Hey friends, Hannah here :)

A little while ago, I had two Virtual Excellence Academy members come and meet me here in Guanajuato, Mexico. We took my dogs for a hike in the mountains, chatted about business and life, and at one point one of them took the opportunity to ask me something face to face.

“What are your real goals? Like, long term. Let’s say ten years from now?”

“I want to retire,” I said, without really having to think about it.

She looked surprised. “But you’d still be young. What else?”

I explained that retirement to me doesn’t mean not ever working again. I’d probably be terrible at that - I imagine most would. It means working here and there because I feel compelled to, not because I have to. I want to walk my dogs in the mountains, travel when I feel like it, spend time with people I love, write or teach or build something when I’m excited about it, and have a calendar with a LOT of white space in it.

She thought about it for a second and said, “So… kind of like how you live now?”

Yep! Exactly.

And that is very much by design.

The semi-retired life I have now and the “fully retired” life I intend to have later aren’t dramatically different. Hopefully I’ll have more invested, more of my basic needs covered without actively working for them, and I’ll launch a little less. The pendulum will just swing that LITTLE bit further toward a blank calendar than it currently does.

I’m not trying to build a multi-million-dollar company. If that happens, great! But that has never really been the goal.

The goal has always been peace.

There’s an old story about a businessman who meets a fisherman in a small coastal village. The fisherman catches enough fish to provide for his family and then finishes for the day, spending the rest of his time with his wife and children, taking siestas, seeing his friends, drinking wine, and playing guitar.

The businessman thinks he’s wasting an enormous opportunity. He tells him that if he stayed out longer, he could catch more fish. Then in time, buy a bigger boat, eventually buy several boats, build a company, and make millions! It would take 15 or 20 years, he explains, but the fisherman could then retire.

The fisherman asks what he’d do once he retired.

Well, the businessman tells him, he could move to a small coastal village, sleep late, fish a little, spend time with his family, drink wine and play guitar with his friends.

In other words, he could spend twenty years giving up the life he enjoyed so that, hopefully, one day, he could afford to have it again.

I don’t think the lesson is that the fisherman is right and the businessman is wrong. Personally, I want a bit of both.

I want the fisherman’s life and the businessman’s financial security.

I want future me to be financially secure, but I do not want to sacrifice current me to make that happen.

Because the danger with constantly planning for “later” is that later isn’t simply today with more money. The reality is that your parents are this age now. Your kids are this age now. Your dogs are here now. Your body has the energy it has now.

There are things I desperately want to do at 38 that 68-year-old me might have absolutely no interest in doing, even if she has all the money in the world.

And that’s why I think a wealthy life has to include both now and later.

Here are a few ways I think about it:

1. Save for later, but budget for living now.

Travel, dinners with people you love, hobbies and experiences aren’t automatically “wasted money.” Your life is happening while you’re building your retirement fund.

I like the idea of deciding your own “big five”: the things you’re happy to spend on because they genuinely make your life better, and being much more frugal with the things that don’t.

For me, that’s good food, health, skincare, time spent with my closest people and travel. Other things matter far less. I live in a fairly modest home. I don’t own a car. I’m not very interested in accumulating stuff for the sake of it.

2. Buy back your time when you can.

Earning more doesn’t always have to mean upgrading your lifestyle.

Sometimes the best upgrade is working four days instead of five, outsourcing something you hate, taking a longer trip, or simply saying no to more work.

This is actually one of the reasons I love freelancing and virtual assistance as an option for people who feel trapped in traditional work.

You don’t necessarily need to quit tomorrow. Maybe you find one freelance client alongside your job and make an extra $500 a month. Then another, and suddenly you’re making $1000.

Perhaps at first you save it and build yourself a buffer. Eventually that extra income might allow you to stop taking overtime, negotiate a four-day week, or feel safe enough to reduce your hours.

Now you have Fridays back. Not at 65. Now.

