We have our priorities backwards in our current model of employment, where the only way we earn an income is by trading dollars for hours. It doesn’t matter if you are a Doctor, a Lawyer, a highly paid Corporate Executive, or a Server in a restaurant. . . if you want to be paid, you give them your hours. If you want more dollars, give up more of your time. What happens if you want more free time? You give up some of your dollars!

This model is based 100% on your own efforts, and if you don’t work you don’t get paid. In other words, if you have to be there to get paid, you are trading dollars for hours.

What happens if your health or the health of a loved one takes a turn for the worse, and you can’t work for a while? How will you support your family’s essential needs, not to mention the dreams of those you love, if the only way you can earn money is by exchanging time for it?

Or what about attending your kid’s sporting events or being home for their sick days? Or wanting more than 14 days a year vacation?

Most people have bought into what is nicknamed the 40/ 40/ 40 plan. That is, to work for 40 hours a week, for 40 years, and retire on 40 percent of their income. This seems normal to most people, as it is how we are brought up as a society. For most people, this is their Plan A.

Working 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, for 40 years equals a total of 80,000 hours of working to reach the end goal of “retirement” and hopefully having enough passive income at the age of 65 to not have to work for the remainder of your days. 

With this model, you have a boss, a tightly managed schedule, no residual income developed, and limited growth opportunity. This model might earn you a living, but never a fortune or time freedom. 

Beyond the financial aspect of employment, this plan is filled with people who are unsatisfied and unhappy with their work. According to a 2013 article in Forbes magazine, dissatisfied employees outnumber happy employees 2: 1, with only 13 percent of people who feel actively engaged in their position. 

Not only are we all searching for ways to earn more money, but we are searching for ways to contribute, engage, and have meaningful existence in a field we are passionate about. Job security in this paradigm— Plan A— is not what it used to be. 

With the average person staying at their job for only 4.1 years, you are likely to have 7 to 10 jobs in your lifetime. Most companies are looking out for their bottom line and for ways to maximize their profits, often cutting expenses and fat around the edges, which often ends up being employees.

In 2015, Burger King acquired the Canadian coffee tycoon Tim Hortons in a $ 11 billion deal, which led to corporate downsizing inside the Tim Hortons franchise. The result: downsizing close to 20 percent of the staff, including pregnant women and staff who had been with the chain for 30 years. 

With job security being virtually nonexistent, we would be wise to have a financial plan that is not tied to our current job. If this is our Plan A, then wouldn’t it be wise to have a Plan B, a backup plan. The real way to earn an income without trading our most valuable commodity— time— is to develop residual or passive income. This requiresLeverage.

I’m sure the biggest question at this point is, “How?” How do I make this shift? How do I create Leverage? How is this even possible and why have I not been taught about this in school? That indeed is the million-dollar question, and the key to freedom. It is time for us to have a better escape plan.

Adam Green, 25 to Life: Jailbreak Your 9-5 & Escape to Financial Freedom

In Working a Network Marketing or Home Based Business VS a 8-5 Job Part 2 we will learn about how to Leverage our time for money instead of Trading our time for dollars. To read Part 2 click here: