If you work part-time, how long will it take you to reach the same figure you would get if you continued to work full-time for another 4 years?
I'm nowhere as close to retiring completely as you are, but I do play with the idea of going part-time. For me it'd depend on how unhappy I was with continuing to work full-time (even if just for a few more years).
If I started working part time right now it would be safe to say that it would take about 12 years to get to FI rather than 4. If I was working part time my regular spending habits would stay the same as they are now because I already have them down to mustachian levels. All the extra cash I make while working full time goes straight to paying down debt and growing the retirement account.
If I had to rate my happiness level on a scale of 1-10, 10 being best and 1 being worst, I would say that while working full time I'm at about a 4-5. If I was working part time I'd probably be at around a 7-8. If I was totally retired.... I honestly don't know because I've never been retired like that before. I'd hope to say it would be around a 9-10. Shoot I might get totally bored and find a new career in my early retirement adventures. Hard to say.
Welcome. Great question, where there is not a correct answer. It is a personal choice. For me there would be a lot of factors. Will your Stache support a family? If you can stomach the job and it pays well then I would continue working until you are FI. How is your budget, how is your Stache, have you truly thought through the various scenarios, etc. If you are willing to share, I am sure there would be many members willing to poke holes in your plans.
Oh definitely this is a matter of opinion. Choices like these are usually the most complicated ones because of that. My Stache would definitely not support a family. I don't have kids or a wife and honestly don't plan on ever having any. I'm happier single than in a relationship. It's an independence/stubbornness thing. If I somehow decided to have a family down the road then I'd have to reassess the financial situation. I can definitely stomach the job for another 4 years. All in all it's a pretty good job. Union benefits, 5 weeks vaca a year, 4 miles from where I live, 50Kish a year. It just requires that my life revolve around it. All my decisions are based around my work schedule. Not something out of the ordinary for most Americans, it's just getting old.
Here's some stats. I currently need about $1500 a month to live happily and my Stache can generate 750 a month for the rest of my foreseeable life. In about 4 years, if working full time, those two numbers will match. My expenses will have gone down due to lower mortgage debt and my income will have gone up due to investments. As with all long term plans, I've made many assumptions. Assumptions such as what I predict my investment returns will average out to be in the long run (I tend to be conservative), what I predict inflation to be, what I predict mortgage rates to be at in about 4 years, that I'll never have some sort of catastrophe, that I'll always rent out a room in my house, that I'll continue living where I am living now (which I would be happy to do), etc. For safety sake I didn't factor in the real possibility that someday I'll get some sort of an inheritance as well as my home's future equity value. My budget model assumes that I'll live in my house until I die without ever taking equity out with something like a reverse mortgage or selling it and renting somewhere in my later years.
Any holes or other factors I'm not thinking about, please do say. Although this particular thread is more about the choice of the Plan A or Plan B assuming that all considerations are good and realistic.