Semi-FIRE: Anyone else slowing down but not stopping yet?

[Ronstar]

I retired in 2014. I started angering down about a decade earlier, with 2012 and 2013 at about 10-20 working hrs per week. It was a great transition into full retirement. Made enough money to get by, figured out what an early retiree does all day, and kept DW happy because I wasn’t retired long before she retired in 2014. She was ok with me working 10 hrs per week while she was still working, but not ok if I fully retired more than a few months before she did.

 

[pacergal]

I worked on call for three years. I hadn't planned on it, but they kept asking me back. Easy work, 1-2 days a week, but not every week. I got tired of having a schedule again, so did a "really final" retirement letter and said no more!!

 

[Asher Aion]

For over 25 years was CFO of several businesses that my partners and I were/are owners of. Now 53, I work one day at the office and 2-3 mornings a week from my home office having delegated all day to day duties. I also have reduced ownership as part of the deal for me to slow down.

Reduced income was definitely worth the trade off. DW also works part time so we have more time for each other plus less stress in our lives. We both have our own volunteer gigs that keep us busy, but if we decide to take more time for ourselves the opportunity is there.

As Canadians healthcare is covered by the state, or the crown. We do pay for a private drug and extended health plan. Overall our expenses are about 2.3 to 2.6 of our nest egg the last few years. The added income just makes that number even lower.

 

[nancyfrank232]

I’m 47. Stopped working

Spending my time gaming, working out, and family stuff

 

[badatmath]

Might it be difficult for you to leave the workforce for a year and re-enter with an okay paying, 60K ish job. . . ? Even in an area where consulting is normal, a year is a long time gone IMO. Just have a backup plan for if it takes longer or pays less than you expect.

 

[Markola]

Yes, thanks badatmath. It’s certainly a calculation about the unknown. I’m a manager with a long resume in a field (nonprofit fundraising) that is high demand, small supply. I’m networking enough to have confidence that there would be demand for my consulting services or just getting a quality j*b without the management pressures, as some peers have done. Part of overcoming the absence is having good talking points to make sense of it for people: “Finished my last fundraising project above goal, wife and I then took a long planned trip while her health is good, I’ve satisfied my interest in management for a while and want to put what I’ve learned over 29 years in this field to work in a different way”. All true. Also, our plan can withstand taking a long time to find the right gig or earning less.

Or maybe we’ll find the right tiki hut on the perfect beach during our travels and send home for the cats.

 

[Bigdawg]

Started the dial down sequence in 2019. In April time frame I scaled back from fulltime to 32/hrs per week. WOrking only 8 hours per day vice 9 and also having EVERY Friday off has been nice. 1 Jan marked the beginning of my "55" year so one more goal met. Coworker is calling it quits in December when he turns 70. That event will give me leverage to request 20 hrs/wk from home. My predecessor worked 20 hrs/wk for 18 months when I took over. If I can copy that slow glide to full retirement I will be happy. DW is only 48 and wants to stay until 55. I suspect she will punch earlier if I am fully retired so I am planning for that contingency. I pull in 10-15K/yr officiating sports. Not needed. Just fun money. Ramping dowm slowly like this makes sense for me. Good luck to all of you with your plans.

 

[Andre1969]

I've been slowing down on the job mentally for years now, and just coasting for the most part. About 4-5 years ago, I did start switching up my schedule a bit, where I'd leave early one day, work late another, take a random day off here and there, etc. I still work, on average, about 35-40 hours per week, but the variety does make it a bit more bearable. And it's nice to be off, when everybody else is working. So much easier to get stuff done!


However, the stock market rise has been pushing me ever closer to my goal number. And that's been making it harder and harder to come into work. Ideally, I want to hold out until April of 2021, but there are days I wake up in the morning and am half-tempted to just call out.

