Time = money/ money > time cartoon

[Jeffman52]

It sounds great, especially to people entering the workforce, but it is a trap because you simply can't have unlimited time off. If everyone took their unlimited hours, then NOTHING would get done.

And the biggest trap of all is that this benefits the company because:

• The company doesn't have to carry accrued vacation on the books
• The employee doesn't get an accrued vacation/PTO payout when they quit

In practice, it comes down to both peer pressure and management pressure. High achievers never take the time. They make everyone else cranky because they feel they can't take the time since superman/woman is always working and they'd be compared to them. Then there is the opposite problem of the worker who decides they'll take off every Friday, and a month in the summer, waiting for management to challenge them.

A good friend of mine works for such a company. He is in management. He says the biggest problem is getting people to take time. He also had to fire someone who did exactly as I mentioned (Every Friday, month in summer). The employee simply didn't have enough time to get the tasks done required of them.

There are a few nice things about it, many revolving around sickness and disability.

---

I still think my first megacorp had it right. Everyone was required to take at least 5 days in a row at some time during the year, their choice. It allowed for forced downtime that tech workers typically don't want to take.

All of the above is 100% true. The Mega Corp I still W**k for went to unlimited time off and I already see the difference. Most feel the pressure to continue each day without a break because that is what everyone else is doing.


I contacted my boss a few days after the policy was implemented and very clearly told him I was still going to monitor my time off the way I was before and would be taking at "least" as many days off as before. I highly recommend that others do the say. I not only didn't get push-back but he had not thought about doing the same and now does his time off the same way.


Time> money. I like many others on this website have seen friends and family pass away early and some never got to retire at all. Some were only retired a few years and were gone. At some point just realize that you have more than enough to let go of the J*b. My BIL retired last year and before he moved to Florida to enjoy his retirement were were having a beer and he said "Keep this in mind. How much money do you really need?"

 

[Gumby]

Let me get this straight.... If I work like a dog putitng in a huge amount of time on the job, I get to buy more fancy toys. If I drive an EV, I can grow more green veggies. Right? Either way it seems I am stuck having to buy an expensive new car.

Well, they are car commercials.

 

[pjigar]

They are paid days, but the whole thing is a huge trap

+1. It becomes a race as to who takes the least amounts of vacations in the team that way you can impress your boss. One of my acquaintance took way too much vacation after this new policy and one day his manager called in and told him: "You have been taking too many days off". So no, it's not unlimited vacation. It's a trap.


I take vacations as if I still have my old 4+1 weeks of paid time off.

 

[Hobbes]

I retired last year at age 53. I am forgoing some of the highest-earning years of my career in exchange for free time at a relatively young age. We have enough money to live comfortably with an acceptable safety factor. We're not rich, but can maintain the same lifestyle as before retirement, travel, hobbies, etc. This is good enough for us.



I'm gladly trading that earned money for the free use of my time.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I retired last year at age 53. I am forgoing some of the highest-earning years of my career in exchange for free time at a relatively young age. We have enough money to live comfortably with an acceptable safety factor. We're not rich, but can maintain the same lifestyle as before retirement, travel, hobbies, etc. This is good enough for us.

I'm gladly trading that earned money for the free use of my time.

One of our neighbors pointed out that when we retired many of her peers in her field high paying field were just hitting their stride at our ages. We'd rather be hitting the parks and concert venues. It has been over 10 years now since we retired early and my only regret is I wish we had saved more and retired even earlier. A few years ago I started keeping a spreadsheet of all our fun events days - like going to wine country or seeing Imagine Dragons in concert. I'm up to around 400 events now. We would not have had had the time or energy to do most of those if we were both still working full time. And being off I have time to look for deals so we can go out often and it doesn't cost too much.

 

[Koolau]

Let me get this straight.... If I work like a dog putitng in a huge amount of time on the job, I get to buy more fancy toys. If I drive an EV, I can grow more green veggies. Right? Either way it seems I am stuck having to buy an expensive new car.

Yes, and W*RKING longer as well! Sorry, I'll take one of those horrible old ICE cars and FIRE.

 

[Dtail]

I retired last year at age 53. I am forgoing some of the highest-earning years of my career in exchange for free time at a relatively young age. We have enough money to live comfortably with an acceptable safety factor. We're not rich, but can maintain the same lifestyle as before retirement, travel, hobbies, etc. This is good enough for us.



I'm gladly trading that earned money for the free use of my time.

Good decision and good first post after 8 years.

 

[Hobbes]

Good decision and good first post after 8 years.

Ha. I lurk around here occasionally, but I guess I've never actually posted. Thanks.

 

[REWahoo]

Ha. I lurk around here occasionally, but I guess I've never actually posted. Thanks.

Where is Calvin?

 

[Koolau]

Ha. I lurk around here occasionally, but I guess I've never actually posted. Thanks.

