One More Year: The Trap That Steals Decades From Smart People

Описание: #008 “Just one more year" is one of the most deceptively reasonable sentences in adulthood. It sounds smart. It sounds responsible. It sounds like exactly what a financially literate, level-headed professional would say.

But underneath all that logic, in most cases, one more year is just fear dressed up as strategy.

In this episode, I'm shining a spotlight on One More Year Syndrome - the pattern where smart, disciplined people keep delaying the life they've already earned. I break down why it happens, how to spot it early, and how to know when you're genuinely being strategic versus when you're just avoiding the blank page on the other side of work.

I also hold my hands up. I'm currently in year two of my own One More Year - and I share honestly why I'm staying, what's strategic about it, and what's purely emotional.

What this episode covers:

Why one more year almost never stays one year and how it easily becomes five or ten
The identity gap: why freedom is more psychologically confronting than work
The razor-thin line between choosing from clarity and choosing from fear (and why they feel identical in the moment)
Why One More Year Syndrome isn't just a FIRE problem, it shows up the moment you have any financial breathing room at all
My personal reasons for staying one more year: identity, parenthood, and an evolving FIRE number
The two kinds of readiness most people never build and why only one of them is about money
A single question to ask yourself that cuts through the noise

This episode is for you if:

You've hit or are approaching your number but something keeps holding you in place
You keep finding rational reasons to delay a change you know you want to make
You're not necessarily chasing FIRE but you have enough financial breathing room to make a shift and you're not taking it
Your spreadsheet says you're ready but the rest of you doesn't feel ready
You're starting to wonder whether your "one more year" is strategic or just comfortable

The question to sit with after this episode: If you froze your life exactly as it is today, is the only thing missing more money? Or is what's actually missing something else entirely?

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