Early-retirement wannabe

gadgetmind

Yup, I'm on 37.5 hours (now times 4/5!) but calls drag into every evening and I need to put in an hour a day while on holiday to "keep the plates spinning".

edinburgher

People asking to transfer existing GPP pots to their SIPPs - did you speak to HR, or is this purely a discussion with the pension provider? I recall similar being mentioned on one of the PB blogs, possibly RIT?

Marine_life

gadgetmind wrote: »

Yup, I'm on 37.5 hours (now times 4/5!) but calls drag into every evening and I need to put in an hour a day while on holiday to "keep the plates spinning".

The question for me is not necessarily the work hours per say but rather the travel. If i am in the office then its 20-30 minutes from home (depending on traffic) but because I do a lot of project work then I am travelling a lot which means a lot of 12-14 hour days when I will leave home early (say between 5-6 am) in order to get a flight and then work a full day or come back late. In that time I might actually be productive for 4-5 hours. This week I had an early meeting in another city so had to fly the night before meaning leaving home at 7 in the evening - so what happens with those hours?

jamesd

edinburgher wrote: »

People asking to transfer existing GPP pots to their SIPPs - did you speak to HR, or is this purely a discussion with the pension provider?

It starts out with the pension provider but then might move to HR if they don't play ball. HR might then negotiate a change that allows it.

In my case I asked about it when my workplace as switching to a new provider and work negotiated a change to standard contract terms that allows two free transfers out then £50 for more, with a requirement to leave £5,000 in the pension. The original plan also didn't include any sharing of employer NI and I asked about that, pointing out that salary sacrifice just offers 2% employee NI at the 40% income tax rate range and that's not much incentive to use the work system instead of an external one. The plan ended up sharing half of the saved employer NI.

If it isn't allowed on initially asking, ask what happens if you opt out of auto-enrolment, transfer while not an active member, then opt back in again at the next opportunity, possibly all in the same month. This is in part where HR might be able to help because it's pretty daft to allow it only by opting out then back in again.

jamesd

Marine_life wrote: »

This week I had an early meeting in another city so had to fly the night before meaning leaving home at 7 in the evening - so what happens with those hours?

One of my employers counted them all as working time and allowed compensatory time off before or after the travel.

ex-pat_scot

jamesd wrote: »

One of my employers counted them all as working time and allowed compensatory time off before or after the travel.

I work alongside clients who have that approach for their staff - time off in lieu -whereas I have the ignominy of having to charge the client for those hours, but not being able to have them recognised as part of my working time.

It happened a huge amount in the last year - i'd lose a day a weekend to travel, plus putting in 12hr+ working days, but got to charge my standard 37.5hrs per week, and no more.

In the end, you suck it up as a professional, or you leave.

It's one of those things that will eventually exhaust me though...

gadgetmind

Marine_life wrote: »

The question for me is not necessarily the work hours per say but rather the travel

I've managed to dial my travel back.

There was one year when I did 18 trips to the US and a fair few to Japan, so immediately I didn't have any weekends when I wasn't flying. Hard work and I'm glad it's behind me.

mgdavid

ex-pat_scot wrote: »

I work alongside clients who have that approach for their staff - time off in lieu -whereas I have the ignominy of having to charge the client for those hours, but not being able to have them recognised as part of my working time.

It happened a huge amount in the last year - i'd lose a day a weekend to travel, plus putting in 12hr+ working days, but got to charge my standard 37.5hrs per week, and no more.

In the end, you suck it up as a professional, or you leave.

It's one of those things that will eventually exhaust me though...

OR you learn to use remote comms i.e. phone / email / skype / MS messenger / Videoconferencing etc.
Over a 20-year period as a PM I cut my travelling down to zero. Worked from home for 80% of the time for the last 5 years, made it tolerable to hang out until 65.
Sometimes you have to push back to achieve it but it is possible.

edinburgher

http://www.retirementinvestingtoday.com/2016/07/thats-it-im-calling-it-its-my-financial.html

RIT hit 2 commas, good for him, still jealous of his 6 figure salary

GenghisKhan

edinburgher wrote: »

http://www.retirementinvestingtoday.com/2016/07/thats-it-im-calling-it-its-my-financial.html

RIT hit 2 commas, good for him, still jealous of his 6 figure salary

I wouldn't be too jealous. It's good for FIRE and is why I went for it but brutal when measured just about any other way. Certainly not sustainable for somebody trying to work to State Pension Age.

Important to also highlight that the salary came because of my journey to FIRE rather than FIRE being considered because of the salary. Since starting my journey I've been able to increase my salary 2.7 times in real inflation adjusted turns.

The 2 commas and FI targets being reached feels pretty darn good though.