Part timing to FI

[thrifty++]

Hi all,

I am wondering about others who are part timing their way to FI? As a means of enjoying a bit more of your FU money options now vs the hard slog? What have you done and how is it going for you?

I have dropped to a 0.9 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) in recent times. Bear in mind I also do a side hustle so i am overall like a 1.1 FTE.

I have to say I am missing having as much money. But, I am definitely enjoying the time more.

I am thinking of probably trying to reduce to a 0.8 FTE in the not too distant future.

I feel like this is a bit like the dollar cost averaging of employment. You can ease your way in. If there is some kind of crazy event you can likely obtain more hours again. Certainly it seems to me that its harder to get less hours than more.

Its also a bit of a test of my resilience to cut off from employment. There may come a point where the stress of cutting off income outweighs the benefit of freedom. I dont know where that point is until I get close. Or I may get enough money that it doesnt happen and I keep cutting off work. However, it seems much easier than going cold turkey on work to me.

It is also likely if I keep cutting my hours that I will end up filling it with other things that make money. I will see how that goes. but for now, with such a small cut, I want leisure not more work/business.

What are others doing/finding?

[2Birds1Stone]

I'm surprised

I have dropped to a 0.9 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) in recent times. Bear in mind I also do a side hustle so i am overall like a 1.1 FTE.

I have to say I am missing having as much money. But, I am definitely enjoying the time more.

~SNIP~

What are others doing/finding?

I'm a bit surprised by the first and second sentences here. You dropped hours by 10%, side hustle at a ~20% FTE effort and already miss the money? Were you spending most of your income prior to cutting back the hours?

Personally I would gladly take 50% hours for 50% pay. It would mean going from an 75% savings rate to a 25% savings rate (maybe higher since taxes would be lower). Luckily I'm in a job that's flexible enough where I can work 50% hours for 100% pay, if that stops being the case will reevaluate.

[thrifty++]

@ 2Birds1Stone - its just me being a bit greedy. I do miss having quite as much money but its WAY better having the time.

Definitely dont want to go back. No, I was saving most of my money and still am. Saving around 69% of my active income with this change. And want to keep dropping more. To 0.8 FTE nxt, to be an effective 1.0

I find it easier doing a main job plus a side hustle TBH. Because they are different. Being a 1.0 between my job and my side hustle would feel like a lot less work than being 1.0 at my main job, even though the amount of time involved is similar.. Might also be because the side hustle is self employed so I do the work when I want rather than when I am forced to. Although the side hustle is an average of around 6 hours a week so not quite a full work day.

[AxelHeyst]

I went from 1.0 to 0.2, then 0 (got laid off) early this year. Stash is 15-20x. Doing random handyman style work, very here and there, and spending maybe 0.1 on two side hustles that won’t throw off income for another half year or so. CoL is <1 jafi.

FI has become an if it happens it happens abstraction. it’s no longer an explicit goal, but rather a potential side effect that will probably happen sometime, but I’m entirely indifferent to the timing because my lifestyle wouldn’t change. The lifestyle bifurcation happened after severing formal employment - actually 1.0 to 0.2 wasn’t as big a qualitative difference as the “formally employed” 0.2 to “informally compensated, sometimes” 0.x where x varies from 0.75 to 0 on a weekly basis.

Income generation sources:
-builds (eg helped mooretrees out with their skoolie build; solarizing my parents well; etc)
-visualization studio startup, COO esque role just on tiny scale.
-helping my DGF run her art businesss since she can’t internet or computer to save her life. Also strategy and planning, so, again, COO style operations stuff on tiny scale.
-potential: building things for sale like artisanal composting toilets.

It’s all stuff I pretty much want to do anyways and would continue to do if I were FI, which is why I say FI is now an abstraction. The idea of taking on FTE again fills me with subtle horror.

[7Wannabe5]

The lifestyle bifurcation happened after severing formal employment - actually 1.0 to 0.2 wasn’t as big a qualitative difference as the “formally employed” 0.2 to “informally compensated, sometimes” 0.x where x varies from 0.75 to 0 on a weekly basis.

