The basic idea of a portfolio life is that instead of
thinking of your work as a monolithic activity, what if you
chose to see it as the complex group of interests, passions,
and activities it is? And what if instead of identifying with a
job description, you began to see the whole mass of things
you do as one portfolio of activity?
This idea was first coined by Charles Handy in his book
The Age of Unreason. In the book, Handy lays out five
different types of work that make up your portfolio. They
are: fee work, salary work, homework, study work, and gift
work.
Fee and salary work are the only types of paid work and
are somewhat self-explanatory: fee work means trading
hours for dollars and a salary is a fixed income based on a
job description. The unpaid work, however, is just as
significant as the paid work; it’s just different.
Homework is work that you do at home, like mowing
the lawn or spending time with your family. Study work is
any intentional education that contributes to any work you
do in the future, like reading a book or taking a vocational
class. And gift work is any volunteer experience you might
do, including giving your time to a local homeless shelter or
even taking someone out to lunch to give them helpful
career advice.^3
Handy then encourages what he calls “portfolio people”
to organize their time not based on hours in a week, but
rather days in a year. For example, if you need to make
$50,000 per year and can figure out a way to make $250 a