Season “How to Make 250K Per Year” · Episode 13
The Decision: Stay at 250K or Go for More
Now that I've reached the number: more, or something else? · 3 November 2026
Once an hour is free, something decides what happens with it, and I want that to be me, not the dust in my flat. This is where the season ends: with the loop that keeps a goal honest, with the number after I reached it, and with the decision I owe you.
01
I decide, not the dust
Where the bought hour goes isn't the point. The point is that I decide it. Otherwise the clutter decides for me what I have to do with my time, just like a client, and sometimes it isn't a client or another person at all, only the environment.
The same goes for the body. If I eat too much and gain weight, what I ate before decides that I have to go to the gym, instead of me deciding that I want to go. I want to decide, not my body and not my flat.
That doesn't mean I have to do everything. It means keeping the option. At 70 I don't want to have to train for a year before I can ride a bike again.
Look at your next free hour and ask who filled it. If the answer is the mess, a client or yesterday's dinner, then the hour was free and you still didn't decide.
02
The loop
A goal stays honest only if you check it on a rhythm. Mine has three beats:
| When | What I check |
|---|---|
| Every month | the share of income without hours, and where the bought hours went |
| Every summer | the six weeks: did they happen, and what did they cost |
| Every year | the goal itself |
The yearly beat is the one this season is about. Part of any goal is always finding a better goal, and four goals have replaced each other so far, as “My start” tells. When this one is reached or replaced, it stays on this page with the date and the reason. The test for the next goal is that it has a why of its own. A bigger number without one would be the endless game again.
One thing the loop has not answered yet is when the bridge tips, meaning at what share of income without hours it stops feeling like hustle. I suspect well before 100 percent. The number goes here as soon as I have lived it.
03
The number, after I have it
Even with a very good explanation of why 250K is the right number, you can change your mind once you have it. I find that a cool thing, even when the argument behind the number is super strong.
My revenue is around 250K now. That is the number; the bridge from the last chapter hasn't tipped yet. So the decision at the end of this season is this: do I really stay with 250K, or do I go for more? And if it is more, what is the new why, and what would a good number be then?
The lens I use is a professional golf player. He has made more money than he could ever spend, and he still plays for more, when it is no longer about the money. Why does he do it? The same question goes to my own why from “Why 250K”: does it still hold, now that the number is here?
04
My decision
You get my decision here, in my own words, once I have made it.
> [GAP: my decision. Do I stay at 250K, or do I go for more? Not given yet. This chapter stays empty until I give it.] > > [GAP: my own answer to the golf player's question. Why play for more when it is no longer about the money?]
05
The questions of the next season
Whatever the decision is, it opens the questions of the next season, and they start where this one ends. What is the new why? Does the next goal have to be a number at all? And if it isn't a number, how do you decide what else to do?
Since the start of November, my project pages have measured every project against one question: did it buy back time, or create income that doesn't depend on my hours? Could a question like that be the next unit, instead of a number? That one stays open too.
06
This week
Set up your own loop. Put three dates in your calendar: one every month for the share of income without hours, one in the summer for whatever your six weeks are, and one a year from now for the goal itself. For me, the first yearly beat is the decision in this episode.