At what point do you say "no" to stop picking up additional hourly work?

[use2betrix]

The last 2 years I have been salary, where if I picked up a Saturday I would get paid a small amount, less than 10% of my weekly take home pay increase. In return I rarely picked up extra Saturday's.

I just started a new job this week and I'm hourly again. It's a contract job where I'll probably be at 6 months to 2+ years potentially.

So here's the kicker, they are basically allowing me to work as many hours as I want. A bare minimum of 50, but I could work 7 days a week, 11 hour shifts if I wanted. I'd be required to take every other Sunday off though.

If I do that, I will take home roughly double as I have previously taken home the last 2 years. At 50 hrs it'd be about 1.5x what I used to.

I'm thinking very hard about just working as many hours as I can while it lasts. I'll be saving about 60-70% of my take home pay if I do.

About me: I'm 27 with a vehicle and 5th wheel loan. I live full time in the 5th wheel and need the truck to tow it. If I work a lot I could likely have both paid off by the end of the year which would free up another $1500/mo.

[Ricky]

Young and need the money? Sure. You have the principles down to save it wisely so why not? At least try and if it gets out of hand then you will know how much is enough.

[exsalaryman]

I can only speak for myself here but a few years ago I had a similar situation with my previous employer. We had the opportunity to work overtime and make 1.5x our hourly salary. I didn't take advantage of the opportunity. In hindsight, as Trixr606 has stated, I would've worked the hours until it got to a point where it was negatively impacting other areas of my life and dial it back as necessary.

I dont know where you spend your free time at the moment but if it isnt providing you with value. I'm not sure what you value.... fitness, writing, art, relationships with friends/family, etc. But if you've got time to burn then I would definitely consider taking advantage of this opportunity. It may not last forever.

[money beard]

I was in a similar situation over the last couple of years.  In 2013 and 2014, I worked about 80 hours a week basically the whole time.  Did it suck?  Yeah.  Did it put us miles ahead of where we would have been on the path to financial independence?  Yes, it did.

Now this year our work has slowed down, and I am really glad that I was able to take advantage when the opportunity presented itself, because we may not have another opportunity like that for a while.

So I would say, do it. 

On an unrelated topic, what kind of fifth wheel do you have?  We have been looking at them, but no one seems to make an all electric one, they all seem to use propane fridges and stoves.  I'd really like to find an affordable one, prepped for solar, with an induction cooktop and a residential fridge. 

[The Accidental Mustachian]

I've had times when i could work as much as i wanted, and boy did i! My advice FWIW was to try and have one day off each week if thats possible. I'd much rather work 6 days of 14 hrs and have a day off than work 7 days of 12 hours on the spin. I found this much more manageable and was able to maintain this for very long periods.

[Healthandwealth]

FWIW: sometimes people don't really notice they work too much and it could be affecting their health. Or already has been affecting their health. If you are gonna work these extra hours (which I can totally understand), may be you can ask friends and relatives to keep an eye on you and warn you the moment they think your health is affected. Because health is more important in the long run.

Good luck and go for what you want!

[TheOldestYoungMan]

It can be pretty fun to do this too.  Particularly working towards a particular goal.  Just try to be as self-aware as you can be, it's really easy to reach your saturation point, not realize it, and then just murder someone over cold coffee.

So once you start carefully planning to murder co-workers, probably cut back on the hours.

[Insanity]

I was double booked as a consultant for about 10 months after being laid off.  It wore me down.  Hurt the family, but we now have massive savings and we are also now cutting some more monthly spending.  I would not recommend doing it really long term as it is not good for your health nor your productivity.

[Cougar]

 depends on your situation. if you dont have a significant other and/or kids; i'd put the hammer down and max those hours, giving yourself at least one night a week to veg or be socialable with other to recharge. if pulling mad hours now means you can retire at 40 instead of 50 its worth it. youre in your 20s so youre still indestructable and there's no push to settle down.
 if i could have grabbed hold of my 20 year old self by my 40 year old self; i'd be fi before 40.

 if you've got others, you have to make the call because you'll be missing out on their lives.

