Early Retirement Extreme Forums

For those still in the accumulation phase what are your working hours?

I keep a tally of my working hours for my main job and it tends to be around 43/44 hours a week (excluding holidays of course so overall it will be less). I also then have a second consulting gig on the side which is about another 5 hours a week on average. So about 48/49 hours a week.

I have been tossing up whether to ditch my side consulting gig lately. The hourly rate is quite high. But also its all top tax bracket so I only get to keep about 65% of it. There is also a limited earning potential as its consulting, not any type of business enterprise, so its going to be limited to my hourly rate. Only an active per hour income. It would be kind of nice to reclaim that extra 5 hours a week. Either for leisure or focussing on other revenue generating options which are not tied to time by the hour. I often feel I don't have enough time to consider such things because of working the amount each week I do.

Sometimes I think I feel like being FI because I work quite a lot. If I worked less I might be happier to just coast along. The side gig brings me in about $10k after tax a year. It also makes me better at my primary job too. There is a synergy. This is a benefit as well. In some ways its nice to have the side hustle as it gives me leverage and the ability not to worry as much in the unlikely event I lost my main job. But its whether its really worth it.

What are everyone else's arrangements?

I work about a standard 38-40 hr week now, but it's usually condensed into 3 days. I used to work 4-5 12 hour days, but no longer.

I would not give up your side gig. I have no side gig, it's the major factor holding me from pulling the plug on full time accumulation. Even making 10K a year without additional potential goes a long way towards equalizing cash flow in the transition period. The is doubly so if you like it, it's flexible to location, and reasonably open ended with time freedom. I think you'll regret losing that income stream when you consider leaving accumulation or next time you want an extended break.

It varies but right now I'm working about 48/wk. That will probably go up slightly over the summer depending on how the projects go. The extra hours have been an important part of my run-up over the last 7 years.

Over those years I've gone as long as a year working a straight 40, and months at a time working more than 50/wk. There's definitely something to be said for working a more regular schedule, but for now my job is to accumulate as quickly as possible. For me getting to 0hr/wk of paid labor is important.

Nit sure that's in any way helpful to you, but it is what I do.

Weekly hours excluding lunch: Never more than 35
Vacation time per year excluding sick days: 30 days

For me the Mode is probably 50 hours, the median is probably somewhere around 52-55 hours. It's all in my primary employment though as I don't have any side guys/businesses yet. I do get paid at OT rate for the additional hours over 40.

About 800 +/- 30 hours in 2018 for main income ($31,300 before tax), so about 15 to 16 hours a week on average.

I tried having a side gig on top of working a 45 hour "standard" week. That lead to 60 hour plus weeks. It sucked. I dropped the side gig, that still sucked.

About a year after I stopped the side gig, they hired me full time.

I'm working a 37.5 hour standard week now. Actual hours fluctuate according to need, like most tech jobs. I earn now more than I did with old job plus side gig.

IMO having the right full time employer is more lucrative than juggling side gigs.

Augustus wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 16, 2019 4:17 pm

Also, if you're paying out more than 20% in effective tax rates you're not doing your business taxes right.

IIRC, thrifty lives in Australia.

45+/- at my job. I get paid for only 40 though.

3 side gigs at probably another 200 hrs over the year, so an average of about 4 a week, but they tend to come very unevenly.

15 vacation days and 10 holidays a year. No sick time.

Contracted hours are 36, however between breaks, early finishes and late starts I spend no more than 30 hours at my desk. Between holiday and sick days I'm usually off around 40 days.

Management at my place pays more attention to results than appearance, therefore so do I.

Weekly hours excluding lunch: between 30 to 40

classical_Liberal wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 16, 2019 3:42 pm

I would not give up your side gig. I have no side gig, it's the major factor holding me from pulling the plug on full time accumulation. Even making 10K a year without additional potential goes a long way towards equalizing cash flow in the transition period. The is doubly so if you like it, it's flexible to location, and reasonably open ended with time freedom. I think you'll regret losing that income stream when you consider leaving accumulation or next time you want an extended break.

