Author Topic: Software/IT people: Six-on/Six-off?  (Read 3803 times)

biscuitwhomper

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Software/IT people: Six-on/Six-off?
« on: July 12, 2014, 11:02:44 AM »
Since the dreaded 'six month contract' seems to be a staple of our industry, I was curious if any of you who are in partial retirement work a setup where you work six months in the fall/winter and then take off six months in the spring/summer?

If so, did you find it harder to find contracts if they knew that six months really meant six months?   In the past, my old contract gigs always seemed to extend on to 12-18 months.

Seems like it might be an interesting lifestyle.    Have some extra cash for when the weather turns good.

Thanks!

RyanHesson

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Re: Software/IT people: Six-on/Six-off?
« Reply #1 on: July 12, 2014, 12:59:53 PM »
I'm not in this 6 months on/6 months off kind of situation, but it seems to me that it would be a bad situation simply because you're spending from savings during your 6 months off, which means it's not growing. If you take 6 months of "retirement" now that's 1 year of retirement you can't take in 12 years, or 18 months you can't take in 19 years (6% real return). Even just holding off 2.5 years buys you another month.

strider3700

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Re: Software/IT people: Six-on/Six-off?
« Reply #2 on: July 12, 2014, 01:36:05 PM »
I started with a 3 month 20 hours/week,  went to 5 months 35 hours/week , to 1 year 35/week, to employee doing 35/week,  to employee doing 40 per week to employee doing 50+ per week in 5 days  to employee doing 6 days/week closing in on 60+ /week,   to see my thread about should I take a large paycut to abandon the IT industry and start over elsewhere...

iamadummy

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Re: Software/IT people: Six-on/Six-off?
« Reply #3 on: July 12, 2014, 01:51:38 PM »
I do this sometimes.  I'm about to end a 6 month gig.  In no rush to find another, so could be out a few weeks/month and will enjoy.

biscuitwhomper

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Re: Software/IT people: Six-on/Six-off?
« Reply #4 on: July 12, 2014, 02:17:17 PM »
I'm not in this 6 months on/6 months off kind of situation, but it seems to me that it would be a bad situation simply because you're spending from savings during your 6 months off, which means it's not growing. If you take 6 months of "retirement" now that's 1 year of retirement you can't take in 12 years, or 18 months you can't take in 19 years (6% real return). Even just holding off 2.5 years buys you another month.

I don't quite view it this way.    To me, a partial retirement situation balances youth/health with savings.   Living at a northern latitude, working during the dark days of winter and enjoying oneself during the long days of summer is attractive.   I am still proposing a situation where the six months of fall/winter work more than pays for the six months off, so savings would not be drawn down.    I contrast this with changing a career, which would likely require 12 months of work for the same income, due to a lower income.

RyanAtTanagra

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Re: Software/IT people: Six-on/Six-off?
« Reply #5 on: July 12, 2014, 03:43:42 PM »
I'm in IT and I'm not doing this yet but have been considering it once I hit my 'bare necessities' FI number.  Any money on top of that would be for fun or lifestyle expansion, and I like the idea of doing a 3-6 month contract that all goes to my stache, since my expenses are covered.  Then after the contract I can regroup, decide if I want to add more and why (is inflating my lifestyle worth another 6 months of work?), and take on another contract if desired.  There are a lot of IT temp contract positions that seem to be hard to fill judging by how hard recruiters push them on my whenever I talk to them.

Would definitely like to hear from anyone that's doing something like this.

sarah8001

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Re: Software/IT people: Six-on/Six-off?
« Reply #6 on: July 13, 2014, 04:06:41 AM »
I'd also like to hear how this worked out, if anyone is doing this. My boyfriend and I are planning to do this after we get married and he finishes his degree and gets some experience. FI is a distant goal of ours, but we really want to have kids, and for neither parent to have to work full time (I've already transitioned to part time and will quit after we start having kids). For no one in the family to have a job three or six months out of the year would be heaven, and more than most Americans even dream of (I'm already taking flack just for cutting 16 hrs a week).