I started this site because I know that one day I want to work for myself and I think four hours a day is the ideal work day for maximum efficiency and happiness. I will never understand people that kill themselves at their day job: working long hours, weekends and overtime solely for the money. And that is why they’re doing it, what other reason could there be? I would rather work less, spend less and live more as this site’s tagline would suggest. The world that we live in has so much to offer and I can’t think of one good reason why I’d want to spend a majority of my day cooped up inside a cubicle.
With that being said though, it doesn’t always make sense to just jump right in to working four hours a day. There aren’t many high paying jobs that allow you to work a half day and then go home. I think the best path to a four hour work day is by eventually working for yourself and working hard early on in your career so that you can build passive income later. It really is a simple concept but it’s not one that everyone will eventually grasp.
The Savings Epiphany
When you figure out about the power of compounding interest I like to call it “The Savings Epiphany.” I had my epiphany early on when I started playing around with retirement calculators and researching how to invest my money. It seems so simple to me yet most people will never come close to having their own epiphany. If you save more money now, the less you’ll have to save later AND the more you can spend later. It really is that simple.
We live in a world of instant gratification and it’s hard to think about the future. I know that if I delay a trip to Hawaii this year and save that money instead, that means I can take 2 trips down the road. That doesn’t mean I won’t ever take a vacation, but I will find a balance that works for me. Saving money is tough and it takes a lot of sacrifice – you can’t always do everything that you want to do.
People like to think that once they make more money, they’ll be able to save more but that’s just not true. As you make more, you’re going to spend more. So you have to learn how to save with your current income.
Is the Income Enough?
Obviously one of the biggest hindrances to my four hour work day was the income. I have a wedding coming up next summer and a fiancee that is racking up thousands of dollars of debt by the month(she’s in med school!). In my last month working online I actually did pretty well while still only working about 4-5 hours a day. Even though that was the most I’ve ever grossed in a single month, unfortunately, the income history was just not there yet. I would need at least 6 months to a year of steady online income in order to feel comfortable that those levels would continue.
If I could get a few more months of consistent online income then it would be tough to give up my current lifestyle. And if I was a single dude living on my own, I would seriously consider making the jump to a four hour work day right now. But I also have to consider my family and the opportunities that would open up in the future from working both jobs at the same time right now.
Active Before Passive Income
One of the biggest myths of passive income is that it’s easy to achieve. Passive income will always require a lot of upfront investment – whether it’s time or (generally) money. Things like real estate actually require both. In order to get a $500 cash on cash monthly return you have to know what you’re doing and you have to have the cash to buy a property(a little luck doesn’t hurt either).
At this point in my life, there’s a ceiling as to how much I can make working online. I only have so many hours in the day and I can only grow my businesses by a certain rate every month. In order to meet the income level I want to be at(and still maintain a four hour work day) I need some extra sources of passive income. I’ve worked hard to build my extra sources of income but a lot of them are still active rather than passive. I am a firm believer that real estate is the best way to build truly passive income but it requires a lot of active income first.
Day Job Stability
One of the nice things about my day job income is the stability. Even though I took a pay cut at my new job, I still think I’m overpaid for what I do. I sit at a desk for 8 hours a day and play around on a computer – there are much worse jobs for much less pay in this world. I consider myself lucky.
I’m actually looking forward to doing my day job and my online activities at the same time. I know it’s going to be a lot of work but in a few years I’ll have enough to pay off my fiancee’s medical school debt or invest in another property or business opportunity. Ultimately, I’m willing to sacrifice my free time right now so that I can switch to a four hour work day in the future and maintain the same income that I get at my day job.
Readers, what do you think about my choice to give up on the Four Hour Work Day and go back to my day job? I’ll be the first to admit I’m doing it for the money! But I’m going to make good use of all the extra money I make now so that in 5 or 10 years I might be able to make the switch.
-Harry @ The Four Hour Work Day
Track All Your Accounts With Personal Capital

More from my site
Latest posts by Mr. 4HWD (see all)
- How to Host a Frugal Graduation Party - April 28, 2015
- Side Hustling in Direct Sales - April 21, 2015
- 5 Cheap Vacation Ideas - April 14, 2015
I agree Harry, working 4 hours a day would be great but like you said it takes a lot of time to build up a passive income. I can definitely attest to that, I’ve been doing this for 5 years and know it can take some real work to make things happen. I’m hoping to do the same thing myself at some point but I know it may still be a while till that happens.
