Time Freedom: Rethinking Your Work and Money to Create a Life You Love Now book review by Trevor Blondeel
| Brian Herriot, 2026
What’s It All About?
Advanced readers sometimes get the opportunity to preview a book before it hits the shelves, and fortunately I was able to do that with Time Freedom: Rethinking Your Work and Money to Create a Life You Love Now. I met Brian Herriot through my author journey, and while he is a great guy, that is not why I’m recommending this book. I’m promoting it because it had a transformational impact on our life and how we think about time and money.
In manufacturing, conversations about our working years almost always center around retirement. We ask questions like:
- When can I retire
- How comfortable do I need to be?
- How much money do I need saved?
The assumption is that freedom comes later. Time Freedom challenges that thinking. It invites us to design a life with more flexibility now, without needing a fortune first.
Now that I’m in my 50s, I find myself thinking more frequently about how to know when I can retire. It wasn’t until I read Time Freedom, understood the concepts, and used the online calculator that I began to feel clarity. The book walks you through gathering real data and then lets you test scenarios by adjusting the numbers. For the first time, I could see clearly whether I was on track.
Favorite Quotes
“Chasing maximum wealth delays true freedom.”
Biggest Takeaway
One of the most impactful concepts in the book is the distinction between two types of money personalities:
- Money Managers – those who carefully guard and plan their money to ensure safety and long-term security.
- Money Makers – those who focus more on generating income and trust that they will continue to create more.
My wife, Diana, is a Money Manager. I am a Money Maker. Until we both read the book and worked through the Time Freedom calculator, we didn’t fully understand that dynamic.
The process allowed me to forecast what I believe our business will produce — not just based on optimism or gut feeling, but with actual numbers. Diana, in turn, could see clearly that we would be okay. It reduced her stress about whether we had enough and replaced uncertainty with clarity.
The greatest benefit was the alignment it created between us. We are having better conversations. We understand each other’s concerns. We are more unified in our expectations and plans. I truly wish we had this tool and these conversations years ago. But I am grateful we have them now.
Bonus Information
Brian was also a recent guest on the Manufacturing Greatness podcast, where we discussed how manufacturing may need to rethink how it approaches the workforce. Instead of rigid full-time models, could we explore four-hour shifts? Saturday-only crews? Collaborative transitions from full-time to part-time for those who want or need more time now? Rather than losing experienced employees abruptly, could we create flexible pathways that preserve knowledge and ease transitions?
Through discussions of questions like these, it became clear how the concepts in Time Freedom align with where manufacturing needs to go.
Listen to Brian Herriot on Manufacturing Greatness here.