by Conrad Daley FSA, MAAA

Since I was in high school, I used to think a lot about how I wanted to make $100,000 while still having a great work-life balance. I wanted enough time for myself and my future family while also earning a strong income.

Around that time, a popular book was The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss. The core idea was simple: work to live, not live to work.

When I decided to pursue actuarial science, one of the biggest selling points was the promise of better work-life balance compared to most other careers.

The Society of Actuaries even labeled work-life balance as “satisfying” on their website. What I took that to mean was a corporate job where you worked in the office but weren’t on call at night or stuck working weekends.

I started as an actuarial intern in 2017, working full-time at $15 per hour over the summer. Adjusting to professional life was harder than I expected.

Most people sat at their desks all day and rarely spoke. Our building in Murray, UT had an entire floor of gray cubicles, and the actuarial department sat tucked away in a corner on the fourth floor.

Most days, the only words I said were “good morning” and “have a good night.” Nearly all communication happened over email, which felt isolating but was normal for the environment.

I typically worked 9 to 5 and lived in Provo, UT, about 30 minutes away without traffic and up to an hour with traffic each way. I hated spending two hours a day driving, so I started taking the train for the second half of the summer just so I could sleep.

One day I missed two trains, showed up at 11 a.m., and my manager simply said, “I think work starts at 9am,” before walking back to his desk.

I stayed at the same company for the next seven years, and my work-life balance improved over time. When I went full-time in 2018, my schedule stayed the same, but my pay doubled to $30 per hour.

I moved to the pricing team and worked for a incredibly relaxed manager. My role involved pulling data, building workbooks, and answering pricing questions for the Utah Individual Market.

I rarely worked past 5 p.m. and often showed up around 9:30 a.m. or even 10 a.m. As long as my projects were done and deadlines were met, my manager didn’t seem to care.

I accrued about two weeks of PTO per year and used it often for trips to Mexico, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Canada, and plenty of Vegas weekends. Travel was a big priority for me during this phase.

As I became more experienced, I started using PTO more strategically. By tacking one or two days onto holidays, I could get four or five days off at a time instead of burning all 14 days at once.

This approach made it feel like I was taking far more time off throughout the year. I highly recommend it if your company allows flexibility.

SelectHealth also offered a flex schedule where you could work nine-hour days and take every other Friday off. I waited until my five-year mark to ask, though I probably could’ve done it sooner with such a relaxed manager.

Combining flex days with PTO made extended breaks feel even longer. As long as deadlines were met, the lifestyle was extremely manageable.

The only people I ever managed were interns. Over seven years, I helped hire three interns and directly mentored them through their analyst roles.

Two out of the three eventually received full-time offers and still work there today. Watching them grow gave me a different perspective on leadership.

That experience also gave me a front-row seat to how different managers handled their own work-life balance. The contrast was interesting.

Let’s talk about what the managers’ schedules actually looked like.

Chief Actuary: A lifetime ASA who moved from a regional Florida insurer. He lived in Park City and had a 70–80 minute commute, so he usually arrived after 10 a.m. or worked remotely from home once a week.

Pricing Manager: An FSA with about 15 years of experience who lived close to the office. He worked a standard 9–5 and took a flex day every Wednesday, meaning he never worked more than two days in a row.

Reserving Manager: An FSA with over 20 years of experience who worked 8–6 most days. He was heavily involved with executives, worked the hardest, and had the least work-life balance (would not recommend).

Medicare Manager: Ran a smaller line of business relative to other commercial lines and seemed checked out. He worked 9–5 with a flex day, but since I rarely saw him, it felt like he was around even less.

Provider Contracting Manager: An FSA who insisted everyone work a strict eight-hour day. He believed if you took a 30-minute lunch, you needed to work from 7:30-5, which never made sense to me as a salaried employee.

Consulting culture is drastically different from working at a regional insurance carrier. Everything revolves around billable hours tracked in 15-minute increments.

Timesheets must hit 7.5 hours per day, and everyone can see everyone else’s time. That visibility creates constant judgment around lunches, schedules, and work habits.

The focus is on maximizing billable hours, and financial meetings celebrate rising client charges quarter after quarter. Managers want robot-level output at instant speed and perfect quality.

The upside is a potentially large bonus. The downside is that one slow stretch—PTO, illness, holidays, or real life—can completely erase that bonus.

My current work-life balance isn’t bad overall. I usually start between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m. and work about five to six focused hours per day.

I take 45 minute lunch breaks and often finish between 4 and 5 p.m., sometimes earlier if client work is light. I’m currently writing this during a coffee shop break.

If I’m honest, the manager makes the biggest difference. My previous manager was very relaxed and clear about expectations, while my current manager sends “ALL CAPS IF THERE IS SOMETHING NOT DONE TO HER EXACT INSTRUCTIONS." Feels a bit excessive.