So after pondering for quite some time, and taking baby steps in that direction, I’ve taken the first big step toward scaling down and turning my work schedule upside down. I have been working as a nurse for about 2.5 years. For the first 8 months I was full time, then scaled down to 60% of FTE (which allowed me to keep benefits). I ramped back up to 70% about 8 months ago when I moved from acute care to primary care. Starting this week I am now a per diem float nurse in primary care and can work as much (up to full time) or as little as I want. The upside is tremendous freedom – I plan on working 2 days a week on average, and can take weeks at a time off for any kind of travel I want to do. The downside is that I’ll now have to pay for my own benefits.
I’m calling this the “pay as you go” plan. I have enough savings that working 2 days a week an keeping to a modest budget will allow me this freedom indefinitely. The “pay as you go” comes in when I want extras – if I want extras that aren’t budgeted, I’ll have to pick up shifts to pay for it.
Ultimately I’d like to move someplace with a lower cost of living than Seattle to make my dollars stretch further, but for now I’m content to see where this path may take me. I’ll try to regularly post the actions I’m taking to maintain this lesser workload while maintaining financial solvency.
ottomyhead 
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