 

[SlowlySaving]

I semi-retired last year at the age of 49 from an IT career and am LOVING IT! I do wake up early to take my daughter to the bus stop and my day starts. My days go SO FAST!! I am doing photography now and enjoy it. It is the winter here in the PNW so business is really slow. I read lots of articles, workout and may consider doing some light volunteer work.
The wife is planning to work til she is 55, she enjoys what she does and is well respected. She just doesn't like getting up early.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

Everyone keeps asking me, "but what are you going to DO?" when I tell them that I'm going to retire. My close friends have told me they think I'll get another job- because I am type A, and I will get bored. I think that's silly. I finally started telling people "I think I'll teach college." I do think I'd like to do this, but I don't know if it would pay much, or how much of my time it would take- or even if I really want to. For the first time in my life I don't have a plan except to stop working at my current job. But I will have a severance check for long enough to come up with one!

 

[calmloki]

Been doing rentals since the eighties and planned to sell out around 2008 at 59. Timing conspired against that, so we kept renting the places. We've downsized, going from 56 units down to 36 and have backed away from much of the hands on; spending about 6 months/year in SoCal during the dreary Oregon winters. We do the vast majority of the paperwork year round though, which keeps us in touch. At 70 I fantasize about having all the rentals sold but there really isn't a compelling reason to do so other than that we don't need to keep being landlords.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

We had a couple of home businesses that made a decent amount combined, but we also had a lot of fat and unnecessary spending in our personal budget. So we ran the numbers and instead of working extra years for us it made more sense to focus on optimizing expenses, i.e. saving $100K from home business work for a year vs. reducing annual expenses by $50K+ for 30 years ($100K vs $1.5M+). With optimizing expenses instead of earning more, another plus is that our ACA subsidized premiums are $2 a month and our kids received state grants to go to college tuition free. We did wind down the home businesses instead of a full stop so that brought in some extra income for several years as well.

 

[Jimmie]

I retired this past June after a 35 year career in technology. Both myself and DW are 61. I teach two college courses in computer science at local university in Fall and Spring semesters. Keeps me busy for ~15 hrs per week and really enjoy teaching. I'm also off for 6 weeks between semesters and get the entire summer off to scratch my camping/hiking/fishing itch in the CO mountains. DW does proofreading for her court reporter clients and keeps her busy ~20 hrs per week.

Adding what we earn to what we get in dividends/CGs, we live a very comfortable life, as we have no debt. Megacorp provides retiree benefit to continue purchasing medical/dental/vision coverage until 65 at same cost as employees. Life is very good right now. We plan to continue the part-time work until we reach FRA.

 

[Teacher Terry]

U girl, I have been teaching a online college class for the past 7 years and love it. The pay really varies between colleges but often it’s not very good. Luckily mine pays very well.

 

[HFWR]

Screeching halt!

 

[ugeauxgirl]

U girl, I have been teaching a online college class for the past 7 years and love it. The pay really varies between colleges but often it’s not very good. Luckily mine pays very well.

Thanks- I may look into it. Teaching was one of my favorite things about my job.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

I'm pretty green with envy by all of you all that have been able to reduce hours either by consulting or some other means. I haven't figured out a way to do that in my situation. However, once I hit my retirement targets, I'm going to focus on a side gig that I haven't been giving a lot of attention to now since I'm ending up being so busy at work. The missus wants to hit her DB pension numbers so during that time, I want to keep active in some capacity but that's flexible and fun.

 

[Red Badger]

I thought about consulting, but the the thought of doing another SOW made me ill. Then, I had an epiphany. Hand out paint and screwdrivers at Home Depot. No travel, no stress, etc. Then, I imagined the first time some a$$hole customer (or manager) wagged their finger in my face.

Safely retired in my cage is best for me and society at large.

I hope you find that balance. Being in a position to have choices is a great start. Downshifting is a great option. I was fortunate to just hit neutral at 60.

 

[unclemick]

At age 77( ER'd age 50) thinking of planting some trees. Right now we get paid to watch grass grow - gov't CRP check each year. Runs out 2021.

heh heh heh - to farm or not to farm. Hmmm probably not. Might plant as a hobby though.