Please continue. We welcome new voices and new blood.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Yes, and W*RKING longer as well! Sorry, I'll take one of those horrible old ICE cars and FIRE.

+1. I watch our neighbors rush around like their hair is fire on a daily basis. The poor wife looks so tired and beat down; she spends most of the day shuttling the kids back and forth to events and her other 7 trips of the day? No idea but I know her first trip is around 7am and I see her coming home past 10p on many days. But, they have a brand new $100K SUV, a European sports car with a flat tire that hasn't moved out of the garage in over a year and a new F-150 Raptor with the carrying capacity of a wheelbarrow. Oh yes, and a very large and expensive pool that I think they have used twice this year. But, hey...they are living the dream, right?

I am not judging, but that seems like a miserable way to live. I am sure they make comments about our beat down 10 year old Honda but I quite OK with that.

 

[Koolau]

+1. I watch our neighbors rush around like their hair is fire on a daily basis. The poor wife looks so tired and beat down; she spends most of the day shuttling the kids back and forth to events and her other 7 trips of the day? No idea but I know her first trip is around 7am and I see her coming home past 10p on many days. But, they have a brand new $100K SUV, a European sports car with a flat tire that hasn't moved out of the garage in over a year and a new F-150 Raptor with the carrying capacity of a wheelbarrow. Oh yes, and a very large and expensive pool that I think they have used twice this year. But, hey...they are living the dream, right?

I am not judging, but that seems like a miserable way to live. I am sure they make comments about our beat down 10 year old Honda but I quite OK with that.

This so reminds me of neighbors across the street (years ago.) They were great neighbors with two well behaved kids. She was between j*bs and was spending her time looking after the kids while her husband made (apparently) a decent living.

She decided they needed to get rid of the old beater she drove and buy a new van to hustle the kids around. But, to pay for it, she needed a j*b. So, as a barber/beauty person, she put in a very small barber/beauty shop in a back room of the house. All day long, she cut and set hair to pay for that van. It was all she could do to finish up in time to play bus driver for the kids (to/from school, soccer, little league, then separate schools when one kid got old enough, etc.) Their old car would have been good enough for the duty, but she needed that new van and she was willing to w*rk all day to provide it.

It was none of my business, but had she wanted my advice, I'd have told her to use the old beater for the kids and be a SAHM - which she loved! I can barely run my own life, so I try not to run anyone else's, but that's the way I saw it. YMMV

 

[Bigdawg]

Where is Calvin?

And Shaw?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6806448/

 

[Bigdawg]

This so reminds me of neighbors across the street (years ago.) They were great neighbors with two well behaved kids. She was between j*bs and was spending her time looking after the kids while her husband made (apparently) a decent living.

She decided they needed to get rid of the old beater she drove and buy a new van to hustle the kids around. But, to pay for it, she needed a j*b. So, as a barber/beauty person, she put in a very small barber/beauty shop in a back room of the house. All day long, she cut and set hair to pay for that van. It was all she could do to finish up in time to play bus driver for the kids (to/from school, soccer, little league, then separate schools when one kid got old enough, etc.) Their old car would have been good enough for the duty, but she needed that new van and she was willing to w*rk all day to provide it.

It was none of my business, but had she wanted my advice, I'd have told her to use the old beater for the kids and be a SAHM - which she loved! I can barely run my own life, so I try not to run anyone else's, but that's the way I saw it. YMMV

^I agree with the above advice. But, YMMV. 25 years ago DW and I were young enlisted in the USMC. After taxes and childcare DW netted maybe a couple hundred bucks. Many people told her to get out of the Corps. The childcare was awesome and the kids are doing fantasic here at age 29 and 27. And DW, yup, she cashes a 4K retirement check every month from her 21 years in the USMC. Her experience in the Corps trained her for the 125k job she has now and 10 years into her next pension check. She is 50 and wants to punch at 55.

Appropriate that our niece just called DW to ask about her situation. She has a gov job (pension someday) and is married to a Sailor. After taxes and childcare she nets maybe $200. My DW relayed her story. Needless to say the niece will stay on for the gov pension.

But, work just for a NEW car? No way. I'll take the paid off beater any day of the week.

 

[Gumby]

.... and is married to a Sailor.

That's never a good thing.

 

[old medic]

Ha. I lurk around here occasionally, but I guess I've never actually posted. Thanks.

It looks like you learned some good info from here over 8 years and retiring at 53... congrads

 

[DrRoy]

Always liked the cartoon.

 

[finnski1]

Does anyone have access to and willing to share the cartoon of the businessman walking past a cemetery with a bubble over his head that says time = money and the tombstone nearest him says time > money? Thanks in advance.

Here's another one I like as well.

 

[Koolau]

Here's another one I like as well.

Thanks! I haven't seen that one before. How enlightening!

 

[calmloki]

Here's another one I like as well.

Excellent!