Time to go part time?
I’ve been saving hard for a while working full time but it’s crushing my soul and I’m think about going down to three days a week.
This is my situation:
45M. Married with two kids in primary school. Wife makes about £85k and likes work. I currently make about £115k but it’s via an umbrella so not very tax efficient income.
£255k in my Pension, wife has about £210k.
£10k emergency (I know, I know! We’ve overpaid the mortgage though so could take a 12 months payment window if we wanted, a £17k “saving”)
Oh and maybe £18k in gold.
£400k equity in house, £135k left on mortgage due to be cleared the year I’ll turn 57.
Currently saving about £44k/year into SIPP. But if I go to three days a week now, this will drop to about £24k/year.
Wife puts about £15k/ year away.
I want to retire at 57 if not before. On about £30k after tax. Reducing to £25k when a bit older.
The wife doesn’t want to retire, at the moment anyway and all being well would happily cover some of my £30k at 57, this would help with sequence risk and early high % drawdown but I don’t want to rely on this plan. I’d like to be able to afford for us both to retire at 57 if she changes her mind.
The question is, will I still be on track? Or am I being stupid giving up work two days a week? It will obviously put my saving back. But I want to get a bit of my life back now. Am I being impatient or is this actually the smart, work life balance move while I’m young enough to enjoy it and spend some more time with the kids?
Anyone have similar dilemmas?