If I got 12 weeks vacation.....

[hopeisnotaplan]

I was just thinking that if I got about 12 weeks vacation annually, I wouldn't be so eager to retire. I don't hate my job, boss or company. Comp package is good and I do have some day to day freedom. What I can't do is take multiple weeks off to travel abroad or take a month long RV trip seeing America.

I would even take a pay cut to balance the time off. Megacorp, at least mine, doesn't work like that though. No option to scale back in place.

So, unless the vacation fairy comes, I guess I'll have to figure out my priorities and move in that direction.

 

[REWahoo]

12 weeks of vacation? Aren't you really saying you want to work part-time?

 

[hopeisnotaplan]

12 weeks of vacation? Aren't you really saying you want to work part-time?

Not really...well maybe. Part time seems like 3 or 4 days a week to me. I'm fine working my 50 hours a week. I would just like to do it 40 weeks out of the year. Okay..maybe that is part time, but either way it's not an option unless I move on from the current company.

 

[folivier]

I was up to 36 days paid time off when I retired. I found that a 2 week vacation was very refreshing and relaxing vs. only 1 week off. 2 weeks gave me enough time to really forget about work and slow down. But I would never return to work. Retirement is just too much fun.

 

[MichaelB]

Why only 12?

12 weeks of vacation sound like a lot, but it also means 40 weeks of work. I'll pass, thanks.

 

[hopeisnotaplan]

12 weeks of vacation sound like a lot, but it also means 40 weeks of work. I'll pass, thanks.

I guess I don't dream big enough!

All I'm saying is that I wouldn't be constantly thinking of ER in my late 40's if I had that type arrangement. Makes we want to find it someday soon.

 

[Tekward]

Try independent consulting. I took 20 weeks off last year, maxed out solo 401K contributions and I can fire bad clients.

 

[MRG]

I left 6 weeks vacation, another week of sick and ten holidays. Still wasn't enough.

 

[HadEnuff]

I know some folks who have a lot of vacation time. They don't take it because they are afraid that the company will realize they aren't really needed.
My Dad was like that.
In Australia a woman can get 12 months maternity leave. I know a woman who took it recently and when she was ready to come back, her job was gone.

 

[Sojourner]

Try independent consulting. I took 20 weeks off last year, maxed out solo 401K contributions and I can fire bad clients.

+1

Consulting is a great thing if you can find a client or two that pays reliably and gives you work fairly consistently. Luckily that has been the case for me since I semi-ER'd several years ago. Having a completely flexible schedule where I can take 3, 4, 5 or even more weeks off at a time to go do whatever I want, wherever I want, is priceless to me. And the solo 401(k) option is awesome, too!

 

[Car-Guy]

When I retired, I was getting 7 full weeks of paid vacations, 10 paid holidays and another couple of "floating holidays" of my choice each year. Sick days were paid too but I never took them.

Still wasn't enough.

 

[hopeisnotaplan]

+1

Consulting is a great thing if you can find a client or two that pays reliably and gives you work fairly consistently. Luckily that has been the case for me since I semi-ER'd several years ago. Having a completely flexible schedule where I can take 3, 4, 5 or even more weeks off at a time to go do whatever I want, wherever I want, is priceless to me. And the solo 401(k) option is awesome, too!

Curious, did you secure a couple clients before pulling the plug? That would make the jump a little easier for sure. I'm in good shape according to Firecalc now, but padding never hurts.

 

[Jerry1]

We use to have a guy that would use almost his entire annual accrual and take an entire month off each year instead of a week here and a week there.

I wish corporations would work with employees to provide more time off. I can't speak for everyone, but a lot of people I work with in the 50 and over group would love to work part time. Most have their finances in order and would take more time off compared to more salary. Unfortunately, it just doesn't happen. The closest an average worker can do is work on a contract basis (similar to consulting) and work on a project by project basis, taking time off in between.

 

[NW-Bound]

Try independent consulting. I took 20 weeks off last year, maxed out solo 401K contributions and I can fire bad clients.

This, although the work was sporadic, meaning more off than on.

...The closest an average worker can do is work on a contract basis (similar to consulting) and work on a project by project basis, taking time off in between...

and also this. I occasionally worked 8 hrs/day, and 5 days/week, but that was rare and the work had to be really exciting. They often let me work from home too. Usually, it was 30 hrs/week, and I took a couple of months off a few times a year.

There were still some unavoidable bureaucratic and organizational hassles. In the end, I stopped and took all my marbles home. More fun staying home and making option trades againsts these bots (pays much less money, but I can start/stop any time).

 

[Sojourner]

Curious, did you secure a couple clients before pulling the plug? That would make the jump a little easier for sure. I'm in good shape according to Firecalc now, but padding never hurts.

Yes, the main one being my former employer. They really didn't want me to leave (and potentially not be available if something urgent came up that I could help with), so we figured out an arrangement that worked for both of us.

Like you, I was in good shape according to FIRECalc when I left the full-time gig, but it has been awesome not to have to tap into the nest egg to pay for day-to-day stuff yet. Even a modest amount of consulting (in my case, about 10 hours/month, on average) can go a long way to help bolster your FIRE finances, especially if SS or other reinforcements are still a ways off.

