4-Hour Work Week – A New Way of Valuing Your Income

May 2, 2007

Warning: Do Not Read This Book Unless You Want to Quit Your Job

I knew I was in trouble when I read this on the back cover of the 4 – Hour Work Week. I’ve been beat up with high stress and long hours at work the last few weeks so quitting is a tempting option.

I’m not ready to jump ship just yet but The 4 – Hour Work Week has me looking at things a little differently in the office recently. The author, Timothy Ferriss, provides an interesting approach for valuing the income you receive based on the work you do.

He suggests four items to help value the money you earn:

  • What You Do
  • Where You Do It
  • When You Do It
  • Whom You Do it With

If you’re in control of all four W’s then you have much more freedom in your life and it’s easier to live with lower monetary compensation. I definitely earn decent money in my current job but the only W I have some control over is when, and that’s only because my hours are somewhat flexible.

This view on the relationship between the income you earn and the freedom you have resonates with me and the theme of this site. Earning a good salary is definitely important to meeting my financial goals but I need to look more closely at the four W’s in the future and evaluate the third of my life that I spend at work. How about you? How many of the four W’s do you control?

Ben

Will this article help you save or earn more money? Get others like it simply by entering your email address below. Your email is used only for delivering daily money tips and you can opt out of delivery at any time. Click here to see all your free subscription options.

  

Ben
Ben Edwards, the founder of Money Smart Life, saved up enough to buy a Nintendo back when he was 12 years old. When he used the money to buy shares of Wal-Mart stock instead, he knew he wasn't like the other kids... His addiction to personal finance has paid off for his family and now he's helping you to afford the life that you want. Check him out on the web at Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook.

All posts by

Comments

7 Responses to 4-Hour Work Week – A New Way of Valuing Your Income

  • Q at $1 Million to My Name

    I think as bloggers, we all dream of living off our blog income and working for 4 hours a week. THAT is how Tim is getting all of us onboard!!!

  • b

    seems like ferriss is just doing a huge publicity campaign, good for him. he’s doing a great job at getting the bloggers on board it seems.

  • Credit Cards

    Wow! This post is very near and dear to my heart!

    In fact, the 4 hour work week is my life! OK, when the weather is miserable I work more simply because there is nothing better to do.

    Last summer, I bought a 30 foot camper and spent the summer towing it all over the place and enjoying quality time with my young daughters.

    This is possible and I live it everyday!

    All it takes is some education, determination and perserverance and you are off to a life of freedom.

    In February I had a feature article about me in Revenue Magazine, it’s now published online and you can read about it here:

    Read the article here

    The onslaught of folks requesting guidance after that article has been nothing less than phenominal! Given the flood of requests for training I have been working more than my typical 4 to 8 hour work week developing training.

    I will be offering coaching to a very limited number of people very soon. If you truly want a better life, please visit here

    Anyway, if you truly want something in life… Do as the Nike ads say and “Just do it”

  • Ben

    b, I don’t know if Tim Ferriss is paying anyone to review his book, he isn’t paying me.

    I read about the book over at ProBlogger and listened to an interview on Andy Wibbel’s blog the night before the book came out and bought it right away. I wrote about the book and promised I’d let readers know what I thought.

    I’ve only read the first few chapters so far but have found it interesting. I plan on writing about the things in the book that catch my attention.

    To answer your question again, no, I’m not being paid to review the book.

  • b

    Is Tim Ferriss paying bloggers to review his book? A full 3 out of 5 of the financial blogfeeds I read have posted reviews / updates / announcements about this book.

  • FMF

    Hmmmmm. Very interesting. It’s always tempting to think about “doing your own thing,” but if I could do it in four hows a week, that would be REALLY GREAT!

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  • Free Money Finance