WEBVTT - Achieve time freedom, with Brian Herriot 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:09.640 Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning. 0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:15.360 This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:18.079 episode is going to be a slightly longer one part 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:21.320 of the series where I interview fascinating people about how 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:24.200 they take their days from great to awesome and any 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:26.040 advice they have for the rest of us. 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:27.520 So today I. 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:31.160 Am delighted to welcome Brian Harriet to Before Breakfast. Brian 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:34.480 is the author of the new book Time Freedom, which 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:35.440 will be out soon. 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:37.240 Brian, welcome to the show. 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:39.880 Thank you, Laura. I'm really glad to be here. 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:42.320 I'm excited to have you. Why don't you tell our 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:43.800 listeners a little bit about yourself. 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:48.040 Yeah, so I am an author and a speaker. My 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:50.479 book is coming out in September, but I'm going to 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:52.839 tell you how you can get it early. However, I 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:58.480 believe in living the lifestyle that you're meant to live, 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:01.560 creating a life that you love, creating work that you love, 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:05.279 and that's where my passion is and that's what I 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:06.880 want to I love talking about. 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:09.720 Well, maybe you can tell a little bit about your background. 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:12.120 Are you in the personal finance world? 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:16.000 I am. I am a financial advisor. That is my 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:20.440 job by day, and I have structured it though in 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:23.920 a way where I'm able to essentially work at it 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:26.520 kind of intensely in full time for about nine months 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:31.240 of the year, and then I head off to northern 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:33.920 Wisconsin to a cabin that my wife and I own there, 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:37.520 and with our son we take the summer and we 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:40.240 ski and we fish and we do all those fun things. 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:43.840 Not that you can, ever, as an entrepreneur, really completely 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:46.640 forget about your business, but it does offer a time 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.720 to think about bigger and different things and make creative 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:54.200 connections when you're not in the day today. And then 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:56.080 at the end of the summer, our son we head 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:58.360 back to California, where we live most of the year. 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:02.160 Our son goes back to school and back to work exactly. 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:04.800 Well, is that time freedom? I mean, let's talk about 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:07.640 what the definition is for time freedom. 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:11.000 Yes, I do definitely believe that's time freedom. Usually when 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:14.840 I describe time freedom to people, I start with what 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:18.000 it's not. And there are two things I believe that 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:21.919 it's not. One thing is it's not work life balance. 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:26.160 I've always struggled with work life balance. I feel like 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:29.799 it's just taking a day off in the middle of 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:32.440 the day to work two hours late at night. And 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:35.560 so whereas work life balance to me is hours and 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:38.639 days and how you structure that, time freedom to me 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:42.960 is weeks, but even more so months and years, like 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:45.720 how you structure a full year of your life to 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:50.240 be more seasonal, and how you approach work and play 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:53.880 in that regard. The other thing that time freedom is 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:59.560 not is financial freedom. And I had always approached financial 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:03.000 freedom believing that that was the key to unlocking time freedom. 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:06.840 And that's really what this book is about, which is 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:10.079 that they're different. Financial freedom to me is of course 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:13.760 having absolute freedom where you never have to work again, 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:17.720 a wonderful thing, you know, to be able to choose 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:20.200 exactly what you want. However, I still think that you 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:25.359 can achieve meaningful freedom while still having to work, if 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:28.480 you can just work in a way that meets your needs, 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:31.440 and so time freedom allows for that. So you know, 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:35.000 so in essence, time freedom is just a different path. 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:37.680 It's a different way of living. It's one that's maybe 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:43.000 less focused on, you know, optimal wealth building and optimal 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:46.880 career building, where you can still do elements of those things, 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:51.760 but your main focus is how you structure your time 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:53.920 and how you live your life day to day so 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:56.080 that you're not putting off the things that you really 0:03:56.160 --> 0:03:57.200 want to do now. 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:00.280 Well, and one of those things I imagined was for you. 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:03.600 Now the cabin in Wisconsin. Was that what led you 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:04.520 to pursue this? 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:07.960 It is so ever since I was a kid, my grandparents. 