A long, long time ago work was a privilege for the few. It was seen as being socially responsible to be working. Nowadays, however, work is a matter of survival. We work so that we can earn a living. Considering we work, on average, from age 25 to 65 that is forty years of our lives, which given the average life expectancy of humans today, 40 years is about half a lifetime. The odd thing is, however, that we seem to be gravitating towards spending more time working than living and the retirement age keeps increasing.
With the increase in hours worked one would expect that given that in a job we exchange time for money we should be better off than merely surviving – we should be thriving, but as I look around at the average person walking down a city street just before 9:00 in the morning I do not see immensely wealthy people; I see people who are in debt living from one pay check to the next; using coupons to pay for groceries; reading the menu in the restaurant from right to left; and cash has been replaced by a shiny piece of plastic with your name on it which boldly says – I’ll use credit and will pay this off later. These people are not thriving.
There are three common beliefs that get you into this situation:
- Thinking that eventually we will conquer the debt – a pay rise or change in interest rates or even a lottery win will save us in the nick of time. The truth is that inflation and interest rates are rising faster than pay rises.
- Thinking that someone will bail us out – perhaps that retirement fund will come through and we will be wealthy upon retirement or that a pension plan will keep us in the money when we are elderly. The truth is that you have placed trust in money managers who have no accountability for building you wealth to retire on – they get paid either way. They win; you lose. Don’t depend on your government – it is more broke than you are.
- Thinking that your job will let you build wealth – if you work for a private company the only ones who build wealth from a job are the business owners you work for; if you work for a public company it is the shareholders who are getting rich whilst you do all the work.
You need to change your beliefs and realize that if you want to build wealth you need to take responsibility for it and begin now. Who care more about your financial freedom more than you? Nobody! It does not matter whether you are fresh out of school, due to retire next year or somewhere in between… NOW is the time to act. Do you want to spend more time earning a living or would you like to enjoy life more and live an earning?
What I propose is that you contemplate starting an online business. It is not as difficult nor as costly to start as you may think and, whilst it is not for everybody, the average person can use it as a launchpad for building wealth and, or as I like to say – for living an earning.
