Table of Contents
For Carol, my muse and soul mate forever and a day.
Introduction
My companys compensation expert drew me a graph showing a slow and steady ascent to retirement security. Consistent contributions to my 401(k) over the next 28 years would ensure a comfortable ride into post-employment bliss. It was this precise moment I decided there had to be a better way. Dont get me wronga comfortable retirement sure sounds better than a bankrupt one. But did I really have to sacrifice nearly three decades to reach the promised land? Also, would 50-hour workweeks and the occasional weekend in a cubicle be prerequisites for financial security?
I began to reverse my thinking. Instead of assuming my paycheck and 50-hour workweeks were givens in my life, I started from scratch. I asked myself how many hours I really wanted to work every week and the income I hoped to derive from those hours. My goal became to double my corporate America income while cutting my hours in half. In essence, I wanted to work three or four days per week while earning twice my paycheck.
Unfortunately, I had a feeling my boss wouldnt go for switching me to part-time while doubling my salary. Somehow I knew this wouldnt make good business sense. I was going to have to take charge of my career to truly work less and earn more.
Today, Im proud to say I only work three or four days per week and my annual income is more than double my corporate America salary. Im also proud to say I achieved this working-less, earning-more lifestyle without moving back in with my parents, borrowing money from an old roommate, bouncing a check, or meeting the repo man to take back my flat-screen TV. In other words, you can make significant changes in your career without suffering financial ruin.
Today, I derive my income from five major sources:
1. Consulting: Companies pay me a daily consulting rate to share with them the very skills and expertise I gained in my corporate job.
2. Freelance writing: Publishers, magazines, and online sites pay me to write articles and books on reaching your potential in career, love, and life.
3. Coaching and public speaking: People pay me to work with them personally to achieve their own career, love, and life goals and I also speak in front of audiences on personal development.
4. Real estate income: My wife and I own a two-family house near our primary residence that generates positive cash flow every month while our tenants continue to pay off our mortgage on the house.
5. Internet marketing: Thanks to cyberspace, people buy my audio CDs, books, and e-books while I sleep, play with my son, or go on dinner dates with my wife.
This transformation from corporate climber to consultant, writer, coach, speaker, real estate investor, and Internet marketer did not happen overnight. But it did take less than two years to redirect my ship. Thats actually a pretty short time when you consider the alternative of 28 more years building a nest egg.
My goal in this book is to take you on the same journey toward working less and earning more. Whether you currently work in corporate America, run your own business, or cant find work at the moment, this is your chance to take charge of your own career and build a healthier balance of working versus leisure time.
In the Complete Idiots Guide to Working Less, Earning More, I wont expect you to build the exact same revenue channels as me. Instead Im going to coach you toward finding the path that best suits your income goals and unique skills. That might mean staying in your job but reshaping it, altering how you run your small business, building a consulting or freelance operation, or even generating passive income from real estate or Internet marketing. The point is you can change the working and earning givens in your life, and Im going to show you precisely how to do it. So lets get started and leave the dinners at the office and missed baseball games with your kids to the people who dont read this book.
How This Book Is Organized
The chapters in this book are divided into three parts that take you on the journey toward working less and earning more.
Part 1, Are You Overworked and Underpaid? explains the downfall of the earn-and-burn approach and how to flip your script and become underworked and overpaid. Youll also learn the biggest fears that prevent people from changing their work situation as well as tangible steps to overcome those fears through outcome-focused goals.
Part 2, Five Paths to Working Less and Earning More, breaks down five specific avenues you can take to build a working-less, earning-more lifestyle. These five approaches include reworking your current job, building a consulting practice, working freelance, running a business, and building passive income streams.
In Part 3, Integrating Personal Productivity and Financial Secrets into a 10-Year Success Program, youll learn how outsourcing, organizational skills, and money management all play critical roles in both the time you spend working and the money you take home. Well then put it all together to build your comprehensive program to lock in your working-less, earning-more lifestyle for the next decade and beyond.
Extras
Throughout this book, keep an eye out for little extras sprinkled into the margins. These sidebars include concrete suggestions, advice, and shortcuts to catapult you into the land of working less and earning more.
Time and a Half
Read practical tips and shortcuts to get twice as much done in half the time.
Ask Jeff
Learn solutions to the common questions about working less and earning more to gain from other peoples experiences.
Less Is More
Learn to avoid the biggest energy wasters and pitfalls that can grind your new efficient self to a halt.
Fear Busters
See tangible tips and concrete guidance for overcoming the concerns that prevent people from making the changes necessary to work less and earn more.
Acknowledgments
Can one page really do justice to all the people who have helped you write a book? Thats like asking an Academy Award winner to remember every producer, supporting actor, key grip, and hair stylist in two minutes or less. Still, I shall do my best to thank those most responsible for the pages in front of you before the orchestra plays me to commercial.
First and foremost, thank you to my wife, Carol, for rescuing me from a bachelor life filled with turkey clubs and Yankees games. Sure those World Series championships are satisfying, but my real adult life began the moment we met. Youve taught me to live in the moment, reach beyond my capabilities, and truly become the man I was meant to be. Thanks also for those nine months of pregnancy and eighteen hours of labor that produced our son, Gabriel. I get winded carrying groceries in from the car; I cant imagine housing a human being all that time. Seeing you with Gabriel always wipes out the days stress.
