
Avid readers among you will know I like to get the summer off work – if you are planning to retire early, you might as well trial it out when the weather is good. Plus, how are you supposed to look after your kids over the summer break on a 9-5 job without help from family?
If you’re just picking this blog up and reading – I’m an early 40s dad of two – to the Master and Little Lady who are in primary school. We live in a seaside city in lovely Scotland in an enclave of relative prosperity surrounded by deprivation. I’ve worried about money for over 20 years and have now accumulated enough to not need to anymore – so I’m sort of work optional right now.
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I work as an engineering contractor, running my own business and my wife, the Lady works part time as a manager at a cool company.
But as a family we are a bit spendy – mostly from living life – so all the money in the world won’t be enough if you spend it all. So, I’m still working (and when you live by the rule of a spreadsheet, you can obsess on whether you’ve enough money to fill your ISAs for the next 15 years, instead of pulling the plug and just going Career Cold Turkey.
So, instead, I’m working most of the year, but trying to take as many holidays as I can. We’ve had some nice long summer holidays in 2022 & 2023 – although last year we didn’t have the pleasure.
With kids in school, they get more holidays throughout the year than staff workers get – how on earth are you supposed to look after kids, whilst working 9-5 with 33 holidays a year – and they do 9-3 and have 7 weeks holidays in the summer alone?
Maybe if you have family to come to the rescue – I envy those who can offload the brats to the oldiewonks – but that’s not an option for us.
So, my aim is to find a contract (outwith IR35) that is work from home and flexible enough that I don’t have to work those “core hours” that would make the school-run impossible, or stop me cooking up a stew at lunchtime, or put an end to me bunking off early on a sunny Friday write a blog post.
For me it’s flexiblity – freedom during the week, also the ability to take a couple of weeks off in October for the school hols, a few weeks at Christmas for skiing and hols, a few more at Easter for more holidays (home or abroad).
I’m not asking for too much, am I?
But once spring turns into summer, I start getting worried that I’ll be working all summer – and what to do with the kids.
So, I try to get out of working by either changing company or asking for the summer off. And it’s very easy to ensure that you never get work – annoy the wrong people, do a shit job, or be generally unhelpful.
But to start-up again when it suits you – that’s a more difficult thing to do. There needs to be a project that’s kicking-off or that needs people, or someone who holds you in high-regard. And that’s not always possible – and its impossible to know if it’s going to happen or not in June – a lot can change in a month or two.
I liken it to a trapeze act – where oyu n
Cutting to the Chase
Anyway – for 2025, I wanted to get the summer off and it looks like I might just get that wish. The office I work with has a lack of work at the moment and they need to pay for the staff first before contractors like me get any work to do.
So, I had a chat with the big boss and I’m helping him out by taking from the end of June until the end of August off. I hope that it all works out. The HR / contract agency is in the loop and I should be able to log-off in at the end of next week and start enjoying the summer.
It’s a cut in income – sure, but it gives me my time back and hopefully I’ll be able to grab back onto the bar at the end of August. But in the mean time, I get to be outdoors more, spend time with the kids without have the threat of work lurking over my shoulders and reduce my stress levels (I’ve been working pretty hard for the last 6 months and need a decent break).
It might hit our finances a bit – not earning for 10 weeks – but life is a bit more important to let work (and money) get in the way.
Thanks, GFF.