Would you have done it differently and taken life slower ?

[scrabbler1]

I went from working FT to ER gradually. After working 16 years FT, from 1985-2001, I then worked 7 years PT in 3 different stages. The first stage was working 20 hours per week from 2001-2007 then 12 hours per week from 2007-2008. But within that 20 hours per week PT, I had a mostly telecommuting gig from 2001-2003 before losing the telecommuting part of it in 2003, lasting until 2007.


Those 7 years of working PT greatly eased my transition into full ER in 2008. The biggest change to my day-to-day lifestyle began in 2001 when I switched to the mostly telecommuting gig, going to the office one day a week but working about 14 hours per week from home the rest of the week. I was able to begin doing some volunteer work and resurrect some old hobbies.


Losing the telecommuting gig in late 2003 forced me to juggle my newly found activities in the 2 weekdays I was off, a challenge at times. Going to 12 hours per week (2 days) loosened up those scheduling conflicts but didn't eliminate them. Only a full ER eliminated them and allowed me to expand on them.


I don't regret this glide path into ER one bit.

 

[Al in Ohio]

I worked close to a 40 hour workweek most of my career even as a consulting engineer. I refused to work much more as I was in a dual career family. Half my career I worked for companies that would pay me OT if I did work longer so there were occasional busy stretches that I worked closer to 50 hpw. Most I might have ever worked was 55. I cannot imagine working 60 or more for any sustained period. I also transitioned to 32 hours a week over four days when I turned 45. Did that until I was 54, then went to 20 hours per week my last 6 months, then retired at 55. The last few years were also at home ( no more office commute). I still consult and will probably get paid for 100-200 hours consulting this year. I would not change my strategy one bit. It has allowed me a lot more time with my sons before they fly the coup and go off to college and I wanted to do more pre-retirement travel inside the states during this time and help care for my parents nearby. We plan to travel more extensively outside the US once my DW retires in 5 more years (I am 6 years her senior).

I will say this strategy probably cost me a senior partnership type position versus what I achieved which is something akin to junior partner, but I still was given a few was senior rank perks as I offered a unique skill set that was hard to find. It was because of this that I could demand a schedule out of the norm and was paid almost what other staff working twice my hours made. (I view that as part of being a smart capitalist/ consultant)

Oh and one more thing: I heard of scrabbler1's gradual wind down before my last few years were planned and have to give him some credit (along with others) for encouraging me to continue my last few years in a similar fashion of taking it down one more notch.

 

[Al in Ohio]

One more thing for the OP to consider that was a no brainer for me. Working gradually less, but longer with an attitude of easing into retirement has the advantage that you are earning more years towards Social Security (I have no zero years). Also reduced income over more years rather than higher income over less years is also more tax advantaged.

 

[broadway]

Early on in my career I wished I had had the courage to take more sick days for "mental health" reasons.

I was stuck with 10 days of vacation for most of my career.

 

[Aerides]

I did make decisions differently knowing ER was in the 5 year plan:

Took a lateral position with ability to wore-from-home knowing it had less career potential
Stopped even looking for promotions
Hired/trained staff to be more independent vs. feeling the need to be all-up-in-the-details (i.e. indispensable)
Relaxed my hours - didn't feel the need to be answering emails at 9pm anymore

Once I was in the last 1-2 years:
Didn't feel bad about taking a sick day now and then
Called people out on BS (nicely, with humor, but still) far more often
Declining stupid training "opportunities"
Argued against additional responsibilities and staff that would have been a huge PITA with no benefits for me (the kind of thing you'd be stupid to turn down if you expected to ever get promoted).

Don't get me wrong, I still did everything needed to keep my responsibilities, team, and company whole. I just decided that there's little difference working 60 hours and 40 hours. I "leaned out".

Our pay/raise/bonus structure at work was heavily tilted to the top 5-10% anyway, the ones on the cool projects, so busting my butt to be in the top 20% of the non-cool yielded zero difference in pay vs. being in the middle of the pack.

And it worked out perfectly - when I was ready to ER I hinted to my boss that I was feeling unhappy and not seeing a career path... and found myself a few months later on a layoff list, with a full years severance with medical.

 

[LivePassionately]

One more thing for the OP to consider that was a no brainer for me. Working gradually less, but longer with an attitude of easing into retirement has the advantage that you are earning more years towards Social Security (I have no zero years). Also reduced income over more years rather than higher income over less years is also more tax advantaged.

I have thought of this and have slowed down. I will keep an open mind though as I do enjoy doing just sales.. if I am doing it 10-15 hours a week with occasional travel meetings to keep things interesting, I may enjoy that it. However, I think the thing that others with experience seem to be saying is that they don't' truly feel "free" until they are doing zero hours or just odd consulting hours here and there when they feel like it.

 

[NoiseBoy]

I am still working, with two years to go until I reach the minimum retirement age at my megacorp. Like others here, I've stopped worrying about getting another promotion and I don't volunteer for any high profile projects. I have a 100 minute round trip commute, and for the past 3 years I've been allowed to work from home one day a week (Fridays.) Being able to sleep in an extra hour and still get up, make a pot of coffee, and be "at work" 30 minutes sooner than if I have to drive into the office is great. Some days, I use 1/2 a day of vacation, so my weekend starts at noon on Friday. Those weekends seem quite a bit more restorative, so if you have a commute, or you regularly put in 10 hour days in the office, try telecommuting as a way to ease out of the career rat race. I plan to ask for permission to work from home 2 days a week in another year. I don't think that part-time work is an option for me, so I guess I'm trying to slow down in the context of still being an FTE on the books.

 

[Spanky]

I am still working, with two years to go until I reach the minimum retirement age at my megacorp. Like others here, I've stopped worrying about getting another promotion and I don't volunteer for any high profile projects. I have a 100 minute round trip commute, and for the past 3 years I've been allowed to work from home one day a week (Fridays.) Being able to sleep in an extra hour and still get up, make a pot of coffee, and be "at work" 30 minutes sooner than if I have to drive into the office is great. Some days, I use 1/2 a day of vacation, so my weekend starts at noon on Friday. Those weekends seem quite a bit more restorative, so if you have a commute, or you regularly put in 10 hour days in the office, try telecommuting as a way to ease out of the career rat race. I plan to ask for permission to work from home 2 days a week in another year. I don't think that part-time work is an option for me, so I guess I'm trying to slow down in the context of still being an FTE on the books.

That seems to be a better approach than trying to get a higher level but more stressful position requiring more hours, efforts and political savvy.

 

[Fedup]

I think about 12 years before I retire I treated all money I made as extra bonus. In fact, only one of us has to work for health insurance purpose, but we both worked and added more to our stash. My last job, I almost quit my first day, the only thing hold me back was the big bonus they gave me for taking the job. Slowly over 5 years, I take longer and longer breaks, toward the last year, it was just 32 hours a week. But mentally I checked out the last year.
The key thing is I always enjoy spending my money, I never the LBYM type of person, slowly I just waste less and less. I still fly business class/first class but with the mileage I earned from the credit cards. I basically only pay one first class ticket for 2 persons.