- why you did it?
Before my current position, I was at a company that was growing very quickly. For the last three to four years of it, almost all I did was work - long days, weekend days (to “catch up,” which obviously never happened). The culture got toxic and I was burnt out; the company getting sold was the end of the line for me, as I had no loyalty to the new owners. I agreed to go to work for a friend at his one-man operation; he wanted to grow the business, but needed someone to do the books and admin. I agreed, on the condition that I could buy in if I thought it made sense after getting the books in order (seeing the shareholders of the company I left get 80x their investment after eight years may have influenced my desire to want a piece of ownership;).
Being burnt out, I wanted more time off, so I said I’d only do four days per week. It was enough for the first few years (with some f/t weeks thrown in at busy times), but 2017 got very busy and I was back to f/t and NEVER caught up. I didn’t want to work this much and I have no need to work this much.
- what your downshift looks like?
Partway through this year, I hired someone to take over the day-to-day aspects of the business and I immediately got back to four days per week. She is very solid in the position now, and I am CAUGHT UP (an amazing feeling that I never thought I’d feel again) and ready to reduce down to my goal of half time (two office days and an hour or two from home on the other days). This starts next week. I will have to increase to f/t to cover off holidays, but that’s only a few weeks per year.
- what do you like about it?
I know I’m going to love driving less (it’s a 30 minute commute each way, and winter always brings frustrating traffic delays). I will enjoy having more free time to read, do house projects, cook, visit friends/family... whatever I want, really. I have badly wanted this for a long time and I feel a deep sense of satisfaction that it’s finally happening.
- what isn't so awesome about it?
I’m a bit worried that I will feel out of the loop, but I’m sure I will get over it!
- what are your plans going forward around downshifting and FIRE?
Assuming this goes well, I think I would be quite happy to be 20-50% time for the next five years at least. I would not want to be a completely uninvolved shareholder, so unless the company gets sold or one of my partners wants to purchase my shares, I will be there in a financial oversight capacity.
The retirement stash is enough now for barebones RE, so working p/t will cover all regular expenses as it grows. My husband is still working for a year or two. The company is also paying dividends which, if it continues to grow as it has, could more than fund our modest lifestyle. Given this, it’s possible that we have oversaved, but nothing is guaranteed.
I’ve been wanting to get more involved in my community league and saw that the Treasurer position is open. I emailed about it and I seem to have gotten the (volunteer!) job, so that will take up some of my new free time. It’s a good match for my skill set and I’ll be able to meet some new people who live nearby (not easy to do when one has no children).
UPDATE
Around March/April 2018 the busy season started. I worked some extra days during that time, but have mostly managed to keep it to 3 days per week (2 days per week simply did not happen yet, sadly). I am starting to get a lot of pushback from one of my business partners (the majority shareholder) about working more. He’s not saying it directly, but it feels like he wants me to implement our expansion into a new geographical location. I’ve explained that since I have less than zero enthusiasm for expansion (or working more, period), that it’s not me who will be driving this initiative.
This “schedule” conflict (which is mostly him having terrible work habits and worse organizational skills and thinking my presence in the office will help — my tasks that I’m responsible for are easily done in 2-3 days per week) is going to end up with me leaving the company, I am quite certain. Provided I can get bought out for fair value of my shares, I’m completely fine with that. I don’t think that he will be; it will make for an interesting transition (possibly something for the Epic FU Money thread, but I hope not). The person I hired in July 2017 to take over my everyday tasks is still awesome and I am eternally grateful to her for making my downshift possible.
I’ve gotten more comfortable in the volunteer treasurer role. It turned out to be a bit more work than expected, but after getting past the first year, everything is more familiar and should go more smoothly. The monthly board meetings can be a bit of a drag, but I have met some great people in the community by taking on this role, so I think it is worth it. It’s not forever, either!
Yay! Someone resurrected this thread, which I’ve been wanting to update. In somewhat of a DREAM COME TRUE, my company has agreed to be purchased, and we are in the due diligence phase (one week down of an anticipated four) - this has me working full-time for the next bit, which I’m more than happy to do to facilitate the transaction. The sale talk with the company that’s purchasing us started in early July, so it’s a huge relief to finally have things underway. It would take a pretty big disaster to have this transaction not happen, but I’m still offering up a prayer to the universe that all goes through. It’s structured as an earn out, so we will see 1/6 of the price at closing, another 1/6 after a year, 1/3 after two years and the final 1/3 after three years. The agreed (minimum) price has me quadrupling my initial investment (after having received healthy dividends along the way); there is also strong potential to exceed this amount with the way it’s structured. While it would be nice to have everything up front, I think the long game could work out extremely well.
As for downshifting . . . The purchaser is aware of my preferred schedule, and actually mentioned to my partner that “there may be redundancies in accounting now, so what do you think Step37 will think about that?” to which he replied that I’d be happy to stay on to facilitate whatever transition for as long as they need (accurate). When he told me this, it was presented as good news/bad news (good that we are going to be getting an offer/maybe bad for you, Step37) - I made sure to emphasize that that was ONLY good news! My two partners are the people who are key to the deal (technical knowledge of the industry) - they aren’t going to let the earn out fall apart, so I think I might comfortably be able to step away prior to the three years being up. If not, I should at least be able to maintain a p/t schedule, which isn’t a bad worst-case scenario. I’m not under any illusions that it will be easy, clear sailing for the next while, but at least there is a reasonable end in sight (with a good payout!).
My husband fully downshifted at the beginning of November, when he received a package from his employer. The timing could not have been better, as he was planning to leave within the next several months anyway. Now he’s fully in charge of the cooking and general house stuff, so even if I have to work more for the next while, it will be with so much less stress. I’m beyond grateful for all of the above.