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:09.560 This is a thing I guess if you grow up 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:13.080 in the Midwest, at least in Wisconsin, is that you're 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:15.720 lucky as a grandchild if your grandparents have a cabin 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:17.920 in northern Wisconsin. And so I had been doing that 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:21.440 for years and then they had to sell the place 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:23.479 when I was in college. And if of course I 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:25.400 had no money in college, if I had it, I 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:28.960 would have bought it, but second best option. I met 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:31.599 my wife around that time and she lived up there, 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:36.560 so I was able to continue this north Woods part 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:39.960 of my life, you know, you know, since since the beginning, 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:41.720 and that it's just one of those things that to 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:43.920 me is in I mean, it's ingrained in how I live. 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:45.920 And so I've always wanted to do that. I've always 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:48.360 wanted to pursue this life where I had summers off, 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:50.159 I could never make it work. And then finally I 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:52.800 figured out, you know how to do it, and so yes, 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:56.839 to me, summers at the lake is time freedom. For 0:04:56.880 --> 0:05:00.480 other people, it's you know, bumming around Europe for three months, 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:03.200 or you know, it could look different to different people. 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:06.680 I'm continually expanding what it means to me, and I 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:09.039 think it ebbs and flows and you know, changes over 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:11.080 time as well. Well. 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:13.440 It's interesting to get at that angle with the finances 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:18.520 because I'm sure one of the reasons people you know, 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:20.280 there men and women who listen to this show, but 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:22.600 I know men in particular often have a story in 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:24.560 their lives that they need to be able to support 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:26.360 their family. And the sort of the assumption with this 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:31.239 is that that's going to involve year round, full time work. 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:34.480 Perhaps your wife could go. 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:37.279 To a cottage somewhere and a vacation destination for the 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:40.960 summer with the kids, but not you, right like, there's 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:42.760 have you encountered that narrative? 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:46.480 I assume I certainly have, and and and it's not 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:48.760 I would I would just call it beyond just men, 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:53.680 it would be conventional lifestyle in the United States. I mean, 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:56.760 that's just really what you do. And you know, even 0:05:56.800 --> 0:05:59.440 even though I had wanted this for all along, I 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:01.720 still got wrapped up in the normal way of doing 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:04.599 things until I was finally able to break free out. 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:08.560 Like obviously, a big element to be able to live 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:10.880 this way is if you have the luxury of being 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:14.040 an entrepreneur or you can form and that doesn't mean 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:18.320 having to have this high growth business that is a 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:20.520 radical new idea. But if you have some sort of 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:22.080 way in which you can work on your own and 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:24.320 design your lifestyle around your work, you have much more 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:26.560 freedom to be able to take these extended periods of 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:29.240 time off. Although I would also argue that more and 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:34.400 more companies these days, I guess, especially forward looking or 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:38.640 progressive companies, are trying to do different work models where 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:41.599 perhaps you work four days a week or you're able 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:44.720 to take more extended time off. So there are other 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:46.040 opportunities out there. 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:49.800 Well, let's talk about that, because yeah, when people hear 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:53.559 the idea of working flexibly and being able to take 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:56.600 time off, I mean, what would that look like for 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:58.800 a lot of people? Can can anyone find the sort 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:02.279 of work that could be done in a time freedom way? 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:05.240 Well, if I can start with the obvious one, which 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:09.920 is entrepreneurship, So if you are a solopreneur you have 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:13.720 a small team. I actually do believe that you can 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:15.600 structure your business in a way that you can get 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:19.720 extended periods of time off regardless of the industry that 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:21.760 you're in. You just have to think creatively and you 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:24.200 have to have that be your number one goal. And 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:26.760 it's not just about developing passive income, although if you 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:29.240 could do that, that's great. I think a lot of 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:31.600 it comes really down to what are you offering as 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:36.560 your service, and how can you shrink it down and 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:40.360 compress it basically and offer that service in a shorter 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:44.600 period of time, and then take those services and then 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:46.800 move them into the months where you want to work. 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:49.679 You know, for me, it's never in the summer months. Now. 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:53.720 You can do that also through leveraging your team. So 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:57.080 if you have you know, even if you're a solo entrepreneur, 0:07:57.080 --> 0:07:59.240 I think you should have an assistant because that assistant 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:01.760 can do things for you that then fore you up, 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:04.920 even if it's just managing your calendar or your inbox 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:10.520 or doing operations pieces of the work that you don't love. Again, 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:12.960 you can use how you structure your work and how 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:16.440 you structure your team to find the time off. For 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:21.080 those that are not entrepreneurs, I think it comes down to, 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:24.520 of course, developing a skill and being very good at 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:28.520 your job so that you can then find places of 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:34.439 employment that honor these types of ideas. And for example, 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:38.920 and so for example, I think there's these are things 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:41.040 that a lot of people have a hard time going. 