You’re Working Way Harder Than You Need To
Most people think you have to work 60 hours a week and sacrifice personal time to live a secure, fulfilling life. But that's not true. The popular thought is likely to leave you with a mountain of regrets.
But I understand why people think this. We live in a consumer driven culture where everyone wants bigger, better, and MORE! And you need money to get that more.
Hi, I’m Bradford Ferguson with Halter Ferguson Financial. It’s easy to believe working yourself to the bone is the only way to be happy. But if this were true, otherwise you’d see every millionaire working 60 or more hours a week. But it’s often the millionaires that work the least, and those trying to just get buy that work the most.
Bronnie Ware, an Australian end-of-life care nurse wrote a book about it called “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying." She shares her patient's end-of-life revelations in the book. And the biggest regret she heard in deathbed confessionals? “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.” Her patients regretted missing their children’s childhood and time with their partners.
The typical American spends over 1/2 of their pre-retired, adult life working or sleeping. How much of what’s left is cooking, cleaning, mowing the lawn, paying bills, etc?
How many hours of each day do YOU have left after work and responsibilities? Time to spend with your loved ones or on a favorite pastime?
So what we’ve done is we’ve broken it down for you. There’s only 8,760 hours in a year. The average full-time job consumes 47 hours a week for 48 weeks.
Which is 2300 hours a year. For high performing professionals it’s more and then you’re thinking about work during your free time. For entrepreneurs and business owners it’s even worse. But I digress.
The typically commute 24 minutes one-way, or 140 hours a year. That’s ten full days a year. Then, if you’re getting 8 hours a night of sleep 3,000 hours a year.
That leaves around 3,300 hours of freetime where you’re often too tired to fully enjoy. The truth is, if you keep thinking you have to work harder to live a good and fulfilled life... It will likely be filled with expensive THINGS instead of cherished MEMORIES.
But you can live a good life without giving up all your time. You just need to know how much you need for a secure retirement. How much you’ll spend in that retirement. How you make the most of your money. And a handful of other things.
Once you have a dollar-specific, date-specific goal you can do what you need to, and no more. Earn the money you need AND enjoy the rest of your time in leisurely pursuit. Building those wonderful memories. So that at the end of life, you’ll look back and smile.
So let me ask you, do you really want to leave this earth with regrets, or a smile?
If you want to stop working so hard, watch our free presentation. Take the first step towards making it happen.
(Sources: WNYC, CNN)