Here's my situation - am I mad to drop Fridays?

[AndItDoesntSeemToMatter]

I'm 37. Not particularly ambitious I want to be happy in my work but I mainly work to live. Senior admin role. No children or wish to have any, no partner but let's not pull at that thread! Small mortgage and (touch wood I don't get neighbours from hell) happy in my home for the foreseeable.

Income is £31k, taking off pension contributions and "bought" extra days which I won't be buying next year, I take home just under £1900 per month.

All bills, insurance, mortgage and a mortgage overpayment of £100 plus food and petrol comes to around £1,100. The overpayment doesn't hit my mortgage straightaway I put it into a retainer and once it builds up to £1k I'll throw the whole chunk at it if no other emergency has arisen in the meantime.

I also transfer £500 per month into my normal savings account when I can, unless it's MOT month etc. Car is bought outright and only 3 years old. My savings account has £16k in it, my nest egg. Maybe a bigger house way in the future maybe a wedding who knows.

Leaves me with £300 just to play with. I don't live an extravagant lifestyle, rarely go out other than a very occasional beer garden or treating Mum to lunch; my only indulgence is the odd leather jacket or pair of shoes and frankly I have enough of both! My UK holidays are with family a couple of times per year and not hugely expensive.

I want to move to a new role and drop to a 4 day week because to put it bluntly - I can't be fucked. I'd rather spend my Fridays cycling or hiking. I'll save less of course and my pension will no doubt be affected but I'm thinking it will be worth it for the work life balance. I'll try to arrange a 10% cut rather than straight 20% and work 32 hours over Monday to Thursday. Or maybe even just be lazy and cut the full 20% I'm not sure.

Am I missing something? Do you think I'm in a fairly reasonable position to do this at my youngish age?!

Sorry, silly question for all those saying “think of your pension”. Is this because final salary pension schemes and smaller pension contributions, or am I missing something else?

@GrandmasCat

Sorry, silly question for all those saying “think of your pension”. Is this because final salary pension schemes and smaller pension contributions, or am I missing something else?

Dropping hours will impact pensions. I could have dropped days several years ago but when you look at pension contributions as well as drop in disposable salary this would have meant working longer than I plan.

For others it might mean they need to work to state pension age and will still struggle in retirement if their pension provision is poor and they reduce it even further by going part time. Pension poverty is a big problem and from what I have read particularly for women that might sacrifice that over working hours.

@GrandmasCat yes exactly, plus if your role was made redundant, any and all calculations are based on hours worked at the time, not over your entire work history.

Friends of ours lost thousands of pounds in redundancy package as the employer and person agreed (personal reasons) to drop a day just prior to the company making the role redundant.

I haven't read past your first message - definitely drop the Friday. Life is for living so if you're given the chance to work less but can still manage, grab it with both hands and enjoy your extra day to yourself!

@Stuffin @mrshgwell Thank you, that’s what I thought, I thought I was missing something else, and I was, had not considered redundancy payments.

Thanks @JustJustWhy. Thought I was going mad. 😁

Go for it, I don't work Fri it best thing ever