Regrets

[RE2Boys]

You could always try P/T initially and then decide if it is putting constraints on you before you go full ER.

+1

When retired from career job (15 years ago), did some consulting but when the time/travel interfered with other activities, I gave it up, even though money was good. For the past 8 years I've been a seasonal employee, only work Jan to April, (I refer to it as my Dog Days of Winter job). I generally decide my own hours and do not have to put up with the corporate BS. Come in, do job, follow guidelines, but don't get into any company self-promotions, latest HR program of the month. Haven't even had a personnel evaluation yet.....in 8 years. Guess they are happy, and I'm happy.

 

[Cobra9777]

No regrets. I thought about going part time, but I still would have had the full time BS.

+1

In my line of work, part-time just means less pay. The stress, expectations and BS would still be there full-time. Bad formula. I love full-time retirement. No structure needed. Only regret is not pulling the trigger earlier. I do miss some of the people from work but we stay connected in other ways.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

I am anticipating the necessity of returning to the work force in some way. The collapse of oil squeezed my Play Money to nothing.

Thinking about dropping in to Manpower for casual labor. No committment required and I could use the exercise.

I am worried that the demand may be more than I want to supply, though. I like my free time these days

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[daylatedollarshort]

This question is for those that have already retired. Did anyone regret not going part time after your could RE?

I will be in a position to retire next March. I'm thinking of asking my employer if I can go to half time.

I already work from home. The type of work I do would appropriate for this. I am a software developer.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

I have worked at home for awhile. I cut back my hours when DH left his day job but still work part-time at assorted hobby jobs I can do from home. I can quit anytime as the income is not in our ER plan but it is easy money, I like the extra income and the brain work. I always have a long list of projects I want to work on so I will most likely work until they pry the mouse out of my cold dead hand.

My ultimate goal would be to have passive business income (income based on human capital and no portfolio risk) cover all of our annual expenses. So I also actively work on lowering our expenses to try to reach the point of annual expenses < passive, or at least easy, hobby type income

 

[Mo Money]

I am doing very limited PT w*rk at the request of my firm and/or my clients. I would rather not be doing it, as it gets in the way of my ER adventures. The extra $ is nice, but my goal is to fade away from the w*rkplace as soon as I reasonably can.

 

[InTheSticks]

Due to rental property, our house, other real estate and pets, we are going to limited in our ER adventures for a few years. So, I think I can work PT and still do the non-work activities that I want to do.

 

[RAE]

I will say free time is addictive! It seems like the more I have the more I want. I have gotten to the point that I don't even like things scheduled against my time that I enjoy!

I totally agree. I can't imagine working 20 hrs/week (or any hrs/week, really) at this point in my life (I've been retired for 5 1/2 years). And remember, if you are working just 20 hrs./wk (or even less), you will find yourself thinking about the job (and things you need to work on next, etc) for many more hours than that. No thanks.......that's not my idea of retirement.

 

[Focus]

In my line of work, part-time just means less pay. The stress, expectations and BS would still be there full-time. Bad formula.

I agree totally. Initially, I thought shifting down to part time would be ideal, and the company even let me write my own job description. But what was on paper was not reflected in the reality. It quickly became apparent that there was no way to opt out of the unappealing aspects.

 

[jim584672]

See no point to P/T. if you are FI why waste your time like that?

 

[RE2Boys]

See no point to P/T. if you are FI why waste your time like that?

Get paid for doing something you enjoy, whether for the challenge, intellectual stimulation, interest, obviously.

Or your barely FI and this gives you the funds to enjoy other things in free time.

Or you not sure of your FI and what you would do with yourself in retired life.......a transition.

We all have different motivations for doing things. Most folks would consider my backpacking as too much work (I'm 66), while I could not even consider wasting my time with a silly game called golf. Or waste hours following NFL football.

 

[Car-Guy]

I would agree if you are really FI, then why work part time and drag out the pain of working. Unless of course you like the work.

I know before I retired, several of my co-workers and I, often talked about the possibility of doing some PT or consultant work after we retired. We were all easily FI. To my knowledge, only one did. I know I was contacted a couple of times after I retired to do some consulting work and turned them down. No regrets here.

 

[RunningBum]

I went part time for a couple years and it worked well for me. Mostly I liked not having to dip into my savings yet, and keeping medical.

Be careful they don't still expect near full-time production. If you fall behind on a project or there is crisis mode or a big customer issue, they may expect you to work until it is handled. You've got to be able to step away after you've finished your hours. I was able to do this, but my director still rated me against others based on overall production, so I ranked low and eventually got laid off. It was with a package and I was ready to go so I was fine with that.

OTOH, sometimes full-time work is well over 40 hours. If you really can step out after 20, it can be more than a 50% reduction for half-pay.

 

[hesperus]

None for us.