0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:43.880 I'm going to work seasonally. I need to step into that. 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:47.079 So what are some ideas. One is, for example, if 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:49.360 you can take off the first Friday of every month 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:53.360 or the or find a job that doesn't work on Fridays, 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:57.200 that's a wonderful idea. Or if you take two weeks 0:08:57.240 --> 0:08:59.760 off over the winter holidays, can you add a week 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:01.160 on the the front end and a week on to 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:03.240 the back end and take a full four weeks off. 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:07.160 There's a I think a difference in having four weeks 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:10.320 away versus two weeks away. I actually I've really heard 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:12.040 it described to me that when you hit the six 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:15.600 week mark, that's when it really really feels different. But there, 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:17.600 you know, if you can save up vacation and do 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:20.240 some strategic things. Again, if you're focused on this, I'm 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:22.120 sure we've all met people at work they're like, Wow, 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:25.440 they are always good about taking their vacation. They seem 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:27.840 like they always had these cool three week trips planned 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:31.840 like those are ways to definitely recognize more time freedom 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:32.280 in your life. 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:35.040 Well, we're going to take a quick ad break and 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:44.480 then I will be back with more from Brian Harriet. Well, 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:46.560 I am back talking with Brian Harriet, who is the 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:50.240 author of the book Time Freedom. So you are in 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:53.160 the financial world, and I know that a lot of 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:57.120 people view this as sort of like, Okay, I'm aiming 0:09:57.200 --> 0:10:00.400 for retirement. Now, maybe that's at age sixty five, but 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:03.120 maybe in the you know, the fire world, it's earlier. 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:06.280 And the idea is that you hit a number and 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:10.560 that this number will then support you for the rest 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:13.680 of your life. What are what are the problems you 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:14.720 see with that idea? 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:20.400 I see several problems with it. One one problem. The 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:22.520 main problem is that it usually has to be a 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:29.520 really big number, and life happens, and we have expenses, 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:32.400 and you may not you know, for you know, personally, 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:36.280 you may never plan to send your child to private school, 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:38.800 but because of the way they learn, you really need to, 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:41.600 and that all of a sudden costs money. And so 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:46.320 to build up that giant nest egg listeners may be 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:48.600 familiar with the four percent rule, but this is the 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:52.679 general rule or rule of thumb that says, if you're 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:55.560 invested in a certain way, a pretty standard way, that 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:57.640 you can pull four percent of the money that you 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:01.240 have out each year and safely live of thirty forty 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:04.840 years on that money. Well, you know, if you're a 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:08.000 millionaire and you've saved up a million dollars, that means 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:11.839 you can pull forty thousand dollars out. My goodness, I 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:13.959 mean it's I mean, I'm sure in some parts of 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:17.439 the country and with you know, if you're extremely frugal, 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:19.319 you can figure that out. But I think a lot 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:21.160 of people would have a hard time living off of 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:23.840 forty thousand dollars. And so then you start to bump 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:27.040 it up to two and three million, and at you know, 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:29.680 four million, you're up to one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:32.880 All that to say, the number is really big. And 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:36.040 so what then happens is that you are scrimping and 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:38.920 saving on your way to this number. When you try 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:41.160 to get to that number, you think, well, maybe I 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:44.000 should just work another year, or another two years, or 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:46.320 another five years, just to make sure that that number 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:50.240 is high enough. And then once you ultimately do decide 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:54.600 to retire, now you're one hundred percent hold into what 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:59.040 happens in the markets, and heaven forbid, it's the year 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:02.320 two thousand or something like that where you've retired at 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:04.800 the top of the market and you're pulling your money 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:07.280 out and the market is going down at the same time. 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:11.280 I know, personally, I would just I would have a 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:16.839 lot of anxiety around that, and right, and so that's 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:19.280 and that ultimately is kind of what happened with me. 