Less work, more riches: how did they do it?
Dreaming of working less and having more free time? Manager Nina and business owner Karel changed tack, working less for a better quality of life. But how did they do it? And what’s feasible for you? They share their experiences and adviser Bobby Le Febre shares his tips.
Karel (self-employed): revenue up from 100k to 600k
Earn more in just four hours a week: in his bestseller ‘The 4-hour work week’, Timothy Ferriss describes the path to a life where time and money are no object. Sounds too good to be true? 56-year-old Dutch internet entrepreneur Karel Emck put it to the test. He made some changes to his life as Ferriss suggested and wrote a book about it: Road to Freedom. “I worked as a self-employed trainer in the IT industry and dreamt of travelling across the USA for a year,” Karel says. “Ferriss’ book inspired me to make my dream come true. His starting point was: build a business you can escape from. So, set up your company so that it can run without you. That means you have to automate and delegate as much as possible.”
That was quite a challenge for a one-man band like Karel: “I was doing everything myself, from the admin to writing the Christmas cards. I really had to let that go. But I also had to scale up my company. Because to outsource more, you need to earn more. When you work for yourself on an hourly basis, there’s only a certain amount you can earn. That’s why I decided to market my training concept as a kind of franchise. I did all the marketing behind the scenes, so that other freelance trainers could ride on the success. And it worked. My business grew rapidly, with revenue rising from €100,000 to €600,000 a year. I also had almost everything automated or outsourced.” Two years after embarking on this experiment, Karel can finally make his dream come true and head off to America for six months.
Nina (employed): breaking free from the shackles
While Karel managed to earn more and work less by building up his business, working less when you’re employed by someone else often means an immediate drop in the money coming in. 42-year-old Nina Tijben went from working 32 to 24 hours a week this year. “I work as a manager at an engineering company. After experiencing burnout, I didn’t want to be shackled by a 32-hour week ever again. I take a day of annual leave every week now, so it’s not affecting my finances yet. But when I’ve used up all my leave, it’ll mean a significant drop in my salary.”
How does the single mother of two manage financially? “I’ve been building up a passive income for a while now. I started putting my money in shares 15 years ago. I also bought a property for rental in 2020 after watching Thierry Stokkink of Thuiz Hypotheken interview ordinary people on YouTube who’d gone into real estate. That spurred me on to try it out myself. I got in touch with my bank and started crunching numbers. I needed to use my own capital (which I was saving up) and I wanted to use some of the equity from my own home too. Throughout the whole process, I couldn’t help but think: I’m a single mother who works part-time... there’s no way they’ll give me a break. But the bank ended up saying yes and I started looking at properties. I made an offer on a terraced house in the north of the Netherlands. Two weeks later, I got a call from the estate agent: congratulations, it’s been accepted! I financed the purchase price of €146,875 partly with my own capital and equity from my home and partly with a buy-to-let mortgage. I deliberately chose to rent it out as social housing because tenants in this sector offer more stability. Plus, I wanted to rent it out to a single mother. Thanks to the dividend from my investments and the rental income, I’ve built up a good buffer, which I can draw on if need be. So I now have peace of mind and options at my disposal.”
But first, Nina wants to see how she does on her new salary. “The mortgage on my own home and my living expenses are quite low. I also don’t need much in terms of material goods and I make conscious choices. For example, I drive a second-hand Kia and don’t care about having a big television or a new sofa. Alongside my day job, I’ve started my own business teaching women how to invest, which I hope to make additional income from in the future. I prefer to reinvest the proceeds from my investments and rental income in shares and build up wealth that way. That’s how I plan on topping up my pension.”
Thinking of working less?
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