 

[Johanson]

I was just thinking that if I got about 12 weeks vacation annually, I wouldn't be so eager to retire. I don't hate my job, boss or company. Comp package is good and I do have some day to day freedom. What I can't do is take multiple weeks off to travel abroad or take a month long RV trip seeing America.

I would even take a pay cut to balance the time off. Megacorp, at least mine, doesn't work like that though. No option to scale back in place.

So, unless the vacation fairy comes, I guess I'll have to figure out my priorities and move in that direction.

Starting next year, I will have 30 days (25 now) of vacation in addition to 12 paid holidays and 7 paid sick days. If they gave me 12 weeks, I would travel less. But I'm an oddball I think here. I travel for work all the time and go on 2-4 international vacations every year but usually they are for a week or less. In fact, I'll be flying to RIC for the week later today. Next week I'll be flying to LAS for work and the following week I'll be flying to ATH for a quick 5 day vacation after working from home for 3 days. I'm probably one of the few here that plans on far less travel in retirement.

 

[hankster]

When I retired, I was getting 7 full weeks of paid vacations, 10 paid holidays and another couple of "floating holidays" of my choice each year. Sick days were paid too but I never took them.

Still wasn't enough.

That's about the amount of time off I have. I used to enjoy the job and its challenges and found myself quite content with this fairly generous amount of vacation time.

Now that my interest in the work is diminishing, I find myself in agreement with you. It just isn't enough.

 

[rodi]

I had 6 weeks of pto (vacation & sick combined) and 10 paid holidays when I retired... The problem was that management felt it was ok to tell you when you could take the time... It became a whole process to "manage expectations" if you took more than 2 weeks consecutive or there would be rumblings that you weren't committed enough. You also had to start warning bosses many months in advance so they could plan around it... OK... but then deadlines would change and sometimes vacation approval was withdrawn. All of this added to the stress of actually taking a vacation.

My sister is a teacher and when she's teaching she's an 80 hour/week kind of teacher. But summer comes along, or spring break, or winter break, or thanksgiving week, etc... and she's off... For her - knowing they can't mess with *when* she takes vacation (because she's using the school calendar) allows her to plan foreign trips with no fear that a boss will yank approval away.

 

[6miths]

I had 11 weeks off for the last 15 years of work. It still wasn't enough to prevent me from walking.

 

[Sunset]

I was just thinking that if I got about 12 weeks vacation annually, I wouldn't be so eager to retire. I don't hate my job, boss or company. Comp package is good and I do have some day to day freedom. What I can't do is take multiple weeks off to travel abroad or take a month long RV trip seeing America.

I would even take a pay cut to balance the time off. Megacorp, at least mine, doesn't work like that though. No option to scale back in place.

So, unless the vacation fairy comes, I guess I'll have to figure out my priorities and move in that direction.

How about taking unpaid time off ?

You could take a 2 week vacation and a couple of unpaid weeks tacked on the end.

I did that sort of thing to get a longer vacation when I had none.

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

I think that forward looking companies would recognize that there are indeed varying levels of work/vacation balance among its workforce. From my point of view, if 2 is better than 1 week, then 3 is even better, and ...

Refer to my signature line below!

 

[EastWest Gal]

I was just thinking that if I got about 12 weeks vacation annually, I wouldn't be so eager to retire. I don't hate my job, boss or company. Comp package is good and I do have some day to day freedom. What I can't do is take multiple weeks off to travel abroad or take a month long RV trip seeing America.



I would even take a pay cut to balance the time off. Megacorp, at least mine, doesn't work like that though. No option to scale back in place.



So, unless the vacation fairy comes, I guess I'll have to figure out my priorities and move in that direction.

1. There is a shortage of ESL teachers and special education teachers. A teacher friend of mine said there are 3 good reasons to become a teacher: June, July, and August.

2. Until you've experienced the sensation of never having to work again, you have no idea how amazing it is. No matter how many weeks off you have, the day before you go back to work, it won't be enough.

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

.

2. Until you've experienced the sensation of never having to work again, you have no idea how amazing it is. No matter how many weeks off you have, the day before you go back to work, it won't be enough.

Agreed 100%. The shock and dismay of going back to w*rk after a particularly long and enjoyable vacation was never pleasant; it only made me want to get rid of the going back part even faster.

 

[exnavynuke]

I get 25 days PTO and 11 paid holidays currently. That's ~7 weeks off per year right now. In ~1.5 years, I get another 5 days of PTO added on for just over 8 weeks off per year. It's the days that I'm not on getting paid not to work that remind me why I want to FIRE as soon as possible.

 

[2017ish]

We'd likely not have been in such a hurry to retire if we had the opportunity to plan a two-week vacation each year, and had more weekends and evenings off. But, the jobs (especially when combined) aren't set up for that. Technically, we each get as much time off as we deem appropriate. Practically, we each try to take about 3 weeks every year. When you add the working weekend days and holidays back in, we take negative vacation time, though.

Tradeoffs.