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:21.680 I Again, like I had mentioned, I always thought you 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:25.439 need to achieve financial independence first to control your time, 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:29.440 and then we were getting kind of close to that 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:33.760 in twenty twenty, and then the COVID crash hit. Now 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:36.800 it recovered right away, but in the moment, that was 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:41.200 a thirty five percent drop, and I just saw all 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:45.280 those years of saving and investing just like disappear right 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:47.080 in front of my eyes and thought, well, I guess 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:49.920 I'm going to be working forever again. And so I 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:51.920 just I feel like when you only look at it 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:55.400 through the money lens of the retirement and the big 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:59.400 nesting that you have to build up your your little 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:03.120 myopic in terms of again thinking how how can I 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:05.920 make this work for me? And you don't have as 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:07.920 many levers to pull, let me put it that way. 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:10.679 Yeah. Well, and with that, I think. 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:14.640 I think you and I agree that work is not 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:18.600 this terrible thing, right. I mean, like there's a lot 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:21.360 of people in the sort of fire community where the 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:23.600 idea is like work is terrible, and so you want 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:26.480 to not work, like the goal is to not work, 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:29.640 and as part of that, you know you need to 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:31.959 live crazy frugal, you need to save all this money 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:34.000 so you can live off the passive income. 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:36.120 It's like, well, if we take that out and say. 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:39.679 Well, there's ways to work that aren't terrible, there's you know, 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:42.520 you don't only have to work in like forty hours 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:44.960 in a job you hate with two weeks of vacation 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:47.440 a year as a way to earn money. Then it 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:51.040 becomes much more tenable to keep working for a long time. 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:54.120 Yeah. The in that community they even want you to 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.520 build up an FU fund so you can tell your 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:00.839 employer to f you. I'm like, okay, that's yeah. I 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:05.640 don't love that perspective at all. Yes, if you can 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:08.160 create work you love I would actually advocate you work 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:09.960 it as long as you can, because you get so 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:13.800 many benefits from work beyond the monetary benefits, the social connections, 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:16.839 the sense of achievement, the problem solving, all of these 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:23.440 wonderful things. And I agree with you wholeheartedly that work 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:27.240 can be wonderful. And that's actually what happened in twenty 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:29.040 twenty when I told my wife we're not going to 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:31.760 be hitting financial freedom soon, and when she asked me, well, 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:34.120 what does that look like to you? First I didn't 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:36.840 have a good answer, and then I finally realized that 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:39.360 I did like doing what I was doing. I just 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:43.640 wanted to do have an opportunity to take longer periods 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:47.240 of time off to recover when I needed it. And 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:49.360 she then said, well, why don't we do that right away? 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:51.360 And we couldn't do it right away, but we figured 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:53.560 out a way within three years to make that happen, 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:57.680 and that is when we started going back and living 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:02.400 in Wisconsin over the summer, and and we've really been 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:04.280 doing that since twenty twenty one. It was one of 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:06.960 the silver linings, I guess, of COVID, and then we've 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:09.080 just kept it going. Yeah. 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:11.480 I love that now. What This is always a beef 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:12.120 I have with them. 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:14.960 I get pitches sometimes from you know, people who are 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:17.560 in that world, and they're like, well, I'm not working, 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:19.720 I don't have to work anymore. And then they're running 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:23.440 a podcast, they're writing a newsletter, they're giving talks, and 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:25.360 they're you know, writing books. I'm like, but that's what 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.840 I do. Like, you're still working, I'm working. We're both working. 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:31.080 We're just doing work we like now, right, and there 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:33.560 are ways to do work we like and earn money. 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:37.040 I was my biggest fear looking back now is that 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:39.200 I would have scrimpt and safe to get to the 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:41.880 point where I didn't need to work, only to then 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:44.600 realize that you wanted to work again. So again, why 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:47.800 do all that working in a difficult job for so 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:51.440 long to then realize that you just wanted to create 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:54.520 work you loved that That's ultimately what you wanted is 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:57.760 you wanted to create work you love, work on your terms, 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:00.200 work in a way that you wanted to work from, 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:02.400 where you wanted to work with the people that you 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:06.720 wanted to work with. And that's that's where it's all at. 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:10.880 But part of this time freedom, I mean, you do 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:14.160 still advocate saving and investing money. And one of the 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:17.400 ways people can sort of work less is to have 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:20.880 both your current income and some investment income. But I 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:23.320 suppose you would need to invest differently in that case, 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:27.680 if you are pulling money out more continuously or wanting 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:30.920 assets that kick off a lot of income versus I'm 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:33.360 investing this to pull out twenty years in the future. 