I have just finished ‘Financial Freedom’ by Grant Sabatier. Like many other financial independence bloggers he recommends ‘hacking your 9-5’. Often this involves asking your boss for a rise. If, like me, you work in the public sector, this is not an option. The only way of getting more money is to apply for another position, doing something different. Alternatively, you could move to another organisation or leave the public sector altogether. Neither of those are options that I want to consider, so I’m probably going to be where I am until I retire.
This post is therefore about what I see as the benefits of my job and how I can make the most of them. If you also work in the public sector I hope that it may give you some ideas about how to take advantage of your 9-5 benefits on your way to FIRE.
Working at home
This is not possible every day as my responsibilities involve visiting people and attending meetings, but very often, if I am just sitting at a computer, then it is at home. Working at home equals no commute. In the morning I therefore have plenty of time for reading, exercise, meditation and breakfast – all of the things that I like to do before starting my work day. If I get up at 6am, which I have been doing recently, despite Mr Simple’s complaining, then I have three whole hours to myself before I have to start work – a luxury.
Many jobs could be done at home, but often it is the mindset of the organisation that prevents this. Strangely it seems that being seen sitting at one’s desk is regarded as a measure that one is being productive, whereas in my experience trying to get work done in a busy office is a challenge. I tick off more of my to-do list at home, even if I take breaks occasionally to hang up the washing or answer the door when a parcel is delivered.
I believe that it is always worth asking the question. The worst that can happen is that they say no. Even working at home one day a week can give you some extra precious hours. Then it’s up to you how you spend them – exercising, reading a good book or working on your side hustle.
Car allowance
I feel frustration when I hear time and again the suggestion that in order to get to FI quicker you need to move nearer work and get rid of your car. Even if I moved to within a mile of my office I would still need a car as my job involves visiting members of the public. The necessity of having a car is reflected in the receipt of a monthly allowance and a good mileage rate. I don’t ringfence this allowance for sole allocation to car costs, but if I did, over several years it would make up the large part of a new (well new to me) vehicle.
Pension
I have a defined benefit pension which I can take from aged 55. Due to having not had a full-time job until I was 32 my pension pot isn’t enormous, but DB pensions seem to be few and far between, so I need to count myself very lucky. My employer also contributes much more to my pension than I do.
Managing my diary myself
A lot of the time I get to choose what I do on what days. I plan my supermarket shopping day when I pass through the nearest fair-sized town. This means that I don’t make a special journey in order to do the shopping. Sometimes I do the shopping over my lunch hour if I have time between visits. This means that I am not battling the rest of the population at the checkout at 6pm.
Generous annual leave
I have been amazed to read American FI blogs stating that in the US workers only get two weeks of annual leave as I get six. It’s so many that I don’t always get around to taking them all, particularly as we are trying to save money on holidays. An idea came to me when thinking about how best to use my allowance and I thought that maybe I could book the occasional day off to work on a side hustle or my blog or any other way that I can think of to make money. So if you get plenty of annual leave how could you use some of those days to help you get closer to your goals?
Hopefully that’s given you some ideas to chew over if you also work in the public sector.
I’m sure that there are plenty of others so please feel free to comment and let me know what they are.
I would love to hear your ideas.
a simple life 
The pension is definitely a biggie. Although with the Police, it is no longer as generous having moved over to career average pensions rather than final salary.
Another positive (for the Police at least) is job security. We cannot (under current legislation) be made redundant. It is also very difficult to dismiss a Police Officer unless it is for gross misconduct. Of course, there is a downside to that because those who perhaps shouldn’t be in the job cling on. Case in point; the recent case in the news about the officer who was being racially abusive.
Another positive is overtime. With a national shortage of Police Officers and especially Detectives, there is a lot of overtime available. Unlike some other public sectors, we get paid for our overtime, although the first 30 minutes we do for free; referred to as ‘half an hour for the Queen’.
The major downside as you say is the pay rise. We’ve suffered years of no pay increases and the government has only recently started giving us a 1% rise, whilst they get their 10% or whatever. We’re all in it together though right.
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I had forgotten about the non-redundancy policy. We also have that in my organisation – makes for excellent job security. Like the police force there are also people I come across who would not have their job if we were in the private sector.
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