Should I reduce my hours and use inheritance to accommodate placement?

[candleisburnt]

I currently work full time and am studying part time to retrain. I attend class two full days (one weekend day and one day during the week - I take leave for the weekday day) per month, then assignments and studying are done in the evenings. I am soon starting placement which I imagine will take up about 5 hours per week on top of my 37 hours per week at work.

AIBU to consider asking to drop to 32 hours over 4 days for a year while I do my placement? It would mean working 9am-5.30pm four days per week and would free up a whole day to do my placement. I'm single, live alone and am fully responsible for mortgage and bills so I do feel a bit stressed about juggling it all. This weekend I have rested completely because I am exhausted.

If I reduce my hours to 32 hours I would lose about £250 per month and I don't get paid for placement. I do however have about £30k in inheritance in accounts which earn me around £175 of interest per month. I could use the interest to offset the loss in earnings, meaning I would be about £75 worse off per month. Currently things are quite tight financially based solely on my take home pay each month (I don't touch the inheritance because ideally I want to keep it as a buffer in case of emergencies) but I manage.

Is this a crazy plan? I feel stressed either way, whether I imagine continuing working 37 hours per week plus placement in the evenings (but with no loss of earnings) or at the thought of working slightly fewer hours over 4 days, giving me more leeway for placement, and being £250 down per month.

What would you do?

Would you be able to go back up to 5 days if you needed to?

How long have you left of the training?

presuming that in the long term this will leave you better off I would.

Sorry I should have said that, my employer's flexible working policy offers the possibility of a time-limited arrangement and gives the example of part time study for a year. So I would ask to reduce my hours for a year and then revert to full time hours.

YANBU at all.

@candleisburnt could you do 37 hours over 4 days?

Also, what is the interest on your mortgage like compared to the interest on the savings? Sounds like you're getting a very good rate on your £30k so not worth paying off the mortgage? (just worth double checking).

I'm assuming that at some point you will then get a job in this new field. How long would you have to be part time for?

I would do it. Your placement won’t just take up the time taken on site but also presumably record keeping, filling in a portfolio/reflections? You could pick up more work in summer to offset the £75 paid out.

If things are already tight and with heating etc about to go up are you sure 75 defecit is realistic?

I have thought about compressed hours and doing 37 hours over 4 days but it would mean working eg 8.30am until 6.15pm and I'm not sure I could sustain that over more than a week or two. I don't want to be so tired that I'm not even fit for my placement on my day off work.

I'm not sure about overpaying my mortgage - it would mean using up the buffer of the savings meaning I literally wouldn't have any money to fall back on and I'm not sure how much it would realistically reduce my monthly payments by. It is worth considering though as my fixed mortgage rate of 4.45% is due to expire in the spring and I'm worried about having to go with an increased rate this time!

How about a 9 day fortnight? Everyone seems to be doing that. It's a bit less gruelling than 5 in 4. Just note that as your days are longer your holiday days are longer too