Achieving control over your time does not require waiting decades for traditional financial freedom, according to financial advisor and author Brian Herriot. In his new book, Time Freedom: Rethink Your Work and Money to Create a Life You Love Now, Herriot argues that by combining flexible, meaningful work with smart saving and investing, most people can gain control over their schedules within about three years.
Herriot, who founded three businesses before becoming an author and speaker, calls this approach «time freedom.» It offers a more practical alternative to the conventional path of saving for decades until retirement. Instead of waiting for absolute financial independence, he suggests switching the order: pursue time freedom first, then let financial freedom happen in the background.
The concept grew out of Herriot's own experience. In April 2020, during the COVID-19 stock market crash, he had to tell his wife, Claire, that their portfolio was down about 35%. Both were 43 and had been saving and investing since their early twenties. Despite their discipline, they faced investment losses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. When Herriot ran the numbers, he was stunned to learn that true financial freedom was still about 20 years away.
That moment prompted a conversation that changed his thinking. Claire asked him what financial freedom actually meant to him. After a couple of days of reflection, Herriot realized that retiring to a beach and never working again did not appeal to him. He loved his work and wanted the opportunity to dip in and out of it. Claire then asked why they could not do that now. Though they could not do it immediately, over three years Herriot figured out how to balance their investments and his work so they could take summers off.
Herriot describes himself as a «freetimer» — a term he coined to mean someone who has complete control over their time. It has nothing to do with being a freeloader or a two-timer. Freetimers still work, but they do it by choice and on their own timeline. For Herriot, that means arranging his life into periods of intense work followed by periods of extended time away, typically in the summer. He acknowledges it is an unconventional way to live, but says he has found it attractive to many people.
The book draws on Herriot's childhood experiences at his grandparents' cabin on Big St. Germain Lake in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, where summers were spent hiking, swimming, fishing, and waterskiing. Those memories shaped his lifelong mission to find a way to take summers off and maximize time with his family. Time freedom, he writes, was the answer.
Herriot also challenges the assumption that retiring early is the ultimate goal. Financial advisors speak with many people about retirement plans, and he notes a striking pattern: those who cannot afford to retire would give anything to do so as soon as possible, while many who can afford to retire are not in a rush. Over time, some people have shaped work into something enjoyable, well-paying, and flexible. For them, work provides ongoing status, social benefits, structure, and purpose. When work is enjoyable, Herriot argues, it is intrinsically rewarding, and giving it up becomes less appealing.
This is what the freetimer aspires to, he writes. Rather than seeing work as something to escape, freetimers seek to integrate it into a life they love. The goal is not to stop working entirely but to gain control over when and how much they work. Herriot suggests that by pursuing time freedom first, people can take extended breaks without giving up work they enjoy or jeopardizing their financial future.
He offers five key insights in the book, including the idea that summers off are not just for teachers and that working longer can be more freeing than retiring early. The approach is presented as achievable for most people within about three years, rather than the decades often required for full financial independence. For Herriot, the ultimate reward is not absolute freedom, which he suggests can be boring, but meaningful freedom — the ability to choose how to spend your time while still earning a living.