Working part time toward FIRE

[Bartleby_the_Scrivener]

I think this runs counter to a certain personality type on these forums, but I am curious if people have chosen to drop their working hours to half time and delay FIRE rather than working full time and reaching FIRE as quickly as possible. If that describes you, I'd love to know why you did it, how you did it, and how it worked out for you. Cheers!

[LifeHappens]

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/post-fire/calling-all-downshifters!/

[Kronsey]

I'm a self employed CPA. I guess you could say I've shifted to part-time. I work from Noon to 5 pm each work day. No weekends ever anymore. Some days less than 5 hours, some days maybe six. During tax season, I'll need to work closer to 40 hours a week for a 5-6 week stretch.

I downshifted out of necessity. I had an emergency surgery in Dec of 2016 which resulted in a Crohn's Disease diagnosis.

I physically can't work more than I do without feeling like I'm killing myself. It is a strange feeling working 25 or so hours a week and feeling worn out when I used to consistently work 60-70 hours a week without blinking an eye. It's been a tough adjustment.

Long story short, I really don't care much for my career, so I would actually prefer the "hurry to the finish line" approach. But I don't have that option. I'm blessed in that our savings rate hovers between 65-70%, so it isn't like I have to do this for 30 years.

We did get a late start. It took my surgery, diagnosis, and continued health struggles for my wife to get on board with frugal living.

I turn 34 next month. I'm probably looking at another 10 years of doing this before I can sell my small book of business and retire. If I'm lucky, maybe 6-7 years. If I'm unlucky, maybe 14 years. All of those are much better options than working til my 60s though. I couldn't make it that long unless my health improves.

Thanks for starting the topic. It allowed me some time for reflection. I'll check out the thread linked above here shortly.

[PhilB]

Sorry to hear about your troubles Kronsey - that sounds rough.

Bartleby, I drove myself crazy going round and round the loop of considering part time before FIRE, but I always ended up at the same conclusion - get my head down and grit it out.  For me, unless you have such a huge salary that you'd still have a good savings rate,  the PT route only makes sense once you have finished the main stash building stage.  That doesn't mean you need to have reached you destination, just that you've done all the hard saving.
Examples where earlier PT makes sense would include:

• The stash is big enough to do the heavy lifting and you just pick up some enjoyable, low stress, PT work here and there to keep you ticking over (Barrista FIRE);
• You're waiting for future income streams such as pensions to come on line and just need to tide yourself over with PT work
• You've reached a lean, but comfortable FIRE and a little bit of PT reduces / replaces your drawings and lets the FIRE grow plumper.

As it happens, after gritting it out to a pretty plump FIRE full time, I have ended up staying on 1 day a week post-FIRE.  My whole attitude is completely different now.  Knowing I can walk any time I want means that all the stress has melted away and I can actually enjoy most of the work.  If I needed the job then my relationship to it would be very different, much to the cost of my mental health.  YMMV.

[citrine]

I work part time according to most standards, have 10-15 hours hands on with clients, and an additional 10 hours of cleaning, setting up, and laundry (massage therapist).  I am getting burnt out because the last few months have been double that per week.  I have had to cut down to working the first 20 days of the month and having the last 8-11 days off to recover, work on home projects, have fun, and start cooking again.  My husband has his own business as well and we never thought about the scenario of what if both of our businesses took off where we were turning down clients!  I am also looking into holding group workshops so I can get some of my time back. Plan is to keep doing this for the next 15 years.

I cannot believe I used to work 50-60 hours in corporate, not including traveling! 

[Kronsey]

I cannot believe I used to work 50-60 hours in corporate, not including traveling!

I think most of us that used to do that grind don't fully understand or appreciate how much harm that lifestyle does to your mind, body, and spirit. It is an unhealthy and unbalanced life.

I also think it helps if you actually care about the work you're doing, but 95% of those typical corporate jobs are for financial, managerial, and other BS positions. For me, accounting was chosen because of financial outlook, not because I gave a flying flip about audits, taxes, financial statements, or budgets.

Glad you made it out of that grind. Hope you are able to mold your small businesses more towards your ideal lifestyle!