[use2betrix]

Thanks everyone for all the input. I don't have kids but am engaged. My fiance is very understanding. We don't have any major hobbies but are pretty into fitness so hopefully we can keep true with that. I know I'll have to take every other Sunday off at a minimum so that will help.

I was in a similar situation over the last couple of years.  In 2013 and 2014, I worked about 80 hours a week basically the whole time.  Did it suck?  Yeah.  Did it put us miles ahead of where we would have been on the path to financial independence?  Yes, it did.

Now this year our work has slowed down, and I am really glad that I was able to take advantage when the opportunity presented itself, because we may not have another opportunity like that for a while.

So I would say, do it. 

On an unrelated topic, what kind of fifth wheel do you have?  We have been looking at them, but no one seems to make an all electric one, they all seem to use propane fridges and stoves.  I'd really like to find an affordable one, prepped for solar, with an induction cooktop and a residential fridge.

Regarding the 5th wheel part, I have a 2013 crossroads elevation toy hauler. Toy hauler is mostly storage, tools, clothes, food, w/d, etc.

Even if you find one with propane, when they have an electric source they typically use that as a priority. My fridge only kicks to propane when my trailers unplugged. You'd really want that propane backup, in case you lost power. No power would destroy the fridge fast if there's food in it.

[Sam E]

My hours are 8am to 5pm, but many employees are scheduled 7:30am to 4pm. My company doesn't mind if I show up early as long as I'm doing work and they don't mind if I take a 30 minute lunch instead of an hour. So I'm currently getting about an hour of overtime per day (which has been officially OK'd). It's awesome, honestly. My paychecks have never looked better. I'd say take all the overtime you can handle without impacting other areas of your life and without burning yourself out, you'll reach your financial goals much faster if you take advantage of opportunities like this when you can.

[okits]

It can be pretty fun to do this too.  Particularly working towards a particular goal.  Just try to be as self-aware as you can be, it's really easy to reach your saturation point, not realize it, and then just murder someone over cold coffee.

So once you start carefully planning to murder co-workers, probably cut back on the hours.

LMAO because it's true.

OP, if you want the money more than you're going to sacrifice, do it.  But short-term only.  And not to the ongoing exclusion of your other priorities and life goals.  It is not fun to get slapped in the face one day with the realization that you're flabby, bitter, and boring because all you do is work.

[Ramza Beoulve]

I'm 28 and a salaried employee that is exempt from the traditional time and a half over time rules. I don't pick up overtime, but I do work holidays.

I normally work Monday to Friday and if a holiday falls on my regular workday, I will go ahead and volunteer to work my normal shift and get my holiday pay on top of my regular pay. I worked Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and Memorial Day.

My total commute each day is about ~2 hours and I have various hobbies I like to do.

[Digital Dogma]

Im in a similar situation (contractor, but with a 5yr contract) and we are currently short staffed, so Ive been working 7 days a week for the last 5 weeks. I can do that for a month, maybe two months, not 6. If youve got a wife or girlfriend a lot of it depends on how willing they are to put up with a no-show significant other during their free time. You wouldnt want to end a good relationship for a little extra income.

Its doable to work 7 day weeks for a year or more, but Id try not to make that a permanent schedule, maybe a schedule of 19 days on and 2 off (two straight weeks then a 5 day week) so you still enjoy some days all to yourself.

[music lover]

I'm in a govt job and took all the overtime I could get until 2 years ago when I paid off my mortgage and became debt free. Once that was done, I stopped working OT. It's not pensionable, so it has no effect on my pension and I'd rather have the time than the money. I'm still working, but that's just to avoid a penalty on my pension for leaving early.

[arebelspy]

My wife and I had a mantra we repeated many times over the past 8 years or so:  "We work hard now so we can be lazy later."

It was worth it for us, but you start saying no to the extra when it's negatively affecting you.

[Mirwen]

Everyone has a different "maximum" output.  Mine seems to be very low.  I have a very hard time doing 40 hours every week and it wouldn't be worth it to me to do more than 40 because I would get depressed and probably quit.  Some people can do a lot more than 40 per week though. 

