Comment by dorkwood | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dorkwood | Hacker News Reader

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I’ve tried to think of a way out of this, but so far none of my ideas are very good.

1) Use my spare time to study a more lucrative field, and negotiate a four-day work week. The pitfall here is that I need to spend all of my spare time working, so that I may be able to work less in the future (and it’s not guaranteed that I will).

2) Move to a country where the cost of living is cheap, and freelance with international clients. The pitfall here is that I have to move away from all the people I care about. I may also end up introducing more stress into my life by living as a foreigner and relying on a freelance income.

3) Invest all of my time into starting my own business (for pitfalls, see 1).

4) Negotiate a four-day work week on my current wage, live a much more ascetic lifestyle, and only save a small amount of money for my future.

5) Marry into a wealthy family.

6) Find a duffel bag with a few million dollars in it.

Does anyone have any better ideas?

> Use my spare time to study a more lucrative field

assuming you are in software development field, it is tricky to get into a more lucrative one, probably easier to just stay here.

> Move to a country where the cost of living is cheap, and freelance with international clients

Not long-term sustainable. Might work for couple years (especially if you are single and have perfect health), but after a lot of problem will show up – relatives, friends, connections, etc. Also, you might want your own home.

Overall, you listed it. Other ideas are:

1. embrace it. Be consistent in your hobbies, and dedicate one day to it (like Saturday). It is tough for new hobbies, but if you are already in it, might be just fine. Not everybody has to produce something artsy and from their passion – your family, what you like might be enough. Try to reflect on it sometime, it might clear some things for you.

2. Retire early. If you live more frugally (or not so posh, depending on your preferences), you can easily save plenty of money, which will allow you to retire not in 65, but around ~45 (number depends heavily, but you got the idea).

3. Aggressively negotiate vacation days, and take off 1–2 days at the end/beginning of the week. You'll work much less (you'll notice it), and taking 2 days off reduces 2 weeks into 4 days work week.

Will assume you are programmer, here, if not the dynamic might be different.

The presumption is that you get paid less when you work less. And this is true, to an extent: when I've negotiated a shorter workweek I've typically gotten paid correspondingly less, e.g. at 4 days a week get paid 80% time.

But—

1. My experience (https://codewithoutrules.com/2018/02/11/working-long-hours/), and that of others (https://lobste.rs/s/hvjwd6/how_become_part_time_programmer#c...) is that working less makes you more productive. You learn how to prioritize, how to avoid wasting time, you're force to plan more... basically you end up a much effective programmer and employee.

As a better employee, you can get a better baseline salary. So you're getting 80% of a higher salary.

2. The key to getting a shorter workweek is negotiating. If you have better negotiating skills you can get a higher salary, e.g. merely asking for more than the company's initial offer will usually give you a 10% boost (https://codewithoutrules.com/2019/01/18/negotiate-like-6-yea...). Knowing how to present yourself in a job interview and resume can also give you a salary boost (https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/).

So again, it's possible to get 80% of a higher salary.

You'll still get paid less than you could have otherwise... but beyond a certain point I and others at least have found time to be more important than money.

7) Move to a country where the cost of living is cheap, and work remotely as an employee in a remote friendly/remote only company.

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