Do you want a side hustle? It seems that there is such abundance of opportunities for one. Have you thought about trying a few?

I'm in sales so my working hours vary quite a bit from week to week.
When I travel it's 99% of the time to the Asia Pacific Area, so these are long trips (two weeks) that usually involve me leaving on saturday and spending another weekend away from home.
If I consider the time spent on a plane + the weekends as "work hours", then I easily get up to 70ish hours per week, but I think that would be unfair.
I think my "real" average is around 60 when all is said and done.
I don't mind it that much because I like what I do

classical_Liberal wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 16, 2019 3:42 pm

I would not give up your side gig. I have no side gig, it's the major factor holding me from pulling the plug on full time accumulation. Even making 10K a year without additional potential goes a long way towards equalizing cash flow in the transition period. The is doubly so if you like it, it's flexible to location, and reasonably open ended with time freedom.

As often, I agree 100% with c_L.
I'd love tohave a side gig and most probably could build myself one if I really tried to, but I make enough money and work enough as is.
Being the ultra-conservative person that I am, I'll probably start looking into consulting ONCE I am done with my accumulation phase, as an extra margin of safety.

thrifty++ wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 18, 2019 10:57 pm

Do you want a side hustle? It seems that there is such abundance of opportunities for one. Have you thought about trying a few?

Yes, I do. Unfortunately I did not realize it until I reached a level in which it's importance became abundantly clear. I have a couple of very non inventive attempts percolating. Any suggestions?

Edit: @Augustus
This is why I never tried a side gig. In 2014, when first introduced to FIRE I basically spent all free time adding to income though current work arrangement. I more than doubled, so yea. Then in 2016 I became active on ERE and cutting expenses through various means was goal. Down about 40%, yea again. Now though, I am in the realm of more income for same amount of time at work being very difficult, and same with cutting expenses. Each unit of effort in those realms have reached diminishing returns to the point that a side gig I enjoy, averaging even $10 an hour is a web-of-goals competitive use of my time. I wish I had realized this point was coming.

Around 50-55 hours a week now. Left my 40 hour a day job for this. My thoughts is I'm young, still have energy, and as long as I'm in the accumulation phase I'm just gonna grind it out for a while. Luckily I like my job enough to put up with these hours.

Augustus wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 19, 2019 8:41 pm

Personally I think it would be preferable to work full time for a few months, then take the rest of the year off.

That would be my preference too, but it looks harder to implement on a practical level unless it is one of those minimum wage jobs.
The issue with those is that in most cases I can think of I’d be probably bored to death (ie to use a stereotype: I love cooking but I’d die flipping burgers, too repetitive)

classical_Liberal wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 19, 2019 4:15 pm

Yes, I do. Unfortunately I did not realize it until I reached a level in which it's importance became abundantly clear. I have a couple of very non inventive attempts percolating. Any suggestions?

My god so many. I have to keep a list of them as so many come up from time to time. Part of the reason I think also of ditching my by the hour side hustle too, for more entrepreneurial possibilities. I guess for one, an easy place to start is your existing skill set. Can you segue off that? What is what I have done with my consulting. Then other things. My god so many. Just off the top of my head... personal trainer at the gym, massage (friend does this for $100 cash per hour), writing for magazines and newspapers, developing websites, blogging, if you are in the USA you can get huge tips working in restaurants, drop selling products online. God there are really just so many options. That's just a blurt without me thinking.

Programming is definitely out for me, I have zero talent for everything that is related to IT. Nursing could be a good idea, thanks

FYI. It's not just nursing. Pretty much any technical medical specialty has contract work. Think respiratory therapy, physical and occupation therapy, Rad tech, even CNA's. Some of these have less educational requirements for licensure, some have more. 13 weeks seems to be the preferred length of most contracts, often people renew.

Thanks Augustus and C_L
I’ll look if that applies to here in Europe as well, could be a great idea.