Choosing Family Over Finances Part III

This is Part III of my Choosing Family Over Finances series. If you missed Part I or Part II you can read those, but it’s not like you’ll be lost if you just ignore them altogether. Actually, those posts do set the groundwork a little bit. You should go back and read them first.

So, I’ve been a part-time stay-at-home dad for about seven months now. Overall it’s been great. Baby Burrito Bowl is hilarious. Watching her is like watching a puppy if that puppy was really vulnerable, got into everything, and made blowing noises with her lips. I guess it’s pretty similar to having a puppy.

She keeps growing and is almost a year old. I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone and other cliches. She’s real cute. I’ll insert some pictures at the end of the post, but you have to read the post first. For sure don’t just scroll down and look at the pictures.

The Work Part

We made a conscious decision to work less in order to spend more time at home while our daughter is little. This meant going to my employer and asking to be allowed to work part-time. How that all worked out is detailed in Part I, if you ignored my previous imploring about reading these updates in order.

As of part two, my work schedule was like this: Off Monday-Wednesday during the day, but I had to go into work during the evenings those days. I’d work long days on Thursday and Friday and would occasionally have to work one of the weekend days. I was still on salary and paid my regular wages.

This deal was nice because we were able to earn our same income and also keep Baby Burrito Bowl out of daycare. On the negative side, I hardly saw Mrs. Burrito Bowl during the week. I worked close to the same amount of hours as I did before, just at different times.

I no longer go into work during the evenings.

It was just too much. I’d spend more time fighting my way through traffic than actually doing productive work. I’d have to slap hands with Mrs. Burrito Bowl when she got home and neither of us would get a chance to relax. Now, I’m completely off Monday-Wednesday (except for fielding the occasional work phone call). When Mrs. Burrito Bowl gets home we have the evenings together. High-five.

My new schedule is to work Thursday, Friday, and either Saturday or Sunday. Working on the weekend is not ideal, but it’s quiet and not very stressful. I’m able to get more work done doing it this way than I would when I would work in the evenings. My employer gets more productivity out of me and I get more quality family time. Win-win.

My boss took over scheduling duties (huge stress for me since I wasn’t there 60% of the workweek) so now my job is much less stressful. I basically spend Thursday-Saturday as a job site cleaner guy. Very prestigious. I also still deal with the warranty and homeowner stuff. Dealing with homeowners is a pain in the ass so I’m worth more to the company than if I was only cleaning. It’s a pretty good gig for me though.

I really enjoy my workdays for the most part. It’s nice to get out of the house, listen to podcasts, and get paid to sweep or whatever.

I have noticed a shift in my brain about working long hours. Before I had a kid I would feel really good about working a long day. Now, I feel bad when I work a long day because I know that’s time I’ll never get back.

The Finances Part

I was being paid my full salary for the first six months of working semi-part-time. Starting in October I switched to being paid hourly. I’m paid close to what my salary would be if I were to work a full workweek, but since I only work three days my pay is significantly less.

We’re totally fine with this new development as we’ve positioned ourselves financially to be able to take a pay cut. It’s well worth the sacrifice to be able to spend so much time with my daughter. Now that my boss is doing the scheduling portion I have significantly less work-related stress, so that’s nice too.

Side Note: It’s an odd mental shift, going from salary to hourly. I’m actually happier while I’m working. When I’m hourly it doesn’t feel like I’m working for free whenever I work late or on the weekend. When I was paid a salary, it felt like I was working for free any time I had to come in on the weekends or do anything extra. As an hourly employee, I’m getting paid for everything I do. My overall paychecks are lower, but my work satisfaction is higher. I’m fully aware that overall I’m being paid less, but it FEELS like I’m being paid more. People are weird.

What’s next?

We’re getting antsy to move back to Montana. We’ve been waiting for Mrs. Burrito Bowl to become vested in her work so she gets the full retirement amount. We didn’t think she’d be vested until at least April or May of 2020, but it turns out she’s vested as of November 2019. This means we can leave at any point.

Being vested was an arbitrary timeline for moving, but we had to pick some far off goal. Well, we reached that goal. Now what?

As much as I enjoy my job, we’re thinking I’m going to put in my notice to leave in December.

The reason for this is I’m technically an independent contractor with an LLC taxed as an S-Corp. This means it costs around $800 to have my taxes filed. If we plan on moving back to Montana in the next few months it really doesn’t make a ton of sense to work a few shifts in January and have so much of that money go towards filing these complicated taxes.

On top of that, it’s just hard having one of us working all but one day of the week. We want a little bit of time to explore Oregon before we move back. We both really enjoy our jobs, so it feels silly to quit, but I think it’s the best move for us long term.

In the back of our minds, we wonder if we’ll kick ourselves for giving up these sweet positions before we reach FI. In Montana pay is significantly lower, so we’ll end up working harder and making less once we move. I’ll probably earn more doing my part-time gig here than I would earn working full-time in Montana. Ugh. Oh well. We’re about halfway to our FI goal so we can afford to take a pay-cut in order to create the lives we want.

Instead of spending the next five years rushing to reach FI we’re consciously taking our foot off the gas a little so we can spend more time with family. You can always earn more money but you can never get your time back.

Anyway. That’s where we are.

Here are some pictures of Baby Burrito Bowl as a reward for reading this 🙂

Visiting Mrs. Burrito Bowl at work

Thanks for reading!

Next: Choosing Family Over Finances Part IV- Montana Bound

Here are a few more articles you might enjoy:

The Spectrum of Belief and the Circle of Influence

Rule of 72- Doubling Your Money with Math

The Good Day/Bad Day Teeter-Totter