Fulltime for a while vs. Parttime forever...

[heyyou]

PT is not an irreversible decision. Try it for a while. You have the opportunity to ramp-up hours later. With kids, I'm wondering about how much "free" time you will have.

[simple girl]

I am in health care, too - I've been working part-time for ~ 6 years now (husband works full-time, have benefits through him). I LOVE IT. The physical demands on my body are less (one of the main reasons for going part-time) and the stress level is significantly reduced. I also make a higher rate/hr since I don't have benefits or guaranteed hours. (this helps compensate for not working full-time) I am very fortunate that my DH fully supports my being part-time. He is happy with his job and it's not as stressful and physically demanding as mine. I take care of the bills, grocery shopping, etc. so when he's not working, all he has to do is PLAY.

People ask me all the time what I do with my time (esp. since we don't have children). We decided to apply my efforts to improving our financial health. So I spent a considerable amount of time studying our asset allocation/whole financial picture/etc. It has propelled our savings and growth rate considerably. I also do all that I can to help us LBYM. We are hopeful that we'll both be able to fully retire in 7 to 10 years. We also have the option where either I or DH can work for short periods of time in our careers (i.e. a month or two here or there) and earn considerable income - so we could possibly semi-retire together earlier.

In short, we decided our time together was more important than money. (Read Your Money or Your Life) I could work full-time and propel us to full ER earlier...but my body may be fully broken by then, our stress level would raise significantly over those working years (when I'm stressed, DH is stressed ), and we may have lost more years together healthy in the long run.

Food for thought - your situation may differ due to physical demands for work, how much your wife likes her job, etc.

[SlowTwitcher]

Thanks again for responses. I'm definetely leaning towards parttime, especially
since I'm planning not to dip into investments but rather still contribute to them.
I feel this time could be well spent with my kids, my wife, hobbies, etc...
My wife sacrificed her career as elementary schoolteacher to raise our kids for 10 years, a choice neither of us regrets!! But she is ready to go back just as I'm
ready to scale back. I always said I wished we could both work parttime concurrently (about 25 hours/wk each) but it never added up without benefits.
I guess 15years fulltime for me followed by 10-15 years for her is next best
(doable) choice for us. Plus she was more suited to helping/raising elementary
age kids while I'm a little better suited to help high-school/college age.



Posted by: simple girl
I take care of the bills, grocery shopping, etc. so when he's not working, all he has to do is PLAY. Grin

This is my selling point as well, simple girl. My goal is for her to work only and I'll
take care of everything else. In the long run we'll have more enjoyable time
together than if we both worked fulltime simultaneously.