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TWO REASONS:
(1) time is a currency
have you seen that movie with justin timberlake called IN TIME? it’s an analogy of how our society keeps us limited, to say the least, with the concept of time.
control your time, and you will control your income and your quality of life.
one of the biggest shams of the 20th/21st century (and there are many) is the fact that we still work 8/9 to 5.
Did you know it’s not even a law?
henry ford created the 8/9 to 5 during the industrial revolution. people used to work from sun up to sun down. his company, the first to make cars, was a major one in the industrial revolution, therefore, when he said he was changing the rules for his employees, all the sheep followed. mind you he was talked about very badly because he was an uneducated man but the rest of the world still ended up following what he did once they saw his success.
that’s where the 8/9 to 5 comes from. there is no law anywhere that says you have to work 9 to 5.
our public and free education (and plenty of private education too) is tailored to turn us into employees, not business owners nor entrepreneurs. john d. rockeller, a very important figure of the industrial revolution once said “I don’t want a nation of thinkers. I want a nation of workers.” at the time, the general education board (GEB) was a non-governmental organization designed to support higher education and was funded primarily by john d. rockefeller. so what do you think the board’s goal was?
you might say “ok but I have to go in those hours or I’ll get fired.”
granted, some jobs need to be done at certain times for the world to run; time- or shall I say clocks- were created for all of us to organize ourselves and not run around like chickens without a head. even though we still find a way to do that.
i say clocks instead of time because clocks are very real, yet time is an illusion. did you know there are places in the world where the people don’t use time? i spent some time reading and learning about those places some years ago. they had such a great lifestyle and seemed so amazing to me. i came across it when i was learning about blue zones. these are zones where people live the longest and are the healthiest in the world.
so if you’re in one of those jobs that require you to be there at the same time every day and you hate your job, or you simply would like to be self-employed then you have some serious work to do. self-employment is not for the faint of heart. you’re the only one responsible for making the income, not a boss. you’re responsible for your own schedule and self-motivation. every single thing falls on your shoulders.
anyone with the will power and ambition, among other things, can do it. you can become the ceo of your own life. it just takes hard work and a lot of dedication. learn what you need to do and do it!
in some professions, the transition is much easier than others. mine was accounting and that transition was easy once i did the research and learned what was offered in that realm.
however, let’s say it wasn’t easy for me in the accounting field to break out on my own. i like working with numbers, analyzing, organizing, calculating, formulating, adding, subtracting, etc., and I don’t want to change that. say i couldn’t become self employed doing that, let alone create a business out of it.
let’s say you’re in a career/field like that right now.
two years ago I found something that is in the vicinity of the career I chose. it allows me to be self-governed and self-employed if I want, in the sense that i can make a business out of it. i can continue working with numbers, analyzing, etc. it’s another area in finance i could’ve chosen that allowed me to work my own hours, work and earn as much or as little as I wanted to. that is day trading.
i could’ve learned it and done it when I wanted to quit being an employee instead of building my own accounting practice as I did back in 2005.
is there another career in your industry that you can pivot to to take ownership of your time?
fast forward to fifteen years later when i was bored, ready for a new challenge and ready to learn something new. i decided to learn how to day trade during the covid crisis in 2020. (i knew what it was about and that people were either going to suffer or thrive. i’ve learned about this kind of thing before but that’s a story for another time).
i dove right into it right after taking a course and loved it from the first minute. i got obsessed with it for about a year because i don’t do anything I really want to do halfway. I go at it with my all. it’s now a perfect side hustle/hobby that I enjoy doing when I feel like it. long-term investing is another animal and that is important for everyone to do as well but with day trading it’s…as my sister said to me, “you found the exciting and rebellious side of numbers!”
i sure did and i wish i would’ve done it so much sooner.
take a look at the field and/or industry you work in. is there anything you can do in that field or industry to become self employed, a consultant, a contractor? becoming a contractor/freelancer is one of the easiest ways to make your way to self-employment and eventually to business owner (those two are not the same thing as many believe). you decide what clients to work for, when you work, and how much you work. you control your own schedule.
you control your time.
in time, you’ll control how much you make and how much you work for it.
so many people i’ve come across are so afraid of being a contractor because they do not have taxes withheld from their pay. instead of a W2 they receive a 1099 form at the beginning of each year.
this fear is irrational and it serves those whom it benefits for you to continue being an employee.
that takes me to the second reason you’ll never be wealthy as an employee.
