Diary of a future rentier (56)

Five years ago I was still working nearly 60 hours a week. It was the high point of my life as a lab rat. Never had I been so exploited by capitalist society. Luckily, I had already put in place several strategies for many years that allowed me to escape this frantic race. I already had the financial means to work significantly less, but what I lacked was a professional opportunity to do so. After a long and difficult search (not easy when you already spend your life at work), I was finally able to find a job working 45 hours a week. It was already a very clear improvement, but still too much compared to my goals, especially since I could afford to work even significantly less. Here again I had to fight to find solutions to reduce my working hours. It's paradoxical when you think about it: some people struggle to find a job, while others (rarer) do the same to do as little as possible...

For several months now, I have managed to reduce my working hours to 35 hours per week. This makes a real difference. Work has less of a hold on me, not only in terms of time, but especially psychologically speaking. I find a little time to do activities that I enjoy and see friends. I am becoming aware (even more) that in my life, work is only one of the many resources that I have. Moreover, surprisingly, the financial loss is not huge. I already talked about it in several previous articles : the tax, social and acquisition costs of work are enormous. All told, we are not far from 50%. This means that when you lower your activity rate by 20%, in the end, you lose little more than 10% of your net income. The opposite is also true, working 20% more means earning barely more than 10%.

Today I am happy with this situation. In addition, another unintended and unexpected effect has occurred: I enjoy my job a little more than before. Let's be clear: I don't jump for joy every morning when I have to go to work, but I no longer have butterflies in my stomach. And sometimes I even enjoy it a little. I work less, but I work better, and with more enthusiasm.

Thanks to my investments, I could afford to work even less. I aim for 25-30 hours per week, but I'm not in such a hurry to reduce my working hours anymore. At the time, it was almost a question of survival, especially when I was working 60 hours per week. Now it's more of a medium-term vision. There's even a chance that when I reach that stage, I'll be happy with it, that is to say, I won't necessarily try to stop working completely. But hey, that's still music for the future...