Going part time!!

[laurence]

So DW and I are raising three awesome kids, and the oldest has special needs. Between medical/therapy stuff and after school sports/music/theater/etc activities we've been feeling a little ragged. For six years my wife worked part time and those were lovely years. For the last four she's been back full time and while that really helped accelerate our NW (see "Meh at a million" thread) it's made life hectic. She gets up at 3:30 every day to go to work early, I get the kids off to school, she gets off and races home to pick them up and at the end of the day we can spend a short time after the kids go down before she needs to hit the sack herself.

So I've been exploring possible career changes for a while and found out my old department can't find qualified engineers to churn out product, and is happy to take me back part time! I'm going to do 24 hours a week, and handle both pickup and drop off of the kiddos, so DW can work a normal shift and we can see a little more of each other! I'll also get to keep my benefits, including 401k with matching. Best of all, three day weekends!

It'll be a cash flow hit, for sure, but we've just had our day care costs roll off (youngest starts all day kindergarten at the public elementary school this September) so it mostly cancels out. Once we pay off the second car in three years and in five years have the rental property paid off, we'll leap way ahead again. I'm really excited to go part time, I know not everyone gets that kind of opportunity and this is the part of their childhood they'll really remember.

DW says she gets the beemer now and I get the Acadia....I feel it's best I agree to this.

 

[KrissK]

Congrats! I would love to find a part-time opportunity in my field.

 

[Aerides]

Congrats! Great deal for you and the kids.

Not to sour anything, but do check that the 24 hours is enough for HC bene's next year. There are some changes I think related to ACA to where companies can put the minimum at 30 hours? DH was PT for his OMY and was told as of 2017 he would not longer get bene's at his 20 hours (didn't matter because he RE'd this month). And likely you could go on your DW's if needed anyway.

The past year that he was PT I saw a big difference in his stress levels, really helped out both for him and us.

 

[samclem]

laurence,
Congratulations, this sounds like it will be a QOL enhancement for the whole family.
PS--A long-overdue "It's great to have you back, we missed you during your hiatus."

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I'm a fan of part-time work, especially with young kids at home. I went back into more techie work after we had kids so I could work from home and have a more flexible schedule. Enjoy the new job!

 

[Lakewood90712]

Sounds like an xlent plan. Just don't let the 24 hrs per week creep back up to full time. I can see that happening , the employer wants you full time I'm sure.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Yay--Really happy for your fam!

 

[FUEGO]

Congrats. That's a huge increase in quality of life for very little monetary loss (especially after taxes).

 

[EastWest Gal]

I took a night time hospitalist job and moved 3000 miles to spend more time with family. It was my best job ever. A pediatric hospitalist job is never as busy as adult medicine. There just aren't as many kids in the hospital.

Anyway I worked every other week, 90 hr at the hospital (but I could sleep there too). Being off every other week was my trial run at ER.

My son especially benefitted from having a devoted tutor at home...his mom. Even on work weeks I was up getting ready for work and getting dinner in the table when DS came home from school.

Being at home with your kids after school is associated with a reduction in high risk behaviors in teens. It will also probably help with their success in school.

Part of FIRE is getting the kids successfully launched. I think overall it's a good plan.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[laurence]

Congrats! Great deal for you and the kids.

Not to sour anything, but do check that the 24 hours is enough for HC bene's next year. There are some changes I think related to ACA to where companies can put the minimum at 30 hours? DH was PT for his OMY and was told as of 2017 he would not longer get bene's at his 20 hours (didn't matter because he RE'd this month). And likely you could go on your DW's if needed anyway.

The past year that he was PT I saw a big difference in his stress levels, really helped out both for him and us.

Yes, I checked with HR and 20 hours is the minimum for benes but that could change 2018 - good news is DW could pick me up on health care if it gets cut, the kids are already on hers as it's Kaiser and the offices are just a few blocks down the street from us.

 

[laurence]

Being at home with your kids after school is associated with a reduction in high risk behaviors in teens. It will also probably help with their success in school.



Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

This is our number 1 motivation, we enter the rough waters of adolescence any month now....

 

[38Chevy454]

I just switched 3 weeks ago to 24 hours per week part-time myself. My schedule is 3x8, and Tues-Thurs is my normal workdays. So 4 day weekends. Amazing how much of my to-do list I have already got things done or progress made. That was my main motivator, having time for the other stuff I never seemed to get time for.