(2) taxes
did you know paying taxes is not an actual law? these two things I just covered that are so prevalent and enforced in our modern society were not passed into laws! yet we abide by them as if they are and we get in trouble if we don’t.
when you’re an employee you are not allowed to take advantage of the many write-offs and loopholes the “tax law” allows to self employeds, business owners, and corporations (i.e. the others). you give a predetermined % to the government and that is it. you don’t even get to see all of the money you earn. it’s taken from you before you can touch it. the others get to see and touch and USE ALL of the money they earn, all year long. they file and pay taxes once per year instead of throughout the year.
the thing is by tax time, they apply credits and write-offs available to them which reduce their tax due. there is a threshold for the others, depending on the type of entity they are, when they do have to start making estimated payments four times per year (each quarter) in predicting the money they’ll earn. every business starts at zero the first year and depending on their sales they adjust and pay those estimated taxes accordingly. for that to happen your income has to reach a certain level and you have to have few write-offs, credits and deductions. in other words, estimated taxes don’t apply to every business and it might take a bit for them to apply, if ever.
based on those two things alone- which are reasons enough- the first thing you must do if you want to be wealthy at some point is STOP BEING AN EMPLOYEE as soon as possible.
here are FOUR things that will get you out of the employee path and on your path to wealth:
#1 turn your current job into a business, a practice, a consultancy, a service or a product OR find another area in your field that you can do it with. don’t know where to start?
one word: GOOGLE.
all the information in the world is in that little device you hold every day that you probably are using to read this right now. get to researching your field/industry to learn about all your options. look up job ads, schools, training, online courses, and majors in universities to get an idea of what is possible. reading (language) is the best tool we were all given to progress.
#2 get to impressing whoever it is you gotta impress. whether that’s a boss, clients, or customers. why do i say boss if i’m telling you to stop being an employee? did you know that a lot of self-employment or consulting gigs begin with turning a boss into a first client?
set out to impress your clients or customers in the most honest and hard working way possible. go out of your way once you land them and keep them. shoot for rave reviews. it’s normal to not be able to charge a lot or even industry standards when you start in order to gain clients and build your reputation. think of the huge discount you’re extending as a marketing expense. you paid for that testimonial with your time now, in order to make more money later in less time.
do you see the seesaw between time and money? (I mention it in my post how to earn enough money to afford all the things you want in life).
#3 stop impressing the wrong people and become a minimalist. a minimalist is someone who practices minimalism:
definition of minimalism (according to google)
1 : a style or technique (as in music, literature, or design) that is characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity. 2 : minimal art.
stop spending your hard-earned money and time on people you’re trying to impress for whatever reason. that could include your own mother. those closest to you will be the most challenging to convince you’re on a path.
one quote i’ve lived my life by for over two decades is by leonardo da vinci. “simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication.”
it’s always resonated with me because i learned at a very young age that us humans love to complicate our lives. i’m guessing it gives us something to occupy ourselves with rather than contemplate and get to doing what it is we came here to do. it gives us an excuse to say we’re “busy.”
simplicity is bliss. i speak from experience. i have made it a point to simplify every area of my life for a very long time now. even if that meant cutting off certain people. some humans can be great but some can be plain awful to have around.
#4 invest
if you’re not investing you’re losing money. every. single. day. if your money is sitting in a savings or checking account, you’re losing money. even a money market account doesn’t keep up with inflation. i learned that around 18 years old. i read “get a financial life” when i was 18. i didn’t apply everything i read at that time, although i wish i would have, but it gave me a good starting point.
START INVESTING IMMEDIATELY! think of it as paying your future self. you’re paying your future self when you invest.
time is your biggest ally when it comes to taking risks, taking control of your time, investing and DESIGNING a great life. the earlier you start to change your situation the more time you have to adjust, alter, modify, perfect and repeat.
I do have to say you can do pretty well for yourself as an employee if you at least do #4, which is to invest a big chunk of the money you take home. You won’t be rich but you’ll retire ok. although, most who start doing really well with their investments stop being employees.
they took control of what their money does in time 🙂
stay tuned for my next post if you’re not investing you are losing money.
