I would accept such a reduction, provided the reduced salary was still enough to live comfortably on while continuing to save money. That said, there is anothe

I would accept such a reduction, provided the reduced salary was still enough to live comfortably on while continuing to save money. That said, there is another approach: work remotely, and avoid companies that insist on installing time / activity trackers on your work machine. This frees you from "seat time" metrics of productivity - if you can get the same thing done in 4 hours at home vs. 8 hours in the office, you gain 4 hours. (Versus an office environment, in which you'll either a) be expected to sit around doing nothing but looking productive for that time, or b) be "rewarded" for your efficiency with useless bullshit no one else wants to touch.) Know that this will limit your opportunities for "career growth" within a company. The next level is to not care about that, and instead switch to consulting. Once you're doing remote work anyways, this is an incremental step where the only major difference is that your tax returns are now a bit more complicated. As a consultant, your "career growth" is being able to ask for higher rates over time. If you have a good relationship from remote work with your previous full-time employer, you may even get them as a client! Just make sure that, when calculating your rates, you don't just divide your previous salary by 2000 hours - remember that you now have additional overhead that you didn't as an employee, like health insurance (in the US, at least), client development, and all those mini-breaks that employees take during the day that are now unpaid. The usual rule-of-thumb is 2x your previous hourly rate. With the right setup, you can reduce hours without reducing salary ;)