Almost 4 months in, so time to join up here.
Why you did it?
We started down this FIRE path in 2013 - I was working a well paying job, but had recently been put under a manager I did not like working for in my government-contracting computer programming gig. Nice guy with "people" stuff, but horrible with "manage the work" stuff. Newly married (2012), I surely wasn't ready to quit, but finding a way out in short order was very appealing. By 2015 or 2016, my wife grew tired of her stable state job ("tired of" doesn't really describe it, but I don't have the words right now) and started a career change that would require more formal education. Started taking one class at a time, and then got a call about a job she had applied for years ago with the legislature. She wound up taking that job (which I fully supported). It turned out to be a horrible fit - the super high pressure environment combined with long stretches of absolutely nothing to do but still having to show up made her miserable. By 2017, she fully quit to focus on the school needed for the career change. But she almost as miserable, particularly as the pre-requisites got harder and harder as she moved the goalposts on herself to "PA" from "RN". And by 2018 I was reaching the end of my rope at my job.
The search was on, but one day a vendor we had worked with for years was on-site and I blurted out "are you hiring?" in an awkward way. By April I'm working for them and in May we move to California. The California job was fantastic for me - not just novelty but just about every aspect of that project was awesome. But not so much at home - turns out stuff like "Organic Chemistry" is even harder at the schools in California. As planned(ish) we moved back a year and a half later in October 2019. 6 months after that, obviously the pandemic hit. I was still supporting California, and added minor tasks for another state as well. The company I had signed with in 2018 had been acquired and that merger was starting to be very real. March 2020 I had a conversation where I was promised another year renewal contract, but that quickly turned into "we don't do 1099 anymore - you can come on as W-2 or be out of work on July 1." I caved (they came up $20K on salary helping me cave). But as an employee I was feeling a ton of pressure - we're proposing you in this state, we need you to do more in other two states. I was on the org chart along with one other guy in the "we pay these people too much to put them anywhere else on the org chart." And salary vs. my last 10 years of hourly contract work - suddenly I had to enforce boundaries about work time. Before I didn't mind long hours because that meant more money. Not so now. But overall I can tolerate the situation, and there were some interesting projects potentially coming up.
And then my old job got in touch, "any interest in coming back?". I wasn't interested in changing full time jobs, but I decided to just ask for part time terms that I'd find acceptable - part time, go through old middle man so I can get back to "self-employed", an hourly rate I thought they'd frankly say no to. But they said yes to everything. So sI'm now back working part time at my old job since May 1st. The boss I referred to earlier - retired 2 months after I moved to California in 2018. Neither I nor my coworkers knew this was happening so soon. Not sure how all this plays out if I had that piece of information back then.
What your downshift looks like?
I work Monday through Wednesday 8 to 10 hours per day. 8 is what we agreed to, but I'm approved for more time than 24 hours per week comes too, and sometimes there's something I want to finish at the end of a day. Plus hourly so when I choose to do more work time = more money, I have full freedom to choose remote or on-site and I've exercised that, often making the decision day-of.
What do you like about it?
4 days off per week, even when I have a more relaxing weekend than I probably should I still do better with housework and such than I used to. I'm able to do some volunteer work I signed up for without losing my mind (too much) over not having enough hours in the day. On paper anyway I have enough time to do everything. Paper <> Reality yet, but I'm working on it.
I don't find I'm lonely or anything along those lines, but then my wife has said "you're the most introverted person I've ever met", so hang out with her plus hockey once per week plus interaction with coworkers on the days I do decide to go to the office is more than enough to meet my needs.
What isn't so awesome about it?
Theoretically, we can take that long weekend trip whenever we want, but wife is still in school and has started a job she likes as a health educator so between those two things while I'm largely open on Thursdays and Fridays, we are not. I'm hoping to negotiate to a more similar schedule once she graduates at the end of April. Masters in Public Health - turns out the career change wasn't supposed to be to RN or PA, but Health Educator. She loves this job where she teaches a 6 week class to recently diagnosed diabetics.
I'm also not finding the adjustment to this schedule as easy I was hoping. Struggling to keep consistent hours. Sleeping poorly, which in my case often means over-sleeping. Got into some bad habits supporting a west-coast customer from an east-coast home office. I'm sure not all of this is "downshift isn't all it is cracked up to be", but I'm equally as sure some of it is. In any event, working on it.
What are your plans going forward around downshifting and FIRE?
I honestly think this level of work might be sustainable long-haul. Granted with ~30 years to "normal" retirement age a lot can change. But portfolio is already at a point where things pencil out if we cut to a lower spending level, which shouldn't be too difficult. A lot of people make it in our area on less than our portfolio supports at 4%. Not us right at the moment, but people do which means we can too. And not so long ago we had our spending within what 5% of our portfolio supports, also a defensible withdraw rate. So we're close to our number already, but if this coasting I'm doing continues to work out I don't think I'll have as compelling a need to stop it as I was feeling 8 years ago. That would allow us to donate a ton of money to charity (we already have ramped this up substantially), travel without getting too hung up on costs. Basically I'm hoping that coast-fire comes with a real feeling of coasting for a long time.
