September 13, 2022
Creating Your Work-Optional Lifestyle:
A Purpose-Driven Plan for Financial Freedom
Jeremy L. Davis
Aviva Publishing (2021)
ISBN: 978-1-63618-150-9
New Book Offers Path to Work-Optional Life and Financial Freedom
Financial planner Jeremy L. Davis’ new book Creating Your Work-Optional Lifestyle: A Purpose-Driven Plan for Financial Freedom provides readers with an action plan for achieving a lifestyle of freedom.
Early in life, Jeremy was inspired by his father, who told him, “Retirement is not for me; it’s a concept that will never be for me. I love what I’m doing, and I intend to keep doing it for my entire life.” Jeremy was inspired by this statement to seek work he would enjoy and to create a lifestyle that would allow him to work when he chose. Ultimately, he became a financial advisor, and for nearly twenty years, he has been helping others achieve a work-optional lifestyle just like he has.
In Creating Your Work-Optional Lifestyle, Jeremy shares the plan and process he has developed to help his clients reshape their concepts of retirement. Early in the book, he defines just what this lifestyle entails: “A work-optional lifestyle gives you the flexibility to work on your interests and to apply your effort to endeavors that give life meaning. A work-optional lifestyle isn’t a license to sit on the beach and drink Mai-Tais while watching the waves crash. A work-optional lifestyle is about doing the work now to set up your life and finances around your purpose in life.” Jeremy understands that sitting around doing nothing does not bring happiness, but having a passion and purpose does. A work-optional lifestyle ensures that you can do what you enjoy while making the world a better place on your own terms.
Creating a work-optional lifestyle begins with developing a plan. It also requires taking action sooner than later. Jeremy states, “If you don’t act now, you’ll be another day/year/decade older than you are today. You may miss an opportunity in the market, you may die, you may be physically unable to do what you want to do. A million things could happen to derail your future. Just act now!”
To be motivated to act, you have to have a purpose. For Jeremy, motivation lies in seeking a better life for his children as well as helping others to have better lives. Once you determine your motivation for improving your financial life, you need to take action to ensure you are making the best decisions with your money. Here Jeremy gets into the nuts and bolts of financial planning, discussing good versus bad money karma:
“Many Americans have bad money karma, as evidenced by nearly 40 million households having no retirement savings at all…the average American between ages thirty-five and forty has a net worth, excluding home-equity, of $14,226.00. These statistics illustrate that most Americans have bad money karma. This means they make bad financial decisions, which compound over time, leading to a state of financial suffering.”
Jeremy has observed from his interviews with financial planning clients that the ones who have good money habits and attach meaning and motivation to their money—such as having work-optional lifestyle goals or saving for their children’s futures—receive good money karma. He provides examples of people who save to pay off their mortgage early and then have other financial windfalls come their way because of their good money decisions. He teaches how to make those good decisions, such as determining where you are wasting money, learning to live within your income, and creating not just an emergency fund but a super reserve of cash so you have money to invest or use in other ways when opportunities arise. Each discussion is followed by a “challenge”—an exercise to make you look at your own finances and financial decisions and take control of your money.
Perhaps the most vital thing Jeremy says in this entire book is that the most important factor in determining our financial success is us. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how the stock market does, what interest rates are, or who is President of the United States. What matters is our ability to create and grow our income and the decisions we make about that income.
Throughout the book, Jeremy discusses how we can create and grow that income. He discusses how to find the time to work on creating your income. He explores the four pillars of passive income that will allow you to make work optional because you’ll have an income stream whether you work or not. He talks about how to save and invest and the pros and cons of various retirement plans. His discussion is always easy to follow and backed by excellent examples and simple formulas to illustrate his points.
Altogether, Creating Your Work-Optional Lifestyle would be an excellent start for anyone who wants to improve their finances. Although I have always lived within my income, saved, and invested, I found worthwhile advice and suggestions in these pages that made me rethink some of my own financial decisions. I’ve also seen plenty of friends and family members struggle with their finances. I wish I’d had this book to give them. Life doesn’t have to be a financial struggle or all hard work. A work-optional lifestyle awaits you if you’ll just put in the work needed to create it, and trust me, doing that work is far less work in the long-run than struggling.
Whether you’re a college student just learning how to handle your money, or a seasoned investor thinking about retirement, you will find something in these pages that will enhance your financial situation to make your life better.
For more information about Creating Your Work-Optional Lifestyle and Jeremy Davis, visit Amazon.
— Tyler R. Tichelaar, PhD and award-winning author of The Nomad Editor: Living the Lifestyle You Want, Doing Work You Love
