What would it take for you to feel financially independent, confidently able to retire, truly ‘free’? It seems like from the time we’re children, we are indoctrinated into school, expected to study for advanced degrees, seek full-time jobs, and build decades-lasting careers. This status quo ‘template’ dictates working long, rigorous hours during our youngest and most supposedly-liberated life years, working our way up the corporate ladder, and hoping to reach X amount of net worth by 65 to permanently retire and finally enjoy our final phase of life during our ‘Golden Years.’ While the majority of society subscribe to this work-life model, it is far from the only option, and we contend it is one of the least effective and even less gratifying over time.

Survey any elderly person what are their biggest regrets in life. As shown here, if you prioritize spending the majority of your time and energy working during your prime years in pursuit of the fantasy retirement during your final phase of life, you may wish you had spent more time with loved ones, worried less, cared less what others think, or stopped chasing the wrong things. 

This is why we strongly prefer and advocate a significantly more effective and enjoyable option, as popularly outlined in Tim Ferriss’ 4 Hour Work Week. This model emphasizes developing independent businesses and/or income sources for yourself, eventually outsourcing as much lower-value labor as possible, and freeing up your time to focus on what you want to spend it doing. This maximizes your income while simultaneously minimizes your work time and energy expenditure on a weekly basis. 

You might be asking yourself: But how would this allow me to live like a millionaire if I’m only worth a fraction of that? This alternative work-life model is not predicated on living off a large lump sum of savings or portfolio. This is a sustainable lifestyle you can adopt during your peak years of life to enjoy the finer things in life without waiting until you’re older and less inclined to travel or adventure. How? Focus on monthly revenue. When you’ve set up your business processes and outsourced as much low-value labor as possible, you’re free to live agnostically as you please. It would be prudent to cap expenses at slightly less than monthly net income, but as long as you’re in the green each month, the world is your oyster. Throw in the added bonus if you’re a homeowner, or can forgo your rental apartment for a few months (or sublet it on Airbnb), and traveling the world in style can often cost less than monthly rent/utilities/bills/groceries/insurance, especially in major cities. This is especially the case if you’re American, as the US dollar has tremendous purchasing power all over the world, and its value is worth exponentially more in countries in Asia and Central & South America. Even if you wanted to spend a month in Paris where the Euro is stronger than the USD, subletting a flat on Airbnb and eating out every night is a lot less daunting when your US-home cost of living budget is reallocated to traveling abroad.

This is not just about reducing weekly workloads. Entrepreneurs, business-owners, and freelancers all strive to enjoy sustained time off work altogether as well. As opposed to grinding 60+ hour work weeks for 30+ years, reaching your $2 million retirement goal, and permanently retiring at 65, we hold that finding a sustainable work-life balance from a younger age is the superior option over the long term. This encompasses setting up your venture or income stream, outsourcing, and ‘signing out’ for weeks or even a few months to recharge, travel to new places, embark on adventures, learn new skills, invoke personal growth, and focus on what you want, all the while your income stream running in maintenance mode with little to no check-in efforts required from you. When you’ve accomplished your travel or vacation objective, or feel mentally and physically prepared to return home and resume business operations as necessary, you are free to do so. 

The beauty of this option is the status quo of operating on your time, your schedule; being able to step away when you need or want, with little to no negative impact. Even more-so, this model is particularly personally-liberal and forgiving, and can sustain a much longer and extended balanced lifestyle that doesn’t invoke feelings of retirement or dreaded target end-dates. Of course, successful ventures usually have value and can be liquidated for sums of cash, if that’s potentially of interest at some point. But the point here remains that not only is a balanced, sustainable, long-term work-life lifestyle an exponential improvement in quality of life for most, but it’s more within your grasp than we tend to think.