I went a long time vowing to never be W2 employed again after I successfully started my own micro-business, but I have now found that some part-time or temporary, flexible/autonomous W-2 work can actually be a good part of my overall plan/web. For instance, I am happy to not be doing the management/bureaucracy part of the math tutoring agency I am currently W-9 ing for and the substitute teaching agency I am currently W-2 ing for. However, this might be due to the fact that I have more Visionary than Manager or Technician in my Generalist make-up, so solo-running 2 or 3 of my 4 or 5 micro-projects/activities at any one time is about right.

[AxelHeyst]

I can see that… there are actually a number of w2 style part time roles I could easily see enjoying. It’s just that my 0.2 role had all the responsibility and after-hours leadership expectations of a standard professional track corporate career role. Not even close to worth it.

[thrifty++]

I can see that… there are actually a number of w2 style part time roles I could easily see enjoying. It’s just that my 0.2 role had all the responsibility and after-hours leadership expectations of a standard professional track corporate career role. Not even close to worth it.

Therein lies the rub. I think there are challenges to reducing hours for corporate jobs. At 0.9 FTE I am finding that already, after just one 3 day weekend each fortnight, I have a sense of mad panic on my return to work. The inbox and phone messages are a lot more stacked. However, I refuse to triage my pending workload on my day off with such a small cut in hours.

It does balance out somewhat as I have a reduction in projects and responsibilities with a drop in FTE. But, its not completely proportionate, so a little bit of extra work gets stacked on to my other 9 days. People also expect you to be available at least Monday - Friday in corporate jobs. I will see how I go. My suspicions are that I will be able to make it worthwhile ok up to about 0.7 FTE. After that I think I will need to think harder about how to structure it to make it worthwhile. I am a ways off that stage anyways. Want to grow more capital first. I may well be able to find a way to make it work once I get there.

An alternative maybe is becoming a consultant. Then your projects seem to be more confined and people do not expect you to be available as much outside of set days.

[AxelHeyst]

Yep, I feel like the benefits of reducing hours from a standard white collar role fractionally are pretty limited. Better to whiteknuckle at 1.0 and rake in as much stash as possible while doing whatever is necessary to maintain sanity, then bounce ASAP, *if* one is to retain that typical style of work. Alternatives are infinite, but better to jump to something qualitatively different if pre-FI: consulting potentially, 4HWW style "muse" hustle, low-responsibility part time work, craft-based (e.g. woodworking or blacksmithing or ...).

Edit: I honestly feel that the theoretically best way to approach FTE Knowledge Work is to invest time in GTD, Cal Newport-style Deep Work practices, etc, to attain 1.0FTE levels of productivity at 0.5-0.75 time invested, take the 1.0 salary, and use the 'free' time to work on mental health, leisure, ERE skillz, living an actual human life, etc. I found myself unable to consistently nail this, as I let the stress / sense of personal responsibility always ramp my time back up to 1.0-1.5.

[candide]

I honestly feel that the theoretically best way to approach FTE Knowledge Work is to invest time in GTD, Cal Newport-style Deep Work practices, etc, to attain 1.0FTE levels of productivity at 0.5-0.75 time invested, take the 1.0 salary, and use the 'free' time to work on mental health, leisure, ERE skillz, living an actual human life, etc. I found myself unable to consistently nail this, as I let the stress / sense of personal responsibility always ramp my time back up to 1.0-1.5.

I think a necessary compliment to make those hard time management skills work (in the organizational setting) is the soft skills of saying no, and then moves from the sociopath's tool kit.

Chapman:
https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths

A slogan of Rao’s may point the way: Be slightly evil. Or: geeks need to learn and use some of the sociopaths’ tricks. Then geeks can capture more of the value they create (and get better at ejecting true sociopaths).

Agreeableness, empathy, and commitment to a meaningful mission are all pathways for the sociopaths to exploit. (Ah, "sense of personal responsibility" you say. . . ) These are virtues where selectively is their better part. Render unto reality what is reality's, and render unto bullshit what is bullshit's.

Again, this only assumes someone stays inside of an organization.