Part time or not

[InTheShade]

For those of you who worked part time before fully retiring, are you happy that you did so or do you wish now that you had just gone ahead and completely retired to begin with?

 

[scrabbler1]

I could not fully retire when I switched to working part-time. But what working part-time did was enable me to regain control of my personal life while continuing to build up my portfolio so I could eventually retire. And when I full retired 7 years after working part-time, it was not a big change to my everyday life; the switch to part-time was actually a much bigger change.

 

[Jerry1]

I worked two years part time and yes, I'm glad I did. As scrabbler1 said, it did allow me to handle things on the personal side and get to the finish line ($2M for me) on the portfolio. I am grateful I got the opportunity to work part time. The one thing that surprised me, however, was that with more time off, I worked 3 days (M-W), the more I became committed to retiring. It got really hard to go back to work each Monday. Not only was I not really enjoying the work, I didn't keep standard hours, so by Sunday night, my sleep schedule was totally screwed up, making Monday pretty difficult.

It was also hard to watch as I was phased out. Of course it made sense that working less meant that I would not be called into meetings I was used to being called in on but it was a bit difficult to experience. That part got better with time.

Two years, however, was enough for me. I was lucky enough to get a severance due to budget cuts, but had they not let me go, I was going to file for retirement and be gone by summer anyway.

It is totally worth it unless you're fully set financially and mentally ready.

 

[Scuba]

I never worked part-time, but I did go from a very high stress megacorp senior management role to a C-suite role in a mid-sized company for the last several years of my career. While it was certainly a full-time job, the stress and travel/work hour requirements were much less so it kind of felt like a nice “glide path” to ER.

 

[Souschef]

I would never do it. After they took out Federal and State withholding, FICA and SDI, it would cut my paycheck in half.
Between our pensions and SS, we net 70 K a year.hy work?

 

[Human]

I’m over 10 years retired and have done limited work the entire time. No regrets. In fact, it’s been good for me, as I enjoy some level of work.

But I work for myself doing ocassional project based work. I control my schedule, how much I earn, how many hours a work (not many), etc. So it’s not a typical part-time job.

 

[davebarnes]

Well, when:
1. You read this https://www.bloomberg.com/view/arti...ble-financial-benefits-of-delaying-retirement,
2. You work from home as a 1099 contractor billing $90/hr.

You just keep drifting along.

 

[Focus]

I had the opportunity to shift to part time as part of a phased retirement, but it quickly became evident that it would be the worst of all worlds -- half the pay, much of the stress, still on call all of the time. So I retired altogether. Never regretted it, and in fact, I would have missed some opportunities if I had gone for the phased retirement.

That said, I think picking up an entirely different, no-stress, part-time job later can be a great thing. Even if it doesn't pay much.

 

[Backpacker]

I've been part-time for about 1.5 years. I'll be 54 this year. Went from senior management 60 hours a week to 25 (ish) hours a week in an outside sales role. On the whole it's been great, I don't think going from 60 to zero would have been good for me or my marriage. I am commissioned and last year made 70% of my previous salary working on average 27 hours a week.

It's also helped pad the retirement accounts, we were at our target number but I was very nervous about pulling the trigger and having a bear market hit immediately after retirement.

For me I think being in an outside sales role made all the difference. I don't know how healthy it would have been for me or my replacement if I was so visible if I had an office job.

My DW retires June of this year and hopefully gets hired back as contract employee, January of 2019, I am thinking to fully retire. I'll be 55 in 2019 so allows for withdrawals from 401k with no penalty. She'll probably work another 2-3 years then be done as well.

Hopefully the OMY syndrome doesn't come into play, but I think the part-time position has helped me with that as well.

 

[Fishingmn]

My DW (just turned 55) gave notice to "retire" in November 2015 as IT Project Mgr.

26 months later she is still working 2 days/week for her old employer. Actually been really good deal as she bills them at a rate that nets almost as much gross pay as she used to get FT (no benefits) while only working 2 days and all her hours are from home. She also has complete flexibility to change the days she works or go on vacations (7 weeks worth in 2017).

She's the type who always likes to be busy so I think it's been good from that standpoint as well. In addition, we've agreed that we'd allocate her money as 1/3 taxes, 1/3 family budget and 1/3 her project fund. With her project fund she's been able to 2 do large home renovation/landscaping projects as well as buy a new boat.

With the new tax bill we get to shelter 20% of the income too. Think she will keep doing it as long as they want to keep paying her

 

[LuckyDog]

I work part time seasonally because I like it. Officiating High School and College sports is fun for me and keeps me busy and socially engaged. Not much money, but I don't care.

 

[38Chevy454]

Count me in as well for another that worked P/T before full retirement. It was great for me, I went to 60% time (24 hrs/week), with a small bump to 80% at the end to help out my group that was needing help being short of some people.

The best part is that I was able to keep all my benefits, primarily the health ins. Lived off the 60% at the same as full time, just without the additional savings, and let savings continue to grow for a while longer. My megacorp should encourage more people to do the P/T, it was a nice transition for me. Unfortunately it was no so common and I did have to do some convincing to let me go P/T. It helped that I was needed and still did more in 60% than others did in 100% time.

 

[albireo13]

I work for MegaCorp and am thinking of asking to go part-time next year, instead if full retirement ... 3 days a week. Why?

1. our numbers look good but, I'm nervous about pulling the plug
2. It would push off tapping into 401K/IRAs another year or so
3. It would give me a year to ramp down our spending and get into a full retirement lifestyle/spending mode. On my free time I would work on cutting expenses.

Am I foolish?

 

[LuckyDog]

I think that reasons 1 and 2 sound good. As far as ramping down spending, most people that I know spend as much now as they did while w*orking...

