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Has anyone formally gone to a four day (10 hour) workweek prior to fully retiring?
Currently working five (10-12 hour) days per week and eligible to retire with 34 yrs and pension. Would still be a full time employee, just more reasonable hours. However, no desire to leave just yet at 58. Long weekends do beckon....
Would like to discuss with boss, but thinking it out fully first from all angles. Input?
That is exactly what I am doing tho my situation is much different.
I am a RN in a busy unit. At age 60 I was working full time, during that year I dropped one day in a two week pay period. The next year I dropped another day (in a two week pay period), the next year I dropped another, etc. Now at age 64 I work 3 days a week.
This gives me the chance to preview retirement activities such as taking classes at a local University and Road Scholar trips.
Most importantly it weans me from the paycheck gradually. Really good preparation for retirement!
I think of it as wading into retirement instead of jumping off the high-diving board.
I worked 10 on 6 off for quite a while before I retired. Loved the long 'weekends' and going on vacations with an extra 6 days on either side of the week(or two) off was wonderful! It's doable for 24x7 operations and it does have it's own scheduling headaches.
I shortened my work week for 7 years going from full time to half time before retirement.
But, it also decreased my state pension and if I had realized this at the time, I would have stuck it out full time for much longer.
What do you want to do with your time off? What do you want to do when you retire?
I wanted to travel. I worked fulltime as long as necessary to meet my financial goals. Then I sold the house, turned in my notice and soon took off in an RV.
If you work one day a week less, what are you going to do with your time? Rest? Run errands?
What do you want to do with your time off? What do you want to do when you retire?
I wanted to travel. I worked fulltime as long as necessary to meet my financial goals. Then I sold the house, turned in my notice and soon took off in an RV.
If you work one day a week less, what are you going to do with your time? Rest? Run errands?
For me, the truth of the matter was I did less during the work week because of the extended hours. So part of my 'extra' time off was spent on catching up all the things I didn't get done. But it also saved me money. I had a 100 mile commute per day and any day I didn't have to drive in was money in the bank!
People with long commutes would love to work four days a week for forty hours as opposed to five days a week for forty hours. The work week is the same (i.e., forty hours) but the commute is reduced by 20% by reducing the number of days by one but increasing the hours per day correspondingly. Blessed are those, such as RN's, who have the type of work which allows that sort of flexibility, and also the flexibility to just go part-time, as in working three days per week, for example.
Not everybody needs full-time work, such as (but not limited to) women whose husbands earn good money.
I shortened my work week for 7 years going from full time to half time before retirement.
But, it also decreased my state pension and if I had realized this at the time, I would have stuck it out full time for much longer.
You make an excellent point.
My wife volunteered to work part-time after retirement ... until she saw that it would reduce her pension and make her ineligible for retiree health care.
People with long commutes would love to work four days a week for forty hours as opposed to five days a week for forty hours. The work week is the same (i.e., forty hours) but the commute is reduced by 20% by reducing the number of days by one but increasing the hours per day correspondingly. Blessed are those, such as RN's, who have the type of work which allows that sort of flexibility, and also the flexibility to just go part-time, as in working three days per week, for example.
And the employers in SoCal get credit for reducing the number of commute days in their business. It can be a win-win.
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