Free Yourself from Stress: How to Work Less to Increase Your Income and Find the Perfect Balance

Since the dawn of time, gods, kings, leaders of all kinds, our teachers and even our parents have told us that we must work to earn a living. This idea is deeply rooted in our Western cultures. Nicolas Sarkozy had the slogan "Work more to earn more" during his 2007 presidential campaign.

Of course, we can generate surplus value by working and therefore indirectly earn money. This does not mean, however, that working 10, 20 or 30% more will allow us to earn just as much. Rat Race is similar to an addiction: the effect fades despite increasing the dose.

By working more, you earn less proportionally because:

• your boss, the State and insurance companies help themselves exponentially
• Your business expenses increase similarly, as do your health-related expenses
• you have to spend more because you have less time to do certain things yourself.

Who benefits from the crime? The bosses and the State, of course, in short, the leaders of this world. This is a great way to implement a form of consensual slavery.

Work less

The “Work – Salary” paradigm is particularly highlighted and powerful in our societies. It is difficult to make most people understand that working more does not imply earning more. So imagine their reaction when you tell them that you are going to work less. In their minds, pocketing more money requires more work. So of course for them the opposite is also true: those who work less, earn less.

How many times have I heard "I would like to do it, but I can't afford it financially". In saying this, these same people pay a high price for childcare facilities, eat out every day of the week, rack up the miles in a leased SUV, pay a cleaning lady, buy pre-cooked meals, live in an apartment that is too big for them and cluttered with useless and therefore unused objects, call the electrician at the first fuse that blows or the plumber at the first clogged sink, regularly visit specialists for back problems, headaches or stomach aches, take painkillers, pay for massages, thermal baths and thalassotherapy to relax and recharge from work. I'll stop there because the list could still be very long.

I speak from experience, having worked 60 hours a week myself in the past. I earned a good living "on paper" but I exhibited many of the behaviors mentioned above. Fortunately, I have since reduced my working hours, first to the level of Mr. and Mrs. Average (approx. 40 hours a week), then recently to around twenty hours a week. Am I living less well? Quite the opposite. Obviously, my stock market and real estate investments help me compensate for the loss of income, but that is by far not the only reason.

Earn more

As I explain in my e-book, by reducing one's working time, one paradoxically manages to increase the share of net income that actually ends up in one's pocket. The State and insurance become less and less greedy. Professional expenses fall drastically, as do health costs. As a result, lowering one's rate by around 20% results in a loss of real net income, after deduction of taxes, insurance and expenses, which is just over 10%.

Even better: the time that is recovered allows you to take care of certain things that were no longer possible. This could be, for example, childcare, housework, DIY, cooking or simply taking care of yourself and your health. Some of these activities please us, others less so, and others are sometimes unknown to us. By reducing your working time, you can not only devote more time to certain pre-existing passions but you can also learn about other occupations and acquire new skills. The chances are high that this will become a new hobby, not to mention that it allows you to save substantial amounts of money.

Take back control of your life

Here again, I speak from experience. As I reduced my working hours, I began to do more and more tasks myself that I previously had to pay for. Rather than buying industrial food products, I educated myself in culinary and nutritional matters, then I got behind the stove. I am far from being a chef, but I now manage to make tasty, hearty, healthy and economical meals for my whole family. The same goes for DIY. While I am more of an "intellectual" by nature, I studied the subject a bit, acquired for a few pennies tools that I now use to repair, transform and renovate my home. The same goes for sports, which I trained in and which I practice very regularly.

Hobbies that turn into assets

Cooking, DIY, sports… I could also add finance and blogging, two other occupations for which I was not predestined and which I acquired on the job. All these activities have the following qualities:

• they are cheap
• They can be learned easily and inexpensively
• they require little material
• they are healthy for the body and/or mind
• They can easily turn into a hobby, or even a passion.
• Unlike many leisure activities, they are not an expense but an investment (we expect a result in the more or less short term) – they are therefore a form of asset
• they allow savings and/or gains to be made
• they can be transformed into an additional independent activity

You probably have other occupations in mind that have similar characteristics.

Conclusion

We have seen that by reducing working time, for each hour taken back, only slightly more than half was actually at our expense. We have also just shown that this time regained could be reinvested in low-cost activities, allowing additional savings to be made, or even money to be earned. Ultimately, the chances are high that the loss of income resulting from the reduction in working time will be negligible. In the long term, it is even likely that it will lead to new gains.

As I was telling you: you can work less to earn more.