 

[Markola]

I thought about consulting, but the the thought of doing another SOW made me ill. Then, I had an epiphany. Hand out paint and screwdrivers at Home Depot. No travel, no stress, etc. Then, I imagined the first time some a$$hole customer (or manager) wagged their finger in my face.



Safely retired in my cage is best for me and society at large.



I hope you find that balance. Being in a position to have choices is a great start. Downshifting is a great option. I was fortunate to just hit neutral at 60.

Thank you. Yes, I too have pondered easy-peasy retail jobs but then, in addition to your reasons, I think about the one I had in high school, which could get a little dull unless the shop was bustling. I also admit that a logical part of me says that just stepping on the gas a bit longer could turn the 7 years of semi-FIRE in our plan into just 4 of continued full time management. But then another part of me pipes up and reminds me, “Yeah, but you have the best such gig now and many days you can’t wait to leave.” Then the logical part says, “Good point.”

 

[tmitchell]

I’ve been trying to figure this one out for a while now! I have a good, well paid position but it’s often a lot of stress/hours. I seem to be managing WFH most Fridays (when not traveling for work) and that is generally a light day. But M-Th are still mostly packed. I’ve been looking into teaching at a college adjunct but the pay is really poor. I’ve heard you can get health insurance though. I’m currently 52 and feel like I should stick it out to 55. At that point I should have surpassed my number, but some days I wonder if the toll on my health & well-being will be worth the extra time on the job. I could pull the trigger at the end of this year if I’m careful as I expect to hit my number around July at current savings rate, but that won’t leave much allowance for extra travel/fun/etc.

Any stories out there of folks who’ve hit the top of the ladder and found ways to downgrade into completely different opportunities outside their career would be great to hear. Seems like consulting is the big one, but I work in a competitive creative field so “consultant” would probably translate to “overworked freelancer” which I’m not into.

 

[unclemick]

One more thing. Don't smile too much. Get in touch with your inner Curmudgeon.

I who 'never' volunteers have been nailed more than once over 26 + years of ER.

heh heh heh - Then again twist my arm and a few volunteer gigs were ok in hindsight. Not to be named.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Once I retired I let people in my field know because the state didn’t allow consulting when employed. Between that and teaching I make about 20k/year.

 

[wanderingwheelz]

I’m fortunate to be self employed in an industry that is being driven into the ground by e-commerce (customers are showing up less and less frequently and prices are being driven lower and lower), so about a year ago my wife and I both said “fine”. We decided to close one store most of the winter, (we’re in a summer resort town) cut one employee from the other reducing overhead and we’re just going to earn whatever we can for as long as we can while we put life ahead of work. Since the beginning of October we’ve spent 49 nights in our RV, visiting 19 states with firm plans to see at least that many others in 2020.

So far it seems like this New arrangement will work great, especially since we’ve socked away plenty to flip the “4% Rule switch” any day we choose to- or are forced to. We’re 48/45 yo and we feel like the luckiest people on earth to have come up against Amazon even though we don’t shop there for personal reasons.

Thank you Amazon because w/o you we probably would have lost 10-15 years of truly enjoying our lives. Sometimes you don’t know what you’re missing..

 

[Markola]

I’m fortunate to be self employed in an industry that is being driven into the ground by e-commerce (customers are showing up less and less frequently and prices are being driven lower and lower), so about a year ago my wife and I both said “fine”. We decided to close one store most of the winter, (we’re in a summer resort town) cut one employee from the other reducing overhead and we’re just going to earn whatever we can for as long as we can while we put life ahead of work. Since the beginning of October we’ve spent 49 nights in our RV, visiting 19 states with firm plans to see at least that many others in 2020.

So far it seems like this New arrangement will work great, especially since we’ve socked away plenty to flip the “4% Rule switch” any day we choose to- or are forced to. We’re 48/45 yo and we feel like the luckiest people on earth to have come up against Amazon even though we don’t shop there for personal reasons.

Thank you Amazon because w/o you we probably would have lost 10-15 years of truly enjoying our lives. Sometimes you don’t know what you’re missing..

What a positive, bullet-proof attitude!