Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck . . .
It gets old, doesn’t it? I remember paying just enough to keep my electricity on while wondering how I was going to come up with enough money for something to eat, other than ramen noodles or a bean burrito from Taco Bell, for dinner.
Thursdays always sucked because payday was Friday, and I was usually out of money by then. Worse than that, the money was “spent” before I even got it…. Living paycheck to paycheck is not a way to live, but so many people are “living” like that today.
It did get better for me (in a way) because I got a “good” job with a decent salary that allowed me to live a bit more comfortable of a life. And maybe I’m just warped, but “comfortable” just felt like mediocrity to me. Even though I was making a bit more than most of my friends, I felt like I was in a rut.
I sometimes felt like there was no way out and even got to the point where I thought this is just how life is. You get up when your alarm goes off, race to get ready so you can get out the door to sit in your car for an hour going about 10 mph with thousands of other rats, then you make it into your “office”. My “office” had no windows and I shared it with two other people. I’d sit at my desk in front of my computer wishing I was somewhere else.
Thankfully, lunch came around and I could get out of my cube and go eat with the other rats and pretend to be happy. After another few hours in my cell… I mean office… it was time to go home!
So about 6PM I’m back in my car to sit in another hour of traffic. Finally, it’s 7PM and I’m treating myself to a beer and a pizza. I would sit in front of the idiot box and try to forget about how mediocre my life was. I’d waste about 3 hours there living vicariously through the people on tv. Then I’d go to bed and start it all over again the next day, constantly thinking about the weekend. What a freaking waste of a life!
Are You Ready to Get Out of the Rat Race?
What sucks about the rat race is not only do you barely have enough money to make ends meet, you’re working a job that doesn’t inspire you for people who have lives you don’t really want yourself, and moving closer and closer to a life unfulfilled. It sucks! This farside cartoon sums it up…
Keep in mind, I’m not only talking about corporate employees when I refer to the rat race, I’m talking about everyone who trades time for money. It could be janitors, factory workers, computer programmers, dentists, doctors and lawyers! All of these professions require you to be actively working to produce an income. Obviously, some of these professions make more than others, but without working each day, you will not get paid.
How do I go from living paycheck to paycheck to firing my boss?
You’re thinking, “I’m convinced, you had me at rush hour! So what do I do?” Well, I was blessed to have some people around me (not often but often enough) who were entrepreneurs. They gave me the inspiration to one day be able to “own my life”.
Luckily, I got laid off from my job and decided that never again was I going to allow someone else to control my financial destiny!
The rest is history…. I’ve broken it down into some steps here so you too can stop living paycheck to paycheck!
Steps You Should Take So You Can Fire Your Boss
1. Follow Your Passion – If you’re going to go at it on your own, you should definitely go into an industry you love. That industry should include a way to have your money work for you. This includes real estate, network marketing (with residual compensation), internet marketing, or any other entrepreneurial endeavor that will allow you to create an income that is not based on you actually working forever to keep the income flowing.
You need to think about what you’re most passionate about and find a business that will help you pursue that passion. If you’re in to health & wellness, find or create a business around that. If you LOVE marketing, create a business online where you can pursue that passion. Some of my passions are travel, speaking & training and leadership so I chose to build a network marketing company with travel as it’s product. I also love marketing so I’ve run various internet marketing companies for over a decade now.
Make sure that whatever you chose, it’s not something you’ll get bored with in a few years. My criteria for evaluating my entrepreneurial endeavors is this question… will I still be wanting to be involved in this 20 years from now? If the answer is no, keep looking.
2. LEARN, LEARN, LEARN! – In whatever business you chose, decide you will become an expert. If you chose to be involved in internet marketing, as an example, find the people who have had success and study them like crazy… read every ebook they have, buy their courses, go to as many seminars as you can.
If you’re in network marketing, immediately commit to read at least a dozen books on network marketing. Go to every event your company puts on. Find a mentor who is financially incentivized to work with you and do everything they tell you to do.
Here’s the reality about most wanna-be entrepreneurs….
They have completely unrealistic expectations for what they’re willing to actually do.
If I told you I was going to be a doctor but I was NOT going to go to medical school, what would you think about me? You’d think I was an idiot, wouldn’t you?
If that’s true, how big of an idiot are the people who decide they’re going to be wealthy network marketers but never go to network marketing school? (or internet marketing school for that matter)
The bottom line is, if you want to get good at anything, you have to feed your mind.
“If you empty your wallet into your mind, your mind will fill up your wallet.”
3. Create A Game Plan and Execute – Determine how many hours a week you can devote to your new business, exactly what you need to be doing specifically and stick to it just like you would stick to a job.
The great thing about starting a business on the side, is you can do it anytime you want. The worst part about it is… you can do it anytime you want – which often times ends up being NONE of the time! Schedule revenue-generating activity in your calendar and stick to it!
Have an impatient patience with yourself. I know, I know… “Impatient patience?”
Here’s what I mean… have a MASSIVE sense of urgency but be patient with yourself.
If you don’t work with a sense of urgency, things don’t get done. Life will always get in the way if you let it. If you’re lackadaisical toward your business, you will have lackadaisical results. Get fired up and work as if you’re constantly on a deadline.
At the same time, don’t beat yourself up. EVERY great entrepreneur I’ve ever met has gone through huge challenges starting their business. We’ve all wanted to quit at times. (I wanted to quit hundreds of times!) My businesses have never grown as fast as I’ve wanted them to and it took me FIVE years working as an entrepreneur to get to a full time income. If I hadn’t been patient with myself, I would have given up after the first year.
Keep the end in mind. It’s common that people overestimate how much they’ll make in the beginning of their new business venture…. but they also tend to underestimate how much they can make 3-5 years later. Even if it’s just $100 a month of passive income to start, get started. This is where many people “think” they know how to get out of the rat race but never get out. They dismiss the small $100 a month as not a big enough step, so they never take that first step. And because they never take that first step, they never get out of the rat race!
Keep repeating #2 and #3 until your passive income exceeds your monthly expenses. Once your monthly passive income rises to a level in which it can pay all of your monthly expenses, you are officially out of the rat race and are free to fire your boss! Goodbye living paycheck to paycheck!
Make life an adventure!
