FICTIONAL ILLUSTRATIONSThree households. Three sensible paths.
The framework does not reward leaving work or punish staying. It asks which arrangement best fits the floor, the window, and the real job of another year.
Important: These are fictional, simplified illustrations from the book—not recommendations, forecasts, or client cases.
- Full work-year value: $101,701.50
- Four-day-workweek value: $85,396.50
- Financial floor: secure in balanced rough weather
- Relevant window: roughly two to five years
THE TENSIONThe extra day could be used with Polly’s mother, while Paul could continue teaching repair skills. Full continuation still creates value, but its remaining financial job no longer dominates the usable-time case.
THE PLANTest a four-day week, protect the secure floor, and review whether the recovered day is actually used as intended.
- Modeled work-year value: $120,314.50
- Withdrawals avoided: $48,500
- Confirmed pension increase: $6,000
- Financial floor: constrained before the added year
THE TENSIONThe year closes a real shortfall and improves durable income. Continuing is not the absence of a crossover decision; it is a deliberate choice with an identified finish line.
THE PLANContinue for the defined financial job, preserve monthly mentoring, and review the transition when the shortfall and pension conditions are met.
- Age: 62
- Financial floor: secure without speculative sale proceeds
- Shared priority: time with his widowed father
- Personal priority: illustration
THE TENSIONA specialty printing company carries identity and responsibility, but waiting for a perfect sale could consume the window the decision is meant to protect.
THE PLANDelegate, test a six-week relocation, and build the transition around a floor that does not depend on an unconfirmed sale price.
WHAT CHANGES THE POSITION
Not wealth alone. Not health alone. The relationship.
CONTINUEThe financial floor is not yet durable and another year can materially solve a defined problem.
PARTIALThe floor holds or is close, work retains value, and a staged change can recover meaningful time.
FULLThe floor holds, delay has no equally material job, and a capable or shared window is becoming more valuable now.
APPLY THE SAME DISCIPLINEYour facts will not look exactly like any case.
Use the tool to make the tradeoff visible, then use the discussion guide to test the result with the people and professionals who know the full circumstances.