This is a New Year’s Resolution that should be pretty easy to adhere to. Reduce my earned income as much as possible!
Because I’m so financially focused, many people find it surprising that my goal is not to earn as much money as possible. Some people enjoy working. Most people don’t. I’m in the latter camp. Working and earning income follows the law of increasing marginal difficulty. Let’s assume the average worker works 40 hours a week. Your first 10 hours may actually be enjoyable since it bring variety into your schedule. The next 10 hours is neutral. The next 10 hours is mundane. The next 10 hours you wish you did not have to do. The next 10 hours (going into “overtime” now), you are pissed if you are not getting overtime pay or some additional compensation. The next 10 hours, now you are unable to do any activities you enjoy. The next 10 hours, your family no longer sees you. The next 10 hours will induce burnout if it recurs week after week. Clearly, the first 10 hours is much more enjoyable than the final 10 hours.
Now add on the progressive income tax. Even though the last 10 hours is not only significantly worse than the first 10 hours, the government says, we want to take even more from you in your last 10 hours compared to your first 10 hours. Talk about a slap in the face.
At the end of every year, I do tax planning, which includes how much I’m working the following year. I try and find the balance between how much I want to work, and how much the government is going to extract from my labor. The cutoff I use is usually right before some income tax tier. Well, for 2023, I’m in an extremely high tax bracket due to the capital gains from the commercial property I sold. So the goal this year is to reduce working hours/earned income as much as possible. Literally no reason to go to work to benefit the government.
This is a New Year’s Resolution that I can definitely keep.
