I reached F.I. about 12 months ago, and while I had the desire to R.E., I wasn't sure if I was willing to make that big a statement in my mid thirties. Having spent the last 15 years in a very full on career, at the very least I wanted to take a meaningful break, so I committed to take 12 months off as a 'trial retirement', while just telling people I was taking a 'break'.
I lived, and managed my finances as if I'd never return to work, and didn't find it all that difficult. I could live comfortably on a withdrawal rate well below 4%. And I certainly didn't have any trouble finding things to keep me occupied. My health, fitness and personal relationships improved dramatically. Meanwhile, I took up plenty of new and interesting hobbies to ensure I continued to learn and grow. As far as I was concerned, there was very little downside to FIRE!
So this was all going fine until a few months ago, when a pretty interesting opportunity came up to take a part-time job back in the field I was working. The offer was too good to pass up, so here I am back at work a few days a week, feeling like I've got a foot in each of the work/FIRE camps.
Having work encroach back into my life, I've made a few interesting observations, and am wondering if others have had similar or different experiences:
1. Being F.I. with an additional income has made me LESS financially disciplined. I'm still frugal relative to the average consumer, but I give less thought to eating out, or using the car as often. There's definitely a bit of lifestyle inflation creeping in which wasn't there pre F.I. and I'm not sure I'm happy about it...
2. Certain expenses go up A LOT. Eg. travel expenses, lunches, work clothes, dry cleaning... I was surprised by how much my expenses dropped when I stopped working, so I shouldn't be surprised to see these costs come flying back in.
3. Working part-time can make me LESS productive. If I've beein in the office for 8 hours I falsely feel like I've achieved something that day, so I'm less inclined to pick up other interests in the free time I have left over.
4. Having a job to go to can make me LESS social outside of work. Basically I think there's a minimum level of social interaction you need each week, and it's easy to hit that quota with office colleagues. When I wasn't working I'd make an extra effort to go out and socialize with new friends in my community.
Basically the point I'm trying to make is when you've tasted FIRE you become a lot more attuned to the somewhat hidden costs of work, and you tend to look at everything a little more critically to weight up the costs vs benefits.
I'm interested in other people's experiences, and whether you think working part-time post FIRE is a good or bad thing overall?