Money Versus Time
Which Would you choose?
This is a question I would like to ask my followers, given the opportunity would you prefer to have lots of time or lots of money?
At this stage in my life, I am caught up in this battle, and it is only going one way, a work-life balance has always been important to me, however, it is turning and I am not sure if this is a good or a bad thing.
Without going into too much depth, I work as a General Manager for an established family business. Having been there for around five years, I love the people I work with and the company is a well-run machine.
I head up the sales department, whilst having an overview of the POS, show site, retail shop, social media and HR. Basically, I work very hard 5–6 days a week.
I tend to leave for work around 07:30 and get home around 20:00, so these are long days, thankfully because I do love my job I don’t find this hard at all, however as you can imagine I am constantly tired.
That, of course, has a knock-on effect on my beautiful wife and children and sometimes this has an effect on my mental health and I feel riddled with guilt.
I have been given an opportunity to buy into the business I work for and become a Director, which I have formally agreed and accepted, this should be completed in the next four to eight weeks.
I feel very well paid at the moment, and this position will obviously give me a pay increase, this meaning my wife has the option to go to part-time work, or she can continue full time and we should be able to pay the mortgage off on our house early.
If we are able to pay the mortgage off early (approximately five years earlier) then that will go hand in hand with retiring early too, (currently, retirement in the UK starts at sixty-seven years old.)
It would mean retiring around sixty-two years of age and having the money to live a nice life too, although I would probably try to retire around sixty years old instead.
I would also have the opportunity to sell my part in the business and walk away with a large sum of money when I retire, not a life-changing amount, however, it would probably give me around six years of my current salary.
I would of course have my two pensions and a few investments to also live off, so it is very appealing, but then my head turns to another route.
I could walk away and have more free time, my skill set would mean that I should be able to find another job quickly, and could probably work 09:00–17:00, Monday to Friday, meaning I would have lots of time with my family.
If I did this, it would mean a big pay cut, we may have to downsize and also sell one of the cars we own, I would also have to work up to retirement age, and maybe work part-time after I retire to help with our household income.
Both of my parents passed away in their seventies, so this is also on my mind. My mother run a few businesses and my dad worked in the steelworks. I remember him telling me, “Son, you either work hard now and retire early, or you take it easy now and work hard when you are old.”
At the time I thought to myself, I don’t want to work all my life, so I had better work harder now, so that is what I have done.
I also have thoughts of, what if I work hard, then pass away just as I retire, what good is that? Well, even if I am not around, my wife and three children will at least get the benefit of what I have left behind.
I want to provide for my wife and children, but in which way should I do this is really playing on my mind.
I know as a director I will have a lot of influence, my intention is to grow a team to help me work fewer hours and in time create better work, life, balance.
I know health is very important too, my father retired at 42 due to ill health and I really watched him struggle later on in life which was heartbreaking.
I have a great vision, however, I wanted to reach out to my followers to see if you have gone through this process, what you decided to do, and if it worked out as you had planned it.
Written by Robert Ralph
Join Medium here (Affiliate Link)
