That’s pretty neat. Did you have problems working/logistics/meetings with only having a 3 day week every other week?
No, it’s not a three day week. It’s a four day work week, but the day off moves around.
But yeah, I did not have conflicting meetings luckily.
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Exactly the same. I’ve been 80% for 7 years. I very rarely do any work on a day off. Having an extra day to pursue personal projects or just catch up with life admin or just drink coffee and go for a walk is brilliant. I can’t think of any better use for money than to allow me to be relaxed about working less.
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There is an assumption here I’d like to challenge. 80% can be done per day (almost 2 hours less work), per week (1 day off or 2 half-days off), per month (1 week off) or per year (10 weeks off).Only issue is that most time-keeping systems only offer one or the other.
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Why not try it on a temporary basis? Just ask your employer if you can drop to 80% for 3 months so you can [insert something that sounds like self improvement here]. Once you’ve tried it you can either return to 100% a few months later or you have demonstrated that it works to work part time and can make it permanent.
If you fail to find anything that brings you greater joy than an extra day in the office then you’ve lost nothing and you can go back to trying to become Senior Director of paperclips or whatever irreplaceable contribution you could be making to humanity by focussing on your career.
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I get the point, but they don’t even have to know, once they’ve got school and stuff 
It’s totally fine for parents (and anyone else) to not have intentions of setting an example or changing the world once in a while.
Well, that itself was a valuable lesson for me, and one I set to my kids.
That’s something to consider if your career or income matters. 80% is getting a little bit more common, albeit not on higher levels. Below 80% on senior levels? Beyond a little bit of slack for mothers, granted, most employers I know just can’t imagine it.
On the other hand, spending all the time with your spouse or kids could be exhausting or stressful for some, too.
No advice here, I guess it really comes down to understand what you’d like to do, and for/with whom, first and then find a balance between those.
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The other day, I was talking with a few friends (I met them after our 40s. We are all in a different fields and different levels in the organizations. But we all but one reach in a way or in another what I call our maximum potential within the corporate world. For different reasons, we stop chasing and pushing. The only one who continue is because he is still receiving the reward of pushing hard and he is skilled enough to cop with the new duties without burning out.
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There’s a natural point for everybody: simply because the marginal utility of an additional dollar decreases with each dollar - so at some point the small marginal gain isn’t worth the extra work/time/stress.
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For some it’s ramen profitability, for others rolex profitability…
I think it’s worthwhile considering 80% as long as you don’t end up working 100% (that’s the risk). Otherwise I think 80% is ideal
Good Luck!
What about requesting more PTO with a cut in the salary? Had a colleague that got +13 days year vacation for a 5% cut. win-win 
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Interesting timing coincidence, I’m about the same age and have similar thoughts. I admit I feel that I’m in a golden cage (regarding career) and I don’t want to resign from it, though I don’t have the drive to push forward. I agree with what has been said few post above, the time is now, so whilst I don’t dare to change anything career wise I started spending more to buy me time, luxury and happiness. I could also trade an income cut for time but I’m really afraid it’ll be one way road in my case. My dream used to be to save a bit then move to sunny parts of Europe, lower salaries but better weather all year round, trying not to be workaholic there but enjoy peaceful and meaningful life. However now I’m more in the mood of thinking of the day of FIRE, turn on minimalism if needed but stop career for good. I’m far away from FIRE in Switzerland, but I believe I’m already past FIRE level for lower cost regions, like Philippines, Cambodia, African countries. One thing I regret in life is that I didn’t have money and time to travel when I was young. I believe the sweet spot in contemporary life is to finish education, travel a bit to know why/what for you want to save money, make the money, use it
Also I’m amazed how people achieve FIRE never chasing a career (big money). Well, maybe not pure FIRE, but build up things in their life so that they don’t “have to” do anything, just keep kicking the can, have some meaning in life without big stress.
PS. Owning a house would certainly change me. I was dreaming of having own property in Switzerland at some point, but then I did the math, the tax level in the regions where I can afford (where’s reasonable) buying, then the imputed rental income. In the end I just pay a lot in rent, but earn a decent salary and save on taxes. If I had a house or flat in those other parts of Switzerland I bet it would be bugging me to change priorities, paying taxes beyond certain threshold becomes so demotivating.
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Interesting post. I m new to this forum and was browsing through the blog and posts in here. >90% are about how to make and safe money but very little seems to be about what to do with the growing financial freedom that is supposed to come from these efforts.
In the book the 4 hour work week (tim ferris), the first two chapters are not about how to get there but about what to do with the new free time.
I (43) just quit my job at a int Tech company, moved into my camper and take now 6-12 months off to find out how to live my 2nd half of live. By far I found so far that The most difficult thing with having lots of time is finding other people with similar interests who also have that much time.
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An advantage of being an extreme introvert like me is that you can just spend it alone!
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That’s what I tell myself too, I generally do fine alone and have several interests that are personal growth that don’t need other people, then again I haven’t had any substantial free time for 20 years so not sure if it’ll work in practice. My friend who made millions off crypto in 2021 was constantly saying how too much free time is a curse, and:
…I think this is very true.
That’s probably partly because people who desire to save and grow money do that because they don’t have enough yet, and I guess many of us put most of their efforts into making it, and telling ourselves “I’ll figure it out once I get there” (I know I do!), but I agree the exit strategy is nearly as important as the entry strategy, while the accumulation phase can largely be “spend less than you earn, invest the difference” so it’s simpler.
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A great concept from the tim ferris (i dont support all of his views) is called mini-retirements.
So basically you write down all the things you think you will be doing once you have full freedom over your time. Then you prioritize it and then you do it. 2-3months per mini-retirment. Basically short sabbaticals. E.g living in Portugal at the sea. Vanlife. Living in the mountains. On a sailboat etc.
I did a few and already learned a lot about myself and also what i probably wont be doing…
It also gives you some perspective about how much money you actually need.
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Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad, once said: “Happiness is not reaching your goal, happiness is being on the way ”
Perhaps building wealth is more fun than being wealthy
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One of our most esteemed poets wrote about it 
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I suspect it is.
The problem is that we are typically too busy to even think about it. Maybe we’d all benefit from a year off to reflect how we’d like our life and perhaps we can get what we want without FIRE, but just being more disciplined in how we spend our time.
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I suspect spending wealth and being paid to sit on one’s ass while compounding makes money out of money is way more fun 
Re exit strategy and FIRE vs actually making the most out of life, you make a great point. Knowing myself I find I had more fun making 100 spending 90 than making 100 spending 60 
The money pile is the biggest I ever had by an order of 10, to date but I’m finding myself MORE worried than I was before. For people outside communities such as this (e.g. my wife) the above statement would sound obscene, they’d say I’m out of touch and out of my mind, I’m sure.
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