A time to sow, and a time to reap

Recently I’ve been turning down work I used to enjoy and find profitable, choosing instead to use the time to spend with family or to concentrate on other work.

It feels a bit strange, but I guess it is also very natural.

There is a time to hustle, to do side gigs that give you experience and exposure, and a time to settle down and reduce your commitments.

I’ll miss some of the people I used to work with, but I’m very happy with my decisions to cut down on freelance work that used to provide money and learning, but recently is just providing money.

I guess I could call this moving out of spring and into summer in the yearly chart above. I don’t need to plant new seeds at this point, but rather devote my time and energy to nurturing the ones that have sprouted.

In practical terms this means giving up paid freelance work and using the time to work on my own projects: my university work, the Cambridge Academy, this website, and my teaching blog.

Of course, this is only happening because our financial plan seems to be working at present, after a lot of hustling and learning.

How is your plan going?


4 Responses

  1. Thanks for making this website. It’s important to keep thinking about the future and how retirement is going to work out.
    I was wondering whether you will be in Kansai anytime soon, and would be willing to give a presentation?
    Kind regards,
    Richard Sharrard

  2. Hi Richard
    Thanks for the kind comment! I would be very happy to come and speak to any group in Japan that is interested in a lecture or seminar on personal finance and retirement.
    I will post the details of any upcoming events here on the blog, so I recommend you sign up for the email list if you haven’t already.
    One way to facilitate a workshop is to contact your local JALT chapter and ask them to invite me 🙂

  3. Doing well so far, my only concern is to get out of the rat race faster than I can technically achieve. So I keep hustling even though there are days I don’t really want to.

  4. Good to hear SB. I can certainly relate to the days where it’s not fun.
    Keep your eyes on the goal and keep on keeping on 🙂
    By the way, is your handle based on Lord of the Rings?