From Side Hustle to Side Hassle

Last night, I made one of the hardest decisions of my life: I was going to go back to the '9-to-5'.

For years, nay, decades, I have been trying to find a way to generate enough money to retire early and spend more time with the people I love.

It started with 'Your Money or Your Life' by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin in the 1990s through 'I Will Teach You To Be Rich' by Ramit Sethi (you should read them both!) and the modern FIRE movement, aka Financial Independence Retire Early. Along the way, it veered off into being a virtual assistant, a screenwriter, a published author, a film producer and, most recently, a web content creator.

Ultimately, all of these 'side hustles' became nothing more than 'side hassles', eating up my time and taking me away from my goal: to spend more time with the people I love.

I woke up excited at the thought of closing down my little business, 'Five Trees Digital' and returning to standard employment. I'm only a few years away from retirement anyway, and to be honest my business ventures diminished my pension pot rather than added to it.

This new blog, Shoestring Millionaire, will map my journey from overwhelmed solopreneur to slightly-less-overwhelmed employee, and my final steps towards the early retirement I crave.

I've called it Shoestring Millionaire because the best things in life are free, and the next best things in life are available on a shoestring. You don't need to BE a millionaire to FEEL like one.

Let's see how this feels, shall we?