I would think this answer would hinge on several things:

1. How much of your social life dependent on your job
2. How financially close is your retirement
3. How much do your enjoy your job/skills
4. How much of you is defined by what your are or do
5. How much do you value control of your time
6. Are you happy working now, but just want a little more free time

+1 excellent questions before deciding

 

[rodi]

I went part time for a couple years and it worked well for me. Mostly I liked not having to dip into my savings yet, and keeping medical.

Be careful they don't still expect near full-time production. If you fall behind on a project or there is crisis mode or a big customer issue, they may expect you to work until it is handled. You've got to be able to step away after you've finished your hours. I was able to do this, but my director still rated me against others based on overall production, so I ranked low and eventually got laid off. It was with a package and I was ready to go so I was fine with that.

OTOH, sometimes full-time work is well over 40 hours. If you really can step out after 20, it can be more than a 50% reduction for half-pay.

These are valid points and are why I arranged my party time schedule to be based on whole workdays rather than partial workdays. If it was Friday no one looked for me it scheduled a meeting for me. I still worked more than 8 hour days, night that was true when I was full time. I found it easier to avoid weekend crunch time as a part timer.

 

[InTheSticks]

Interesting replies. Thanks!

Keep them coming.

 

[August West]

This is an interesting question and one I find myself asking as I approach retirement.

About 2 1/2 years ago when things were slow at work I volunteered to temporarily cut back to 4 day weeks - 9 hours/day which is considered part time in my business. Well, one thing lead to another and it became permanent. I have to say I love having Fridays off and really look forward to having all days off. Things were setup for me to work another 2 years like this and retire. Then, my coworker up and quit unexpectedly which has lead to an exponential increase in stress for me. So much so that I'm now looking to retire next year, if I make it that long.

If I could go back and work 2 or 3 days a week the way things were I would do it but as they are now there is no way I would work part -time at my current employer. I might be interested in a part-time job somewhere else if were something I enjoyed and was low stress but since I'm not retired yet I really can't say with certainty.

 

[inky]

My 2c based on my experience: If you downshift straight away into a part-time role you may really enjoy it compared to fulltime.

On the other hand, if you quit completely, after a few months you may find you have developed a terrible allergy to any kind of paid work whatsoever!

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I think if you are pretty securely FI it only makes sense to find something you love and/or makes the world a better place. Preferably both.

 

[prose3589]

I am working towards ER which will include part time work of 10-15 hours a week. I feel like it is a great primer for full time ER. Also I don't want to touch the nest egg as my retirement horizon is 40 years or more.


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[InTheSticks]

If I worked PT, I would not touch the nest egg except for rents from real estate. I would cease contributing but not draw down.

In that way, it's OMY.

I think the regret would be in not asking and not knowing the answer from my employer.

 

[inky]

I think the regret would be in not asking and not knowing the answer from my employer.

Then do it. Assuming you are going to retire anyway, what do you have to lose?

 

[CaliforniaMan]

My 2c based on my experience: If you downshift straight away into a part-time role you may really enjoy it compared to fulltime.

On the other hand, if you quit completely, after a few months you may find you have developed a terrible allergy to any kind of paid work whatsoever!

+1
Absolutely true for me!
I was a committed worker bee forever, but it was only when I got free of the hive that I really began to see the flowers!

 

[CoolChange]

What I Lost

Then do it. Assuming you are going to retire anyway, what do you have to lose?

Not exactly the same situation as OP; but, I recently lost a bit of a severance package (four months) by asking about follow-on contract work before I was actually out the door. My mini-mega-corp decided to resend the severance package offer and keep me employed.

Story summary:

• My position was eliminated by a new executive, longish backstory on this.

• My offer to continue contracting/consulting very part time, one day a week, made it to the COO's desk.

• COO and some of his inner circle decided that eliminating me was not such a good idea at this point in time.

• So, now instead of an exit package and class of 2015, I am looking at class of 2016...or maybe 2017 since I cannot seem to pull the plug myself at the moment.

 

[GT1 Doug]

I tried to get my employer to let me go part time, but megacorp couldn't figure out how to do that. While I still work occasionally for them and others as a contractor, the vast majority of my time is free. The big surprise in retirement was the ability take advantage of spur of the moment opportunities that come up. As a result, I have met some incredible people and done things one can only read about. I would never be able to have done many of these things if I was working even part time.

The other thing I found was that my tolerance for corporate scat is now zero. I could never go back to being an "employee". As a contractor, I work a specific project and then I am gone, I generally given them an end date when I start. And since I now get paid by the hour, any corporate nonsense that delays the project costs them money.

 

[Nodak]

I retired 1 Feb 2007. Before I got out of the building a contractor offered me a part time position of 16 hours per week at a large enough salary that I just could not turn it down. I did 3 years in that position before fully retiring. I never had any regrets.