Why do you do what you do for a living? If you say that you love what you do, you are lucky. Only a small minority can actually claim to be happy doing what they do.

Most people will say they do their job for the money. They would ideally want to do something different but they believe they have to stay and do more of the same to get that income. Here are the top 5 reasons you should not just chase those dollar bills:

1. You will never make enough

There will never be enough hours in the day to earn enough if you are not having your money work for you. There is only so much one individual can do in a job and this is what you will be paid for. You can only be paid for the work you are doing and never earn passive income. Being employed is very much “the more you put in, the more you get out” when in fact you could put less in and get more out if you only knew how to. Starting a business on the side, investing in the markets or in real estate, creating work that will generate royalties will allow you to make passive income. This will in turn free you up to focus on what you really enjoy in life. Your day job will not make you wealthy and will not open you up to new opportunities outside of your day to day tasks.

2. The debt spiral

Being in the rat race and keeping up with the Joneses will lead to the accumulation of debt. It starts with paying for a university degree to get a job. Once you have the job you want to buy a house. The house is bought for the bank’s money and you are now locked in to a lifetime of debt. On top of this you have financing for a new kitchen, the better car, the exotic vacations and obviously all kinds of spending on credit cards. As a rule of thumb, the higher the income an individual has , the higher the spending and the debt leveraging they will engage in. This becomes a vicious circle where you can end up just chasing your own tail by every month getting you pay check and straight away pay interest on your debt. It may feel like you are treading water at times when chasing the money. At the end of the day, your job is only a temporary solution for paying off your debt.

3. Taxation

However you look at it, employees will always have the highest tax burden in any society. The rate of tax is standardized and the people with jobs will invariably have to pay for the people without jobs. The taxes are taken both from your income and the payroll tax for your employer, effectively taxing you twice. If you were to own a business or be a full time investor, the tax rate would be lower and the system will allow you to make deductions and postpone paying tax. The tax system is designed like this to stimulate business and entrepreneurship. By demanding less tax, the government is in a sense rewarding the individual willing to take the risk of running their own business. As the employee takes less risk, they have to pay higher tax. If you are looking to make money from working, being an employee is the worst place you can be from a taxation point of view.

4. Risk of stagnation

When you are only chasing money, you are less likely to learn and develop in your job. If you are in the comfort zone and making the level of money that you feel is fair, you are on cruise control down the path of least resistance. You will be exposed to less business scenarios and environments, disabling you to develop the deep problem solving skills that you will need to make money outside of your job. Look at the people in your office and ask yourself who are going places and who the journeymen are. I would venture to guess that the former will be the learners and are enabling themselves to create their own destiny, the latter will run on empty and will run the risk of being laid off one day.

5. You become a slave to money

If you are controlled by money as opposed to controlling money, you will never be happy. In the real world, 9 out of 10 employees will work just in order to make ends meet. We lead our lives in fear of losing our jobs, not being able to provide for a family and so on. Fear is very destructive and will lead to risk aversion, meaning it will be very difficult to persuade you to take the plunge and let your money work for you. Instead, you are likely to be angry and blame others for the fact that you do not have enough money. Blaming your manager for not increasing your salary is only a projection of the anger you have toward yourself for not creating value on your own. By harnessing money and having it work for you, you will be emancipated and in control.

OK, I get it so what should I work for then?

Instead of working for money, you need to aim to get to a stage where money works for you. Have a look at the well-to-do, they would only take a job to acquire assets of some sort. This could mean acquiring the knowledge of a job/company/industry so they can replicate it. It could mean obtaining the financial intelligence to realize how to beat the system and become the person at the top shaving off profits from the system every day. You should be working to develop assets, be that real estate, stocks and shares or even investing in fine wines. Your aim should be to move up the value chain of life and change from being employed to being a business owner or investor. This way you can earn a passive income without any continuous effort.

Bottom line

This article is not about you quitting your job, merely to open your eyes and shift your expectations to different opportunities of wealth creation out there. If you are not happy in your job, you should consider learning how to invest your money or even how to start up a part time business that can lead to passive income. These actions are likely to be more lucrative than simply putting more work in your current job and hoping for a pay raise.

What are your thoughts on working for money vs. learning to create income yourself?

Jorgen Sundberg

The original Undercover Recruiter, after 7 years in tech recruiting Jorgen now runs Link Humans, a social media marketing agency in London.

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