Like you, I keep my insurance at the same cost as previous full-time co-pay amounts. Also get my other benefits same, but vacation and sick leave are accumulated at 60%. Superb deal from my perspective and seems to be working out good for my employer.

I say go for it and be happy with the extra time to take care of family items. I know for me the extra time away from work is worth more then the extra money.

 

[rodi]

What a great decision. I went to 24 hours/week as an engineer in 2001 when I came back from maternity leave for my older son. I had to up it to 32 hours/week when I transfered jobs - but kept part time. My husband was between 24 and 32 weeks also, after our boys were born.... it made parenting MUCH easier.... and we still managed to sock away money.

You will not regret spending more time with your kids.

 

[Koogie]

Congrats. I started part-timing it last September as well and have been loving it so far.

I went back into partnership with an old business partner, so there are two of us "experienced" hands in the office now and we can cover for each other.
I generally work 4 days a week/44 weeks a year now. Long weekends every week (I take Mondays off, he takes Fridays off)

This summer we've even gone down to three days a week. I'm off on M/Tu and he is off Th/Fr. We go over everything on Wednesdays when we are both in.

I must admit I do monitor the email from home quite often and sometimes jump on the laptop to send out a particularly convoluted quotation but I figure that is a small price to pay. With that in mind though, I also say beware the slippery slope of more hours.. it's an easy trap...

 

[Dreamer]

Congrats. That should make family life much more pleasant. Money is not everything.

 

[laurence]

UPDATE: Just got finished telling all the upper management and my team. "family first" was an often repeated statement but I can tell everyone was shocked. I'm very excited to make the change, still nervous to see that first, smaller paycheck though!

 

[laurence]

UPDATE: Started part time yesterday. The first day was weird, and I felt a little anxious. Today it already felt normal, and AWESOME. I highly recommend a five hour workday. Spent the afternoon in the backyard setting up the softball gear for first practice tomorrow (of course had my kid pitch and hit for a while as well). I am cleaning the house like a fiend to make sure DW isn't too resentful! I'm still going to clear 80k (yay, cybersecurity!) so I'm not a deadbeat. It's really just to pack more into the 401k and pile money on the rental so it's paid off in time for DWs retirement. I get every Friday off, too, and DW works from home on Friday, I hope that's a good thing!

It's funny how nature abhors a vacuum. I got asked to step up from dugout coach to manager this season.....

 

[38Chevy454]

Good to hear you made the change to part-time. You will adjust to the new schedule very quick, for now it is still like taking some vacation for the partial days. After a bit you will get into the routine and enjoy your extra time away form work.

 

[gauss]

Be aware that the PT situation may not be sustainable long term.

If your department ever needs to reduce headcount, you may be in a class by yourself.

Current or future management may take a very different view on this in a contracting market as opposed to an expanding market.

As long as you have thought through this scenario you should be fine.

I have first hand experience with this sort of thing. It all ended very well in the end (ie FIRE'd and loving it), but it was a bit traumatic when sprung on me initially.

-gauss

 

[Lakewood90712]

Let the good times begin .

I got a good chuckle out of this : " I highly recommend a five hour workday." I have quite a few supervisors over the years that spent 90% of the time doing personal stuff on company / city time. A " 5 hour work day " would be a big increase in actual work for those boys .

 

[HFWR]

Congrats on the demotion! Remember, though, in FIRE-speak, 0 > 5...

 

[OneDay]

Congrats, thinking very seriously about going part time myself. I've worked crazy hours forever, ready for some downtime.

 

[Markola]

I had a eureka last weekend about going part time. DW and I are different as she is more of a spender, so we have come up with a series of compromises. One is, we both get equal amounts of blow-it money each month for which we aren't accountable to the other. Naturally, she indeed blows hers and I save half of mine. I manage all the bills and our essential spending needs.

I realized that the stash we'd need to support just our essential joint spending is a LOT smaller than that needed to support essential spending+blow-it money. So, we could knock years off of leaving full time employment if we make ourselves responsible for earning our own blow-it money, just as we did starting back in high school. Maybe I'll do fun work in a hardware store part time or have an online biz. She'll probably want to work full time longer than me anyway, which is just fine. Compromise!


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[bow-tie]

Laurence, congrats on the part-time gig. And a well paying one, too!

I quite FT work in 2013. I had my fill of the bull where I was working. We had one youngin' full time in school and one soon to be preschooler. I ended up in a gig working A LOT during tax season, but only work a handful of hours throughout the rest of the year. The time you get to devote to the chit'lins is priceless and you never get it back once it has passed.