 

[Aerides]

DH was pt for about 15 months. We were just about ready to RE, but I was sticking around because I smelled a RIF/Severance in the air. At the same time, DH was being asked to take on a larger role and hire new staff. So he let his MC know that he would either RE in 6 weeks, or stay PT as long as needed to help transition/replace. They agreed to PT, and it worked great. He held firm on hours but there weren't too many challenges. (PS I got that severance and then we both RE'd together).

Of course, not every MC or role would be receptive, so I think you have to be ready to hear "No, and if you no longer want FT is this you giving notice?"

 

[Senator]

I kept working full-time, but throttled my work efforts down a bit. Some would say I quit working the year before I retired.

I would rather work full-time for another 6 months, than part-time for a year.

 

[RunningBum]

PT worked out fine for me. I telecommuted, with flexible hours, so it gave me time to do other things while keeping benefits and preserving my nest egg. I was fortunate that I had very few "fires" that had me work more than 20 hr/wk.


If your choice is between PT and quitting all together, you might try PT, and if it doesn't work, just quit. It's harder to quit and then go back to PT.


If you're talking about getting a new PT gig, I'd make sure the income is worthwhile.

 

[scrabbler1]

I should add that in the 7 years I worked part-time, I had 3 different PT arrangements. The first, from 2001-2003, was mostly telecommuting. I went to the office 1 day a week and worked the remaining 2/3 of my 20 hours from home, some at certain daytime hours when my coworkers knew 'd be available, and the rest whenever I felt like it. I did a lot of programming work, so running programs at night when they ran quickly was a better use of my time.


That gig ended in late 2003 when the company ended all open-ended telecommuting. I could still work PT but I had to fulfill my hours at the office. This brought back some of the horrors of commuting, albeit 3 days a week. I knew at this time that it would be my ultimate undoing and began ramping up my ER plans.


By early 2007, I was getting worn down from the commute again, even 3 day a week. I asked to have my weekly hours worked reduced again, this time to 12. I worked 2 days instead of 3 and for 6 hours a day, getting me home about an hour earlier than before. I lost most of my remaining benefits, including eligibility in the group health plan. I went on COBRA for 18 months but I knew by the end of 2008 something was going to happen, probably I would ER. My ER plans were falling into place in 2006 and 2007, and by the end of 2008 I knew I did not want to be working but having to buy my HI on the outside (beyond COBRA).


Working 2 days a week was better than 3, but the commute was still two days too many. I had one solution, to reduce it to zero. nd the only way I could achieve tat was to ER. So, at the end of 2008, when the pieces had fallen into place, I retired. That was 9 years ago, and it has been great ever since.

 

[tb001]

For those who have gone part time, I'm curious how you ramped down and managed keeping the hours under control. Did you only work 2 or 3 days/week? How did you manager calls, etc that happened not on those days? Were you telecommuting or did you have to go into the office?

Also curious about health insurance. Did part time work allow you to keep health insurance? If so, was there a certain number of hours you needed to be working to keep it?

I'm looking at requesting to go part time, ideally 20 hrs, but just have no idea logistically how that will work. Technically I work 10-12 hr days now, but would assume this would be a 2.5 day schedule.

 

[Which Roger]

I kept working full-time, but throttled my work efforts down a bit. Some would say I quit working the year before I retired.

I would rather work full-time for another 6 months, than part-time for a year.

+1. For some, it's possible to throttle down and gradually withdraw while still working full time. It was for me, mainly because my company was struggling and morale was very, very, low for everyone. However, this does result in some awkward situations, like when the boss comes in and offers an "opportunity" for a project that's "highly visible to upper management". I weaseled my way out of that one.

 

[Senator]

+1. For some, it's possible to throttle down and gradually withdraw while still working full time. It was for me, mainly because my company was struggling and morale was very, very, low for everyone. However, this does result in some awkward situations, like when the boss comes in and offers an "opportunity" for a project that's "highly visible to upper management". I weaseled my way out of that one.

I never volunteered once I knew I was leaving, about 24 months out. Highly visible is a bad thing when you are near the end.

I told my new boss, after a re-org, I was not willing to put in 60-hour weeks, nor be on-call.

 

[Cobra9777]

I had the opportunity to shift to part time as part of a phased retirement, but it quickly became evident that it would be the worst of all worlds -- half the pay, much of the stress, still on call all of the time. So I retired altogether...

+1 In my line of work, part time would have been a nightmare. Stress is the same. Toxic politics... same. Pointless meetings... same. Ridiculous deadlines... same. Pay & benefits... HALF. No thank you. They've called twice to see if I was interested in a temporary contract gig. I said no both times for same reasons.

My plan was to start teaching part time at the local community college. I gathered up all the required paperwork but never submitted it. After a few months of freedom, I couldn't imagine being enslaved to another Outlook calendar. Same attitude now, 5 years later.

 

[Koogie]

I am semi-retired and loving it. Work about 3 days a week, 40 weeks a year.

Just finished my second year of it. Might be doing 3 - 4 more.

Was FI probably about 4 years ago. At this point just trying to increase quality of life and letting market returns pad the nest egg. My "salary" equals almost exactly our spend rate.

 

[Ronstar]

I worked part time before I retired. Probably 2-3 years of 1-2 days a week at the same company where I previously worked. It was a great transition into retirement. Gave me plenty of personal time to fine tune my hobbies and make solid retirement plans so that I was able to hit the ground running on retirement day.

 

[RE2Boys]

I retired from the career job 17 years ago (at 50) but still part-timing things, but into jobs I enjoy doing, regardless of the pay. Always have at least one W2 each year. Keeps me involved and busy. Will quit by the time RMDs start. If I don't , I'll be pushed into a higher tax bracket. Some may say I'm really not retired, and I always used the phrase as being semi-retired, and still do.

And trying to set an example for my college sons.