In a privileged position.. unsure how many days to work

[Spiralfire]

Hi
I have 2 young kids (under 2) and I am currently a SAHM. I want to go back to work soon when they turn 2.
My current plan is to work 6 days a month (alternating 1-2-1-2 days a week) and I can bring in around £1500 this way.
I would be able to save around £350 a month (on top of my DH saving £700 a month) and put £350 into my SIPP monthly.

But I have been toying with the idea of maybe working 1 day a week instead. I would only be able to save £100 a month and put £200 into my SIPP.

I am very type A, and I just want a good balance between work + good finances and my family life and the house.

Childcare cost will be covered by DH but most of the hours will be funded.

I decided how much to work based upon the fact that my employer provides certain additional benefits at a particular number of part time hours. I work more hours than I truly want to work, but the perks are just too good to pass up and it does make the household budget much nicer. My retirement fund also looks beautiful.

Surely your options will be narrowed down by what jobs you can find to pay you that much on such a limited availability? What are you qualified in?

I would give 6 days a try and if you aren’t enjoying it reduce to 4.

Same - I work a day more than I'd like in order to get private health care cover for me and the whole family from my employer.

My pension does look a lot better for it too!

In that case I don’t get the dilemma - try 6 days a month and if it’s too much, cut down?

Does this job have fixed costs that you have to cover irrespective of how many days you work, such as childcare, licence or rent? If so, you should take that into account irrespective of who is covering that.

6 days a month v. 4 days a month?

That is much of a muchness. Try 6 first, then move down to 4 if it suits you better.

The only advantage to starting with 4 is it allows you to fix the day in the week you work so you can schedule stuff into the other days of the week. It helps with planning your week.

I wonder what industry you are in. I'm assuming some sort of service industry where there's no hand over to others?

If it's a client facing role then it might be best go with every Wednesday for sample (4 days sone months, 5 days others). It epuld be annoying for a customer to have to recall which days if they aren't consistent.

I’d do 8 days a month. 2 days a week isn’t much but your pension and family savings will be greatly boosted by it.

there is no guarantee you will be with your husband forever and your pension needs to be enough for you alone just in case

What type of work do you do? Can it essentially be completed in a day or is there always a carry over?

Is it self employment or within an organisation?

We have found less than two days a week to be basically useless. The people aren't really part of the team and from both employers and employees position it doesn't work. They spend the entire time catching up or handing over.

If you need anyone else to respond to you, by the time they reply you are not in for another week so everything is slow.

But if you do something more independent it might not matter so much.

Start small but consistent would be my advice.

I did 21 hours but couldn't get enough done so I went up to 30 and its a much better fit for me. I like the people I work with and I get a better balance between racing through work on less hours and now actually being able to talk to people and leave on time. I got really sick of constantly handing things over and having to use so much of my time getting back up to speed.

Oh this is a good point I forgot to mention - deadlines are always so compressed on part time hours anyway.

Say you work tues & wed.
People ask you to do something on Wed with a deadline of Tuesday. In their mind, it's totally reasonable because it's almost one weeks notice. Unfortunately by the time you pick up the request, it's a same day deadline for you and you often come in to overdue deadlines.

And if you aren't self employed, colleagues often have to pick up the slack which made me feel a bit rubbish. Not implying you should feel that way, just that was my experience.

Anything less then 2 days a week feels more like a hobby then an actual job. Do agree with pp to start at more and drop down if needed.

If it's (somehow) an office with an employer I would start a the minimum (4) and do more if you are up for it as this way round you wont be disappointing anyone.

I must admit I'm curious what job you can do to make 250 a day reliably and choose your hours to this extent. Maybe I need to switch careers!

Surely if you're switched on enough to earn £1500 for 6 days work you can work this out yourself? 😂😂