Voyagner

Joel Brown (@no_fixed_office)recently asked on Twitter how others find the self discipline to give up their day job and actually do the work required to replace that income. He has tried before but found it easier just to get a job again.

I’m for the moment stuck in my day job too, burdened by debt, I’m trying to find what it is I can do to severe the tie to an income that is based on how many hours I’m in the office instead of how much value I provide. I know Joel and I are heading in similar directions in how we want to perform our work and what we want to get out of it. But why isn’t a career enough?

The economics are not in your favor.

Financially speaking trading time for money isn’t a smart way to earn your income, regardless of the time and effort you put in, at the end of the week your wage will be the same. If you are self employed however the time and effort you put in ‘should’ be reflected in your profit margin. A job is the easy way to go, not the best way.

Your employer pays a lot more for you time than what end up in your pocket, there’s tax, retirement funds, health cover and more for them to pay. So you don’t take home anywhere near what they actually deem a fair price for your time and what you do get to take home is devalued because you have your own work related expenses you have to deduct from it. Commute, meals, clothing, taxes and your personal retirement fund. Which mean although you are being paid $25 an hour your effective rate might be more like $20 an hour.

Part of having financial freedom is  being smart about how you earn, spend and invest your money, you should always look for better ways and there are many better ways to earn than in a career.

I used to enjoy my job, so what happened?

My career limits my experience, I’ve been doing the same type of things for the last 5+ years and after that long it starts to wear thin, the last thing you do is look forward to your day and you become disinterested in learning new skills. However, while it’s easy to complain about a job, doing the work to escape it often requires more effort than you are currently putting into the work you do now.

Everyone pursues freedom, or at least we hope to, pursuing a career though is the fastest route you could take to giving it up, you lock in your hours, your paycheck and often your skill set and then that’s it, if you decide you want more or less of any of those things and you will either have to plea with your boss for it or quit and go through the process of finding a new job that will hopefully give you what you are looking for.

How many people do you know who do little more than wake up go to work, return home, eat, sleep and repeat? Do they hit the town or veg out on the weekend as a way to release the stress of the work week? Do they upgrade their car, clothes, house and other gadgetry whenever their pay increases? This is the Rat Race, Keeping up with the Jones’, life on autopilot. It’s no way to live.

Careers are sold as the only way to contribute something worthwhile to society and that is a downright lie. For some people it works but for many others it will become nothing more than a life sentence, clock in, clock out. They’ll be doing it until retirement, and even that is a scam.

Do you really want to wait until the years are fading away to enjoy the best and most free years of your life?

Or do you want to have those best years when you are still young, full of dreams and have a real lust for life? This is why I’ve made the decision to never retire or at least the idea is that I will continue working as long as I need to so that I can enjoy live now and not delay it until I’m in what would probably be my 70s the way things are going.

Even if you love your career it’s possible working for yourself you could enjoy it even more and get more out of it, if you decide to retire you’ll have more than just a thanks and hope your retirement fund is big enough.

You see the whole culture of work and career is that if you do your service you’ll and do it well you’ll be paid accordingly and you’ll feel fulfilled for doing it. In reality this is true for only a very small percentage of the workforce.

“If you don’t design your own life plan, you’ll fall into someone else’s. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” – Jim Rohn