Part-time working before retirement

Albermarle

Sunsh1ne54 said:

Nebulous2 said:

I retired two years ago and quickly found I wasn't ready. I then took a part-time job, doing 2-3 days the first year, since reduced to 1-2 days. Avoiding that cliff edge was necessary for me to adjust my lifestyle. I've sometimes said, instead of jumping off the cliff I've climbed to a ledge halfway down. It's going well so far, and stopping 8 years before state pension age it has meant I haven't had to draw upon my capital in the way I expected to when I stopped work.  

My previous job didn't lend itself well to part-time work. My line manager went to 3 days a week and then was asked to attend a regular management meeting on one of her days off. That was a common pattern, people who went part-time regularly found themselves working bits of 5 days, rather than 3 discrete days. 

That’s interesting. I’m hoping I can avoid checking my work phone/emails on non working days. Also that I’m not trying to do 5 days work in 3!  I haven’t got too much lined up for my non working days at the moment, so I’ll need to decide how to fill the me time well. 

It depends on what sort of job you have, and if you work in a team who can do your work on your days off.
My job was very flexible but in return I often had to answer calls/read and answer e mails on days off. In fact some 'work' days were very quiet, and some 'days off' quite busy !
So going to 3 or 4 days was clearly never going to work and main result would just have been a reduction in salary.

SandyShores

Love this thread, sounds like the best of both worlds.  Something I'm hoping to do next year (dropping from 5 to 4 days).

FIREDreamer

I have been part time since 2018, reducing from 5 days a week to 4 days and then 3.

I hope to stop my one more year problem and retire next year, markets permitting!

amateur_house

Hi Sunsh1ne54

Interesting to read your thread as I'm in a similar situation. Planning to reduce from full time work to 3 days sometime in the next year. I worked term time only with 10 weeks off every summer for over 10 years before returning to full time (in March 2020, which then meant working from home for a long time), so thought I'd be used to filling my time when I stop work. I now think having a fixed 'go back to work' date acted as an incentive to do things, and without that the time will feel stretched out endlessly in front of me. So I think now reducing to part time for a couple of years will help to plan time better. 

Not sure how it will work financially. I plan to manage on a part-time wage, but if it's not enough I have a small (on hold) defined benefit pension I can start drawing on to top up my wages. Also a defined contribution pension - still  paying into -  but don't want to start taking from that until nearer state pension age.

Sunsh1ne54

SandyShores said:

Love this thread, sounds like the best of both worlds.  Something I'm hoping to do next year (dropping from 5 to 4 days).

Enjoy when the time arrives!

Sunsh1ne54

FIREDreamer said:

I have been part time since 2018, reducing from 5 days a week to 4 days and then 3.

I hope to stop my one more year problem and retire next year, markets permitting!

Best of luck!

Sunsh1ne54

amateur_house said:

Hi Sunsh1ne54

Interesting to read your thread as I'm in a similar situation. Planning to reduce from full time work to 3 days sometime in the next year. I worked term time only with 10 weeks off every summer for over 10 years before returning to full time (in March 2020, which then meant working from home for a long time), so thought I'd be used to filling my time when I stop work. I now think having a fixed 'go back to work' date acted as an incentive to do things, and without that the time will feel stretched out endlessly in front of me. So I think now reducing to part time for a couple of years will help to plan time better. 

Not sure how it will work financially. I plan to manage on a part-time wage, but if it's not enough I have a small (on hold) defined benefit pension I can start drawing on to top up my wages. Also a defined contribution pension - still  paying into -  but don't want to start taking from that until nearer state pension age.

Hi amateur_house, it’s difficult isn’t it. So many things to factor in. I’ve been considering this for some time, then I thought, give it a go! Luckily my boss is very fair, which made it easier to at least see if it works. Good luck with your plans!

Sunsh1ne54

Albermarle said:

Sunsh1ne54 said:

Nebulous2 said:

I retired two years ago and quickly found I wasn't ready. I then took a part-time job, doing 2-3 days the first year, since reduced to 1-2 days. Avoiding that cliff edge was necessary for me to adjust my lifestyle. I've sometimes said, instead of jumping off the cliff I've climbed to a ledge halfway down. It's going well so far, and stopping 8 years before state pension age it has meant I haven't had to draw upon my capital in the way I expected to when I stopped work.  

My previous job didn't lend itself well to part-time work. My line manager went to 3 days a week and then was asked to attend a regular management meeting on one of her days off. That was a common pattern, people who went part-time regularly found themselves working bits of 5 days, rather than 3 discrete days. 

That’s interesting. I’m hoping I can avoid checking my work phone/emails on non working days. Also that I’m not trying to do 5 days work in 3!  I haven’t got too much lined up for my non working days at the moment, so I’ll need to decide how to fill the me time well. 

It depends on what sort of job you have, and if you work in a team who can do your work on your days off.
My job was very flexible but in return I often had to answer calls/read and answer e mails on days off. In fact some 'work' days were very quiet, and some 'days off' quite busy !
So going to 3 or 4 days was clearly never going to work and main result would just have been a reduction in salary.

That’s a concern… we’ll see. Did you go back to full-time or fully retire as a result?

XzavierWalnut

I went from 5 days to 3 days for 1 year, and absolutely loved it, before retiring fully. You need to be firm that people understand you are now part time, and not do 5 days work in 3.

Flugelhorn

I was in the NHS and had 4 jobs that were all genuinely sessional, dropped 2 of them and  took the pension and carried on with the others for about 18 months longer - it was a great way to do it - 3rd job effectively went into abeyance in lockdown (practice inspections) so finished that too and then I gave up the last one.

Can thoroughly recommend going part time, though have to be sure to be able to compartmentalise - doing multiple sessional jobs made that easier and employers can't expect you to do something for them when you are working for someone else