Yep definitely. I learned a lot though during my little mini-trial run that will help me going forward. Even though I want to try and take on as much as possible to get to my ultimate goal as fast as possible, I know that it’s important to be patient.
You can manage the blog and work at the same time. So, as long as the pay is good and helps you both with your goals, I see no issue. I’m working from home and earn a very good income, but was willing to get hired again, if the company would have paid me the same money. I was discussing it with a new company in my city. The problem is that they couldn’t afford my services, since many people here would gladly work for 1/4 of what I asked for.
Wow 1/4 of what you asked for! You must be good 🙂 Yea I should definitely be able to manage the blogs and work at the same time but I don’t know how much growth I’ll see – monetarily and traffic wise since I don’t have time to go above and beyond managing like when I wasn’t working.
Not really about being that good (although I am better than many of the people who are being hired on that ‘joke’ salary), but I’m mostly working with US clients and the pay is good. I also work with local clients who afford my rate, so it’s clear that, if I’m earning well as a web designer who’s working from home, I wouldn’t accept a bad paying job in the city :))
Ok gotcha well as long as you know you can get paid more, don’t settle for any less!
At this point in life, I would choose to hold onto my day job. The income is good and stable, the benefits are excellent… and like you said in another comment: “I want to try and take on as much as possible to get to my ultimate goal as fast as possible”
Yea I think my day job actually makes me use my time a little more efficiently since now when I get home I do an hour or two of work on my blog instead of watching TV or something like that. I don’t mind the work though so it barely seems like work!
I agree with you that most passive income opportunities start with long periods of very active management.
Just like Ramona (Dojo) mentioned above, you can still maintain your blog while working so I see no reason why you made a bad decision.
Thanks Brent, I guess the only thing that sucks about going back to my day job is I can’t grow my blog as much as I’d like to. I’m in more of a maintenance period(and the same goes for my freelance writing gigs). If my revenue streams dry up though, then I’ll have to set aside some more time to work on my blog so we’ll see what happens..
Have you thought about hiring freelancers to write for your site so you can move into more of an editorial role where you come up with topics and review article before posting them? That might be the best use of your reduced amount of time rather than being the guy who’s producing all the content. What do you think?
Hey Brent, yea I do actually have a couple VA’s/writers that work for me and they are great. The only problem is that for both my sites, I feel like my writing has a distinct voice and in order to get someone to emulate that voice, I would have to pay them a pretty decent wage. And at this point, I think that wage would probably be very close or equal to my own hourly rate haha.
But you’re right. In the future, I hope that my time becomes a little more valuable and I can afford to pay a writer $30 for an article and I’m confident that I’d get the exact voice I want.
I think you needed to try it or you would have spent your life wondering about it!
I genuinely enjoy my job and can’t see myself ever giving it up, only cutting back as the family grows (which may give me more time for side stuff) but i like leaving the house and working with the people I do.
Yea I’m definitely glad I did it. I enjoy my day job, but not as much as you it sounds like. It’s just not rewarding and I don’t like working hard to make other people rich haha(my article this week will go into more details on that!).
If you can find a job that you enjoy then you are one of the lucky few! Hold onto it and never let go haha. It’s cool though that you also get to pursue blogging in your spare time.
I did both for a good three years before my online income was large enough for about 10 consecutive months before I decided to take a leap of faith. Being able to negotiate a severance package was my huge catalyst.
I think it’s good to do both if you can until you see one venture really start to take off.
If I hated my day job, it would be a lot easier to make the switch. But to be honest, I kind of like it. I mean I take two hour lunches and workout and/or play basketball with my co-workers then come back to my desk and eat lunch twice a week. I haven’t worked OT in years haha. And I still have time to do all my blogging/online work when I get home. The one thing I had to cut out this year was coaching, so I could focus more on my online stuff but haven’t missed it too much.
I’m starting to hire help/outsource some of my work which I’m hoping will allow my online work to really take off. You can only get so big and make so much with one person doing all the work.
Ever fear your boss or colleagues might find your blog and see your comments?
I don’t really tell anyone at work about my blogs but I don’t think there’s anything too incendiary. I try not to work on my blogs while I’m at work so don’t think it’s really any of their business what I do at home.