That was beside his other work.

DH built up loads of extra hours, 8 weeks in total. The next summer, we took a mini sabbatical of 13 weeks. DH used up his 5 weeks of vacation + 8 weeks of extra hours. I took my 5 vacation weeks + 8 weeks unpaid leave. We planned this 9 months ahead of schedule, so that the companies couldn't argue for not being prepared for it.

During those 13 weeks, we had many short trips and completely renovated our main bathroom. The trips were partly very cheap and in own country, and partly some more expensive (hotel in Italy). The bathroom saved ut a lot of money, compared to having it renovated by professionals.

[MonkeyJenga]

I have about 210 sick days saved up.  I could take an entire school year off with full pay if I needed to and still have days left over.  I'm saving them because if I can get to 250 days by the time I retire I can exchange them for insurance at a reduced monthly rate.  If I don't use them and the exchange disappears I'll get about $2-$4 per day.

Wait, what? @NV Teacher - you would only get reimbursed $2-4 for an entire day of sick leave? What is the financial value of the reduced insurance, and what's the risk that the option goes away?

I got paid out around a month's salary in untaken PTO when leaving one job. They rolled sick leave and vacation into one PTO bucket and had a policy to pay out unused PTO at your hourly wage. I routinely carried over the max 10 days, and then Hurricane Sandy bumped up the limit to 20 for 2012. We also got bonus PTO if we worked the first two weeks after the hurricane, when our offices were underwater, systems were barely functional, and many employees' homes didn't have electricity. The next year, since I knew I was leaving, I minimized my PTO taken so I could get the payout.

It was such a stressful job that any days off would have only made my time in the office worse. I regularly worked nights and weekends, and my boss expected you to check email on your time off anyway. Big reason I left for another company.

If I was placed in that environment again, I would take more PTO and simply refuse the crazy overwork expected of me, but I wasn't in FU Money Mode yet.

[Arbitrage]

I absolutely NEED a week off every 3 months, or the stress just knocks me out.  I can't sleep.  I get stressed out.  I mean, I still function but it's really not fun at all.  When you add up the amount of days that we have to take off for:
- teacher in-service days
- end of year/ beginning of year days (school starts and ends on Weds, yeah thanks a fucking lot)
- school holidays that are not actual holidays
- extra days at spring break and easter
- 2 weeks at Christmas
- sick days

Then there's not a lot of "extra".  We make it work between the two of us, but it's incredibly difficult to "bank" time when you have small children, and it doesn't get a whole lot easier when they are in school.  It's definitely not worth the stress.

Yeah, I live in CA with young children, and it's incredible to me how unfriendly the school schedules are to working parents.  At least for us, I'd add the 'early-out' Wednesdays and unscheduled early-out days to that list.  Basically makes it so that one of us would either have to quit altogether, go part time, or become a teacher...or pay for expensive before- and after-school care.  We opt for the latter.  At least this is a easy cost reduction when we reach FIRE (moving out of state anyhow).