To think 4k a month income and no housing costs is a fortune

[nickiredcar]

I've been busting myself for 4 years to make my buisness a success. I'm now regularly netting a profit of around 2-3k a month. I want to take it easier and go down to being part time even if the income halfs I'd still be very happy with that.

If it does half we would still have an income of 4k a month to support us and ds teen at a state school.

That's way above the average income but dh isn't supportive about me working less. Don't think he understands how the 80 hour working late nights and weekends have affected me and I need to slow down :(

However, reducing down from 80 hours isn't going part time, it's going down to normal person hours! If your DH isn't working 80 hours he's got a cheek expecting you to do it

^^ yes to this.

I doubt her husband is saying she needs to work for 80 hours rather that he wants her to maintain a certain income level. Which the business does not sustain.

Based on the vague details, the business does not sound viable and it would unusual to just cut hours by half and expect income to fall in line with it. Certain inputs materials, time and overheads will be fixed or semi fixed. Profits and therefore income are based on margins.

Not much point asking our views, the devil is in the detail but to me this sounds like the OP needs to rethink her business objectives.

Dh income is 2.6k a month roughly.

I know all my figures very well but my work is a mixture of royalties and commissions. So can't give any hard and fast values.

The work I've done in the past will carry on bringing in the royalties although if I stop producing at this level it will start to gradually go down but not for many months. The commission's I feel are fairly priced, but I'm getting better at spotting when something will be more Hassel than it's worth and saying no to more these days.

Re the buisness isn't viable, the work I'm doing isn't a cafe or something. I'm building up a body of work that will keep providing an income so the per hour cost isn't something important. Although it fluctuates rapidly, but I'm lucky that being self employed I can go on holiday for two weeks and still have an income coming in that's more or less the same as if I was working.

I really just want to have 3-4 days a week where I do none of my work and he doesn't like the idea of me having twice as many days off as him.

At the moment I'm saving 1.5k of my money per month incase it does ever stop. I needed to work for two years on very little to start it up and luckily had a residency money to help me through.

No major pension, I've got two workplaces ones from 10 years contributions but I'm going to carry on working and my routalities should be my pension.

Its similar to us and there is not that much left after bills, regular expenses, modest holidays, clothes, uni saving, professional fees etc. I would be ok with dh scaling back a bit if he wanted to (and have considered it myself).

Well there's 1-1.5k of my own income alone left over.

Mortgage paid off, own my car, no professional fees and the house bills aren't that much between us two

Can't you double your rates and natural loss of client numbers will mean you make the same amount in less time?

OP
Unless you are very famous or very unique in what you do, relying on royalties for your pension sounds naive.

I receive royalties and they vary hugely. Publishers can go bust and your royalties go down the pan too.

You are either a writer, musician or artist. This is a very precarious business.

I doubt you are a writer as there are spelling/punctuation errors in your posts :)

However, that's by the by.

As a family with no mortgage, you ought to be able to manage on your Dh's income if that is net- or is it gross?

£2.6 K a month- take home or gross?

You need to see a financial advisor and talk through your longer term plans. I'm no expert but I too am s/e and receive commissions but there is no way it's a secure type of work.

Just because i don't have grammarly on my phone that doesn't mean writing isn't part of my job and from your post I can see you aren't knowledgeable up on the area I'm working in.

Pension isn't an issue or even what this thread is about. No point me going into details there.

2.6 is gross.

I guess, from his POV, you earned "very little" for 2 years, so presumably during this time his income was extremely important.

Now you want to double your leisure time compared to his (3-4 full days off) whilst cutting your income, so that his income becomes extremely significant again.

I very much sympathise - it sounds like the sort of thing you do is mentally consuming as well as time-consuming and you want the headspace.

But really, if you have no dependants between you (do you? You don't mention them) then you are expecting your DH to take on the lion's share of the income-earning requirements.

That sounds neither sensible nor fair from an outsider's viewpoint.

If you also have caring responsibilities that's another question.

If you were talking about cutting back to a 9-5 Mon-Fri working day that's also another question.

But it sounds as if in a partnership of two adults you want to work less and earn less than the other adult?

You sound very successful and you save a lot each month so well done. I do think you work far too many hours a week and its completely reasonable that you want to reduce that and your DH should support you - particularly as you will still have a healthy net income each month.

Hours worked relative to income IS an issue: you’ve said you want to reduce your hours.

No I wasn't reliant on him while I wasn't earning much, think it said it earlier but I supported myself with a redundancy payoff.

Even with working less I will still have ample the amount we both pay to the joint account to cover bills. We do have one dependant

I have significant savings so even if work did end tomorrow I have enough to support myself for several years without earning a penny.

I only want a break for a year or so then adjust to how I'm feeling. The problem is it was my passion but I'm doing it too much and I don't have an end game. I have everything I want and lots of savings so really do want to slow down and have some days out of it.

Hours worked in realation to pay per hour is what I was saying isn't relevant, as it's my buisness and I'm building up assets that pay back once completed.

Can you employ someone to help? I don’t think your unreasonable to want to slow down & reduce your hours. 4k wouldn’t be enough for my family but it’s individual preferences & certainly enough for the basics.

Considering he isn't supporting you, I don't see why it's any of his business.

Sorry if this is a silly question but how is he going to “enforce” your continuing long hours? Just cut back if you don’t need any contribution from him.

Just because i don't have grammarly on my phone that doesn't mean writing isn't part of my jobhmm and from your post I can see you aren't knowledgeable up on the area I'm working in.

I wasn't talking about grammar, I was talking about all the spelling mainly.

I was trying to understand what you do! Clearly you want to be coy over that. I know how it works in my field of being a journo and author. Maybe you do graphic design, art, music, whatever....but you do need to be careful over these royalties.

Ignoring your pension is silly. As someone who is s/e you should be contributing to your own pension regardless of your savings.

Your DH can't control what you do surely. You want to work less- what's stopping you doing it?

I think you're just selling it wrong - instead of saying you want to go down to part-time, you actually want to work normal working hours! I don't think anyone would disagree with you that working 80 hours a week is a lot and hard to keep up!

What would your husband say if you were to suggest trying to stick within his working hours with your business? From what i've read, you clearly know your area and have your head screwed on figures wise!

I don't understand quite why you have to ok your working hours with your DH. Isn't it more about agreeing on an amount you both need to contribute monthly to 'the pot' to ensure present and future security? How you achieve that, and what you do with the rest of your time, is up to you surely?