[SpareChange]

I think this runs counter to a certain personality type on these forums, but I am curious if people have chosen to drop their working hours to half time and delay FIRE rather than working full time and reaching FIRE as quickly as possible. If that describes you, I'd love to know why you did it, how you did it, and how it worked out for you. Cheers!

I posted this in another thread. Might be illustrative here too. I'm soon to downshift. Been looking forward to it for quite some time.

Why you did it.

I was essentially always planning to downshift at some point, as my career makes it easy to do so. It was the timing that was in question. I was starting to burnout a bit. There were a couple of periods last year when I chose to work 35-40 days straight. Our volume tends to go up in winter, and during the last one I was physically feeling it a lot more. Not getting any younger. Also, my father passed away this July and this will give me more flexibility in helping my mother over the long term.

What your downshift looks like. 

Halftime. One week on/one off, more specifically 5 days on (40 hours), then 9 days off. Call every 5th weekend. Still eligible for bennies, albeit with health insurance at a higher rate...going from $16.62/paycheck to $45-50. 4.6% 403b match and 12% pto intact. Will have pto bank maxed at 480 hrs. Plan to keep most of that as a ST disability policy for now. Can easily take more work or call on. We have an app to trade shifts. At base, looking at earning $40k/yr minimum.

What are your plans going forward around downshifting and FIRE?

The flexibility and stability inherent to my job makes it difficult to cross whatever threshold is needed to FIRE from it completely. In fact, at some point, I could downshift even further. Being able to ignore SORR is tempting. Even so, I'd like to keep myself on a strong pace until I reach FI, and reach a comfortable RE amount in 5-10 years. I'll still keep investing:). My portfolio is at about 85% of basic living expenses using the 4% rule.

[PlanetDee]

I guess I'm technically "part time" - I went down to 80% or 32 hours a week about 3 months ago. I'm 28, my husband is also 28 and we have a net worth of about 340k. I work as a government paralegal, so there is a lot of flexibility. I had been feeling pretty burned out and thought that the couple hours a day back would make a difference - it really does! I have much more time to exercise, sleep, take care of the house, etc. I don't feel as completely exhausted at the end of each day. I still get full benefits and am considered full time in terms of "service credits" per month for pension purposes.

We had talked about just pushing through and to have me stay full time, but we're so young and have time to pursue FIRE a bit more comfortably. I think the 80% schedule will make it so I can stick with it in a more sustainable way.

[trollwithamustache]

That is a big part of why I went out on my own as a consultant.

Pre-MMM, I targets a stash size in retirement accounts where I figured I would not have to contribute any more but could retire at 60. Once that was hit, making lots of money became a lower priority.

Also, I still really enjoy the technical side of what I do and R&D type work... so now I pick clients/projects that I like more than throwing myself into whatever big project the overlords assigned because I was working for the raise/promotion.  I need to work ~1000 to 1250 hrs a year (my rates vary a bit) to cover costs. Anything above that funds excessive vacations, some padded retirement account savings and some savings to bring in the retirement date a bit.

The freedom to make alternative plans is the real power of frugality. If you have your S&#t together and can stay cashflow positive (even if only ever so slightly) go for happiness.

[TVRodriguez]

I went part-time when I had our first child, and I cut back further with each child, eventually moving from a big law firm to my own practice.  DH went to 4 days/week when the recession shrunk his practice, and he kept it at 4 days/week when things picked back up.  He felt like that extra day off made his life a lot better.  I work 2-5 days/week, depending on a lot of different factors (workload, desire, sick kids, school days off, etc).

Now, we're both part-time professionals with a fairly relaxed lifestyle.  We have a healthy stash that continues to grow, and even if we don't put in another dollar, we'll be able to retire "early" and well.  We're not quite FI yet, but neither do we really intend to RE.  We've found a balance that works really well at the moment. 

I'm writing this from my home "office" (read: dining room table) after getting the kids off to school, then doing about 2 hours of work, plus a dabble of housework (okay, I just cleaned up the kitchen after breakfast and made beds).  I'm now off to read a novel for a bit while I drink some tea, since I have the sniffles and just want to curl up with a book on the couch.  I may need to go out for groceries later before getting the kids.  DH had some work this morning, unusually for a Friday, so I may wait for him to return so we can go food shopping together.