And please, for the love of God, don’t automatically use every single Friday to create MORE work for yourself 😂

You are allowed to get your Friday back and just relax.

3. Stop automatically moving the goalposts.

You don’t HAVE to turn $100k into $200k, five clients into ten, or a successful freelance business into an agency.

There will always be another level available to you. If you make six figures, someone will tell you how to make seven. If you have ten clients, someone will tell you how to build a team to serve fifty.

But “more” and “better” are not the same thing.

Decide what enough actually looks like for you.

Maybe success is a seven-figure company.

Maybe success is $60k a year and 3 days of work a week.

Maybe it’s 2-5 fantastic clients, no team, and being able to spend three months a year on a tropical island.

Your definition gets to be yours.

4. Don’t postpone experiences that have a shelf life.

This is one of my favorite ideas from Die With Zero by Bill Perkins, which I highly recommend if this is something you think about too.

Despite the title, it isn’t about spending all your money and leaving elderly-you to figure it out 😂 It’s about being intentional about when money is most useful to you.

One of the ideas in the book is the “memory dividend.” An experience can keep paying you back long after you’ve paid for it. You take the trip once, but then you have the photos, the stories, the inside jokes, and the memories for years afterward.

We’re very good at understanding compound returns when it comes to money, but experiences can compound too, and some of them cannot simply be rescheduled for retirement.

5. Build toward a life you actually want to keep living.

My goal isn’t to work myself into the ground for twenty years so I can eventually have peace. I want more financial security later AND mountains, travel, long lunches, people I love, and plenty of white space in my calendar now.

I want future Hannah to be pretty comfortable, but I don’t want to sacrifice current Hannah to make that happen.

There isn’t an account where all the afternoons you didn’t use sit patiently collecting compound interest until you withdraw them at 65.

So absolutely take care of future you. Save. Invest. Increase your income. Build the pension. Create options for yourself.

Just remember that current you deserves some of the good stuff too.

Not choosing between the fisherman and the businessman.

Building enough security that you don’t have to worry about tomorrow, without being so busy building tomorrow that you forget to notice what is good about today. It's all about being intentional about where your attention and energy are invested.

📣 Two upcoming events you won’t want to miss

🔴 Get Clients With Webinars with Simone Vincenzi (and Me!)

We are very excited to welcome Simone Vincenzi for a practical session on how VAs and freelancers can use webinars to get seen, showcase what makes them brilliant, and turn an audience into clients.

Webinars let people experience your expertise before they hire you, making them a powerful way to build trust. A well-executed webinar starts client conversations and positions you as the obvious person to help. Simone will show you how to use them without needing a huge audience. You also won't need a complicated funnel or years of presenting experience. Come as you are! He's truly the best at what he does, and you will not want to miss this!!! From personal experience, I have used Simone's teachings and landed clients over and over with them!

25 August at 1 p.m New York time

​Save your place for Get Clients With Webinars​

💡 VIP: An Intimate Group Mastermind with Me NEXT MONDAY!

This is where we look at the whole picture, not just the obvious problem in front of you. You might come in thinking you need help with pricing and realize the real issue is positioning, or think you need another offer when what you actually need is to simplify.

I pull from 14 years of coaching, marketing, offer creation, and helping tens of thousands of people build freelance and VA businesses to help you figure out what will actually move you forward.

And that doesn’t have to mean building the biggest business possible at all! It’s all about building a wealthy life, whatever “wealthy” means to you: money, time, freedom, peace, flexibility, impact, or your own unique combination of them.

The group is capped at 12 so everyone gets proper attention, feedback, and action items, and all stages are welcome. No question or topic is too big or too small.

17 August at 1 p.m. New York time. Only 6 spots left

​💡 Only 7 Mastermind Spots Left, Book Yours Here 💡​

VEA member? Enter your member code when booking to access your special rate. Hit reply if you need it.

Any of this resonate? Hit reply and let me know.

Have a great week ahead!

Hannah