Four Financial Plans – Which One Is Going To Give You Lifestyle and Freedom?
In this article we are going to take a look at the good and bad of each financial plan and hopefully you will see a way to take control of your own financial future. Four Financial Plans – Which One is Going To Give You Lifestyle and Freedom?
There are 4 ways people are trying to make a living:
Job
College
Self-Employment
B Business Model
Job
Is there anything such as a “good job” or has that become an oxymoron? There are not too many secure jobs left. Companies are going out of business or overseas at an alarming rate. Small businesses are being bought out or forced out of business by the big businesses.
What is a job?
We have been sold a bill of goods that if you get a good job and work hard all your life you will achieve financial freedom. A job is a 45 year plan to hopefully work 45 years and hopefully put enough money in Social Security to live on when you retire.
Most people end up working for someone else all their lives, giving them the best 8-12 hours a day for their jobs, and then go home beat and discouraged and give their families a few hours of what is supposed to be “family time”, but it is usually “watch TV and ignore the family time.”
How many people do you know that have had a job all their life that they hated, but they were willing to do what they didn’t want to do all their lives, just to put food on the table for their family?
A job helps you to make just enough to pay the bills if you are lucky. Most families are now two-income families and most people are still not able to pay their bills, especially during this recession where we are watching our U.S. dollar deflate right before our eyes.
You get to work for 45+ years and stay frustrated all your life. This affects your health, wealth and relationships, not to mention it basically makes you a slave to your boss. No matter what your profession, you are making subsistence wages and will never get past the income ceiling on your job.
If you continue in your job and do not do anything else, you will continue to struggle financially all your life. That is if you are lucky enough to keep it!
95% of all people live paycheck to paycheck until they die. Is that any way to live?
95% of all people are either dead, disabled or broke by the time they are 65. That should tell us that the job model no longer works.
College
It used to be that if you went to college, you could get a good high-paying job. That was then. That is when we were in the industrial age.
Now we are in the information age.
You spend $50,000 to get an education that is supposed to get you a “good job.” Now they get out of school and they owe more than their annual salary will be, plus they are going to work for someone else for the next 45 years.
Over half of the college graduates won’t get a job in the field they went to school for. Over half won’t even get interviewed for a job in the field they were going to school for. Yet they get out of school and have $50,000 debt hanging over their head, or else their parents borrow from their home.
I’m not knocking education. If you want to be a doctor go to medical school. I’m talking about 18 year old kids going to college with no clue what they want to do with their lives. It’s just the thing to do.
How many college grads are working at Walmart or McDonald’s because they can’t find a job in their field?
Self-Employment
You have huge start-up costs and overhead when you start a traditional bricks and mortar business. Then instead of having one boss, every customer is your boss. Besides that you will work 12 -16 hours a day and always be struggling just to survive.
You only make what you can make, and when you are gone, so is your business! Also the incidence of heart attack is doubled with a small business owner.
Another thing is you end up training your competition. You teach someone all you know, and they end up going out and starting their own company and competing against you.
Even if you decide to start a consulting company for example: you might be making a lot of money but it might require you to be away from your family a lot. Your relationships suffer because you don’t have quality time with your family. When you are not consulting, you aren’t making any money.
B Business Model – Leverage
A B Business owner leverages a system to gain financial system is his/her ticket to freedom! If you are going to own a business, own a business that leverages with a system.
I had the privilege of hearing Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s speak at a leadership seminar several years ago. One thing that still sticks in my mind today is “the key to wealth is making money while you sleep.”
You might decide to buy a franchise. This will take thousands of dollars, and you still end up working harder than if you just had a job working for someone else. Even with a franchise you can still lose it all. You can end up losing millions of dollars.
The presentations you see are designed to get you excited and build the dream of living a life in luxury while others do the work. Wrong! It takes work. A lot of hard work to make any business succeed.
You have overhead:
Employee expenses
Payroll taxes
Insurance
Advertising
Franchise fees
Rent office space
Utilities
Vehicle expenses
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.
You have monthly expenses whether you are able to bring in money or not. You have to pay employees whether you want to or not. You must pay your employees before you pay yourself.
How can you start a B Business without spending thousands or millions to get a franchise up and running?
Making money is not easy unless you have the right vehicle, the right system, the right mentor and you must implement a plan of action. I would recommend starting out part-time and building your business in addition to having your job. Unless you are a superstar, you are not going to make thousands of dollars a year your first couple of months in any new business.
Look for a network marketing company with an exceptional pay plan, excellent leadership and a system to build communities and develop leaders. In my opinion I have found the very best of both worlds! I actually have two B businesses that make me money while I sleep and I am involved in leadership training for a leadership development service provider.