Review: Work Optional by Tanja Hester
Work Optional is one of those books that you immediately want to share with your friends and family when they get excited about the FIRE movement. During my work day, I love listening to inspiring books and podcasts to keep me on task and dreaming about the day when I don’t have to stay behind a desk. That’s why I chose to listen to the audiobook.
Audiobooks can be hit or miss for me. As a traditional reader, I can be easily distracted by the bells and whistles in the audiobook in a way I wouldn’t be when reading the physical copy. I’m happy to report that didn’t happen with this one! The reader’s voice was clean, concise, and kept my attention. No weird voice inflections, no annoying tones. Which is important, because there is a ton of great information in here that would’ve been missed otherwise. I made so many notes during the 6-7 hour runtime.
Work Optional is written by a FIRE supporter living with her husband in Tahoe. While you might not be an avid skier or enjoy an eternal winter like the author, they have plenty for you to find common ground with. I especially appreciated the extended information on medical decisions in retirement. Tanja and her husband both have autoimmune or inherited disorders that made it necessary to examine all options available to them in retirement for the best possible medical care. While a lot of early retirees are thinking about the fun stuff, topics like this can be overlooked, either because of a natural aversion to it or because of a lack of current relevance to their lives.
Another thing I loved was the emphasis on community involvement. A significant part of Tanja’s early retirement goals included saving for future charitable contributions and having time to give time to those who need it most.
Tanja’s tips are actionable and thorough, and have built-in defenses for worst-case scenarios. If you’re as anxiety-ridden as me, you’ll appreciate that! She lays out a simple approach to determining your own perfect money plan. Those who aren’t beginners will find most of the book to be familiar concepts, but with an interesting twist that keeps the material from being old news (while I’m well-versed in passive income streams, it’s just fun to refer to it as “magic money”). As for everyone else: this should be a top priority read for recent converts to the FIRE movement.
What’s my bottom line?
Work Optional is a toolbox book – it should be on everyone’s bare minimum list of resources. Financial independence seekers on all stages of their journey should reference back to it often, either to educate themselves or others, or to uncover the passion they led them to begin. The audiobook was pleasant to listen to and kept my interest. A+
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