near FI - possible contract to full time offer...

[Guido_statche]

Hi all,

I was wondering if I could get some helpful insight from some fellow mustachians.  I have been getting near FI - about 2 yrs away and am currently working part time - about 30-34 hrs a week.  I'm in my mid thirties.  Recently, I may be in a position to take a full time / employee position in the company.  I'm currently under a year contract.  Before learning about FI & MMM, I would have loved to take the FT position but now I am questioning it.

The reasons why I am questing it are as follows -
1) Pay is higher in my contract position
2) I don't need benefits - my spouse has stable employment and get benefits through her
3) As I'm nearing FI, I am trying to scale down work and do other more interesting / non paying projects.
4) Spouse is considering working longer since spouse can possibly get more benefits by staying 5 more years  & already has high income salary
      - By staying 5-6 years, we could get the option to buy retirement healthcare from employer for life but premiums would probably be expensive ~ $500 month for couple.

I was looking to see if I am missing anything here or anything that I should consider about taking the employment.  Company is great & offers great benefits but pay is slightly less.  There is opportunity for bonuses & stock options but I think this will require to boost hours to 45-50 hrs per week from 30-35.  Paychecks would be less but could be slightly more after factoring in bonuses or options.  I guess one other benefits of taking the job is contractors are usually first to get cut if there is a downturn so my 1 year contract could be shortened.

Thoughts here?

[brian313313]

In the end, this is a personal choice for you. I've been a contractor for a long time and just took permanent employment. It's not the first time though. A lot of my reason was health care. I will actually make more as an employee because of the way health care works for self-employed. You can only deduct after 10% of your income which health care was right about 10% and the deduction still doesn't matter for me. I also don't have a wife that works so no health insurance there. We were at $1000/month for a couple paying the whole thing.

What type of work do you do? I'm in a high-demand IT area and have good savings so job security is not an issue. For me, priority would be fewer hours for more pay. I really don't work overtime anymore though even with full time and even when I contract hourly. I don't vocalize this at work, but I don't care about my job that much to push that hard. I do give them good work for the 40 that I do though and will push in an emergency but make sure and make the OT up by a short day somewhere.

[Stash Engineer]

Sounds like it really comes down to whether or not you want the additional job security.  If you goal is really #3 in your list, then it sounds like this doesn't really fit into your FI plans.  If your contract were to end, how difficult would it be for you to find another job/project/adventure?  By the way, this is an awesome problem to have!

[Guido_statche]

Thank you both for the replies.  I work in pharma/biotech industry in drug development.  There are some opportunities around me but I'm not sure how much I want to continue doing it since I've been in the industry for sometime. 

Thanks brian for sharing your healthcare costs.  I know a lot is up in the air with healthcare at the moment but this does help us planning for FI too & whether my spouse wants to stay in her current position to get the healthcare discount since it is 5-6 years out for her.

I listened to Joshua's RPF show and I know he often says that those who are nearing retirement never really retire from work so I don't know once I'm FI - how long I'll stay out of the workforce - 1 year, 5 years, 10 years.  People like Jim Collins really resonate with me and a career.  Work off and on or perhaps the Tim Ferriss' mini retirements message.  In any case, I think I'm rambling now but thank you both for your input.  I agree - I feel so fortunate to have this "problem".