I'd say just do as much as feels right.  Since you have an SO, one day off a week seems appropriate.  How much time do you need in the evening to de-stress and prep food and laundry?  Most people can handle 10 hour days, some can handle 12 hours.  I can only handle 6 but I try to do 8 anyway. You know yourself better than we do and it sounds like you can adjust as necessary.  Take advantage but don't burn yourself out, it can seriously affect your health.

[use2betrix]

Started this thread 2.5 months ago and still going strong. Had a 3 day weekend over the 4th then a couple days off at the beginning of August.

In August I put in 321 hrs. Looking to be similar this month and will then start slowing down. It's been going alright. Since I do contract work everything is calculated as "well if I don't buy xx or work an extra xx hrs, that's that much more time I can take off between jobs."

[Digital Dogma]

Good for you! Your first few years of early investing are the most critical and you can make a huge dent in your time to FI. Just make sure you keep up a healthy eating/exercise habit, those can and do fall to lower priorities when you work so damn much.

[FLA]

sounds like it's working out well

I was going to say do it as long as you can reasonably tolerate it or until your kids start calling you 'Mister'. No kids, go for it. 

when we had kids, my ex kind of went into a financial panic but we were totally fine. He changed his shift to nights so he could be with the kids during the day, constantly picked up overtime and I mean constantly, plus he tours in a band every few months. He did this until the kids were in late middle school. But his kids did not call him 'Mister' because when getting home at 7am, he was all theirs. He slept less than 4 hrs a day (except when he had a day off).  Admirable, you are working hard for your family and at the same time you are fully present for them. But while great with them, he was a miserable SOB to be around. He had zero time to himself and that is not healthy.  Years into our divorce I even said, quit working double time on the weekends you don't have the kids, get a GF, have a social life.

Divorce sent him into super panic about finances and he worked more.  He has a hot shot lawyer that eggs him on to take me to court for stupid stuff.  I would win, we've had the same judge for a decade, she has said enough with the nonsense suits, yet they continued. So ironically, he got so in debt to his lawyer and lived on CCs, that he had to declare bankruptcy. All that work, all those hours of life he will never get back, only to declare bankruptcy.  He's quite a bit older than me to begin with but every time I see him, he looks worse, he's so thin, he has a grey pallor, his cheeks are sunken, he looks corpse-ish. 

That's when you should stop- if anyone compares you to a corpse. Or seriously, when you can no longer make time for a social life, you're young, that's important.

[use2betrix]

The last few months my exercise has slowed which is hard for me as that's been a huge passion my whole life. I've cut back to a couple days a week but keep telling myself it's temporary. I'll get it back soon enough.

That's when you should stop- if anyone compares you to a corpse. Or seriously, when you can no longer make time for a social life, you're young, that's important.

Funny you mention that. I had been growing a beard for several months and it was pretty long. My coworkers had never seen me clean shaven. Well I shaved last weekend and never heard the end of it. Went from looking 35 to 20. They are still giving me a hard time haha "what is it, bring your kid to work day?" Most of them are in their 40's and 50's, so I aim to look older most the time.

[FLA]

Funny you mention that. I had been growing a beard for several months and it was pretty long. My coworkers had never seen me clean shaven. Well I shaved last weekend and never heard the end of it. Went from looking 35 to 20. They are still giving me a hard time haha "what is it, bring your kid to work day?" Most of them are in their 40's and 50's, so I aim to look older most the time.
[/quote]

ahh, the good old days when I actually had to try not to look 16 at work so I would get some street cred. This happened until just about 35, I finally looked my age, that sucked.

[Merrie]

I'd rather work a double shift (12-14 hours) than give up my days off. It would have to be a really unusual situation for me to be willing to do so. There was a lot of OT available earlier this year in my job, but not as much now. I spent most of the late spring and summer working one double shift every 2 weeks or so because I was picky about which shifts I'd pick up at what locations and times and which days. I have two little kids and a stay-at-home spouse, and it got hard on us pretty fast when I was working more. I think one double shift a week (so around a 48 hour week) would be my limit and I wouldn't want to do that for a long time.