| Nice! I did something similar. I worked ~20 hours/week for a year, also took an extended 2 month vacation. I'm back to full-time now, but here's how I did it: 1. I had 6 month emergency savings. I figured the worst thing that could happen was having to job hunt and return to normal FTE. The job market felt safe to me. 2. I did this by freelancing. I could not find any ~20 hour part-time job for developers. 3. It's not difficult to start at $50/hour and move your way up as a developer. 4. I eventually moved to a day rate. Instead of working ~4 hour days, I worked 2-3 days per week. This helped deal with my goal lifestyle (only wanted to answer client calls while I was in the office, preferred batched work instead of 1-2 hours here and there, etc...) 5. My living expenses weren't extravagant. Probably low considering I'm in the Bay Area. Even at 20 hours/week, I made sure the math worked out and that I'd still have a solid buffer just in case. It immediately made me much happier. I started spending afternoons jogging around the local lake, playing video games, spending more time with parents/grandparents, working on side projects. It felt like the opposite of burnout. Of course, there were still problems: 1. Explaining to friends/family. There was a lot of criticism about how I was wasting money, being lazy, or being irresponsible. Worse was the constant "did you find a job yet?" question. At the end of the day, if you're financially sustaining yourself/family and not assuming too much risk -- you're not being irresponsible! 2. From the clients I've had experience with, most preferred full time contracts. It was a little more difficult finding 20 hours or less per week. 3. Droughts suck. I had a ~1 month drought that doubled my vacation length. Saying "No" to a full-time request means they'll find someone else who can work full time. Hope this helps anyone else considering the jump. |