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Comment by anotheryou | Hacker News Reader

how much truly free time does one have on a work day?

Work, sleep, commute, eat, keep yourself fed, keep you and the house clean, maybe do some exercise and a bit of whatever out of the ordinary needs to be done (shopping for new shoes, fixing stuff in the house, doing the taxes).

Leaves maybe 4h and it's fair to have to rest 1 of it with some no-brain activity.

So 3h for family, romance, hobbies, learning non-job related stuff, politics, culture, reading, friends, side projects, building things, helping someone, etc...

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That's why I'm doing everything within my power to work towards getting financially free. It's not easy and it takes time, but I'm getting closer than I've ever been.

I'll try to reduce work to 4 days a week soon (but I might wait for 12M at the company to pass and discus it along with a promised raise).

It's something more immediate and realistic than hoping index funds will carry me one day (and it avoids some taxes... the 8 extra hours don't pay so well after taxes).

Good luck to you though, I hope it all works out for us!

Same boat. It's just hard to ask for more money and less hours at the same time. I'm trying to argue give me a smaller increase at reducing a day to be able to focus on hobby projects or just mental health. Unsure if it'll happen but fingers crossed!

Are you in germany by and chance? Law is in this case on the workers side here. (but of course I hope not to have to reference the law at all...)

I'm not but that sounds great!

just curious, what does your definition of financially free. entail? living off residual income or what?

I guess he means something like this: https://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement?income=70...

Might work if you trust index funds, earn quite well in the first place or (plan to) live in a cheap country and you are willing to do the grind for a few years.

Two things: 1) a good bit of cash and 2) passive income from multiple diverse sources that I can live a good lifestyle from that passive income such that I don’t need to work anymore — though I’ll work for a long time because I enjoy it, but I'll do something specifically that I want to do.

I'm not really that concerned about financial freedom right now. I am concerned with optionality. Meaning I never want to be stuck at a job I hate. For me that means a combination of staying marketable, keeping my network fresh, and being careful about "lifestyle inflation" so I won't have to always strive for the maximum income.

It's a big stress reliever knowing that if things go bad, you can always jump ship.

Probably of the Mr. Money Moustache flavour, r/financialindependence. Basically say 750k in index funds so that even a 3% return would net you enough to cover your basic expenses, perpetually.

Stay-at-home spouse means you don't have to keep yourself fed or keep the house clean, and you have to do less of the ordinary needs as well. The stay-at-home spouse of course doesn't have to work or commute.

Yes, might be a fun option if all of this applies:

- freely chosen

- not feeling unaccomplished in comparison to the spouse

- not doing 8 hours of chores a day

- enjoying time with the kids (if applicable)

- still having a say in financial matters

- no old fashioned gender roles

- financially and educationally independent enough to survive comfortably alone if the partnership fails

- you actually want to be in that relationship

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