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:38.080 That's right, and certainly for someone I do believe a 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:42.000 lot of people kind of start off after school, you know, professionally, 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:45.160 and you don't know any other thing other than you know, 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:46.400 I'm going to put my head down and I'm going 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:48.880 to work hard, and so that's good, and if you 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:51.720 can save while you're doing that, that's even better. Then 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:55.720 you wake up mid career, like again a personal story, 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:59.000 and you think, hmm, why am I doing this job 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:00.680 that I'm doing? Is it the right work that I 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:04.040 want to be doing. The fact that you have had 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:08.040 some money saved up is very freeing. It's not enough 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:10.920 to retire on, but it's enough to be able to say, 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:14.240 I want to now create work that I choose on 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:16.639 my own, you know, and I'm going to have perhaps 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:19.000 some inconsistent income for a couple of years while I 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:21.760 figure that out. But I can because I've saved up, 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:26.200 So you're absolutely right, it's quite freeing. Where it comes 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:29.240 to like how do you invest differently? This is what 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:32.520 I observed in twenty twenty, where when you're getting closer 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:35.879 to using your money, you don't want it to drop 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:41.160 so significantly, and I was not prepared for that, and 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:43.159 that's why I caught me off guard. So if you 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:45.560 want to live with time freedom, that does mean that, yes, 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:48.800 you're going to need to, perhaps not always, but perhaps 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:51.679 pull some money out of your savings earlier than you 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:54.480 otherwise would. So you need to protect against that downside, 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:57.480 and the easiest way to do that is just to 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:03.400 hold more in a cash or cash a quid you know, accounts. 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:08.480 And the common financial advice would say that that you 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:11.359 know you're losing out by having that cash because that 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:14.359 cash should be invested in the markets and be earning more. 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:17.720 But I would argue, you know, so maybe it's not earning, 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:22.560 maybe it's earning five percent less per year, but it's 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:26.320 giving you this freedom if the job that you had 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:28.480 is awful and you need to leave, or you want 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:30.600 to invest some of that cash into a business that 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:33.560 you can then turn around and start generating revenue on. 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:36.760 You can earn a lot higher returns using that money 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:40.320 that had been in cash to support you in your 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:41.360 freedom goals. 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:43.399 Like anything, it's a balance. 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:45.280 We're going to take one more ad break and then 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:54.679 i'll be back with more from Brian Harriet. Well, I 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:57.479 am back talking with Brian Harriet, who's the author of 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:01.480 the forthcoming book Time Freedom. So I want to pivot 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:03.520 a little bit Brian and talk about your own schedule. 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:05.080 Do you have a morning routine? 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:06.880 This is a show called Before Breakfast, so we always 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:07.760 love to hear about those. 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:10.080 I do have a morning routine, and I am a 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:13.040 morning person. Of course, it varies. When I was writing 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:15.280 the book, it involved getting up and spending a couple 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:17.600 hours writing the book. But the writing of the book 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:20.600 has passed me. What my typical morning routine is. I 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:25.919 wake up at five o'clock in the morning and I 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:28.640 immediately work out. That's the first thing that I do. 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:32.399 This year, I decided to invest in a personal trainer, 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:36.399 which is the best decision I could have ever made. 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:41.840 I was late to just having coaches in general in life. 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:45.080 Maybe that's like a Midwestern you know, I can just 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:48.640 figure this out myself kind of mentality. But boy, when 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:50.439 you have someone that's been through it before, you can 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:55.000 learn that thing ten times faster. And so I'm making 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:58.800 great progress there. So I do my workout usually from 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:03.520 five till about six six thirty, and then I take 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:06.280 care of some other things. And then I still even 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:08.400 though my son is in high school, he still needs 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:11.480 me to get him up. I don't know if I 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:12.040 understand you. 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:14.000 I totally understand the weak thing. 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:17.159 Yeah, But then usually I, you know, I'm able to 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:20.240 get into work by seven thirty or so and do 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:22.840 some of my deep work before all the meetings start. 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:27.760 Excellent. I love it. And what does what does your 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:28.879 work schedule then look like? 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:29.240 Do you do? 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:30.520 You organize it in a certain way. 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:35.000 I do try to take half of the day. It's 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:37.760 not always perfect, but I do really try to take 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:39.760 half of the day working on the things that move 0:20:39.840 --> 0:20:42.840 the needle and whatever it has to be in you know, 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:48.119 in that moment in my business right now, it's going 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:50.600 to be getting pre sales on the book, right, and 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:55.560