RPF0283-9_Benefits_of_a_Job
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00:00:31.400 | This episode of Radical Personal Finance will be going out on a Friday, but most likely you're hearing me on a Monday morning,
00:00:38.500 | which means for most of you, you're on your way to work, which I think is a marvelous place to be headed.
00:00:46.200 | And today I'm going to share with you nine specific and important benefits of having a job.
00:00:57.000 | Time to count your blessings and be grateful.
00:01:15.600 | Welcome to the Radical Personal Finance podcast.
00:01:17.900 | My name is Joshua Sheets and I'm your host.
00:01:19.500 | Thank you for being with me today.
00:01:21.000 | I've threatened to do this show for a while and today out of the doldrums of entrepreneurship for me,
00:01:29.500 | I finally am creating it and I hope you find it useful because we're going to talk about the amazing benefits of a job.
00:01:36.700 | Great place to go when you're broke to work and a job is a great way to work.
00:01:48.400 | On this show, I have a tendency to talk a lot about entrepreneurship.
00:01:52.200 | It's a common theme of the show and frankly of much of the success literature that you read about.
00:01:59.700 | As I was preparing my outline for the show,
00:02:01.400 | I was just thinking about how this is really everywhere in a lot of the success advice and money advice and things that you hear and for good reason.
00:02:10.000 | This show might be part one of a four-part series talking about the concept from Robert Kiyosaki's books regarding the cash flow quadrant.
00:02:19.000 | If you're not familiar with the concept, he breaks out the different approaches to income with number one being the E,
00:02:27.000 | the employee quadrant, number two, the S being the self-employed person, number three, the business owner, the B quadrant, number four, the I quadrant.
00:02:37.900 | I might do a standalone show on the benefits and the advantages and disadvantages of each of those quadrants.
00:02:44.900 | But really what his whole point in doing that cash flow quadrant and really what the point of it seems like all success gurus is,
00:02:52.600 | is that being an employee is a bad thing and I've probably talked a lot about that even in this show.
00:02:58.600 | It's easy to overplay the benefits of entrepreneurship.
00:03:03.600 | Now, I am firmly convinced that for me at this point in my life, it is the best path.
00:03:08.100 | I am enjoying the benefits and the advantages.
00:03:10.100 | Everything that I've talked about in past shows about the efficiency of entrepreneurship, the income possibilities of entrepreneurship,
00:03:18.600 | the freedom of a lifestyle that can come with some type of entrepreneurial endeavor, all of those things are true.
00:03:24.600 | And yet what about the opposite side?
00:03:28.600 | Because there are a lot of benefits of being an employee.
00:03:32.600 | There are many, many, many benefits.
00:03:34.600 | And what my fear is that oftentimes I probably overplay the benefits of entrepreneurship because it's a way of encouraging me.
00:03:44.600 | It's a way of me encouraging myself as I work through the difficult times of entrepreneurship because it's not easy.
00:03:51.600 | And I'll tell you what, I think all of us, when I've worked jobs in the past where I was being paid for my time,
00:03:57.600 | there were times when I'd look across and see how much greener the grass was over in the field of entrepreneurship.
00:04:02.600 | And there are times where working as an entrepreneur, I look over and I see how green the grass is in the world of employment.
00:04:11.600 | So let's start with reason number one.
00:04:13.600 | Here's the beautiful thing about going and getting a job.
00:04:17.600 | If you're listening to the sound of my voice, most of you listening are within the United States of America, some in Canada, some in parts of Western Europe.
00:04:25.600 | If you're in Australia, that's the majority of the listeners of this show.
00:04:29.600 | Every single one of you within those major economies can go out and with nothing more than your physical labor, you can build income.
00:04:43.600 | You can start with nothing, absolutely nothing, nothing more than your physical labor, your ability to put two feet in front of another,
00:04:53.600 | your ability to say, "Welcome to Walmart," your ability to say, "Welcome to McDonald's. Can I take your order?"
00:05:01.600 | All of those things are just the basic levels of entry.
00:05:05.600 | And with nothing more than that, you can turn that physical human capital that you have into money.
00:05:11.600 | And that is amazing.
00:05:14.600 | Because I'll tell you what, if you've never traveled in more challenging parts of the world, I would encourage you to do so because there are hundreds of millions of people, perhaps billions,
00:05:27.600 | but definitely hundreds of millions of people around the world who would be thrilled for the opportunity to get a job.
00:05:34.600 | It's very easy in our modern Western culture to dismiss the benefits of having a job.
00:05:40.600 | We are incredibly privileged to live in the societies in which we live, in the era in which we live, and there are so many people throughout the world who would give anything just for that foothold in.
00:05:53.600 | We talk about 5 percent unemployment and 10 percent unemployment.
00:05:57.600 | We dicker back and forth with one another about what's the true rate of unemployment, what's the actual rate of unemployment based upon which government statistics we're going to believe.
00:06:05.600 | We dicker back and forth, but the reality is in the United States of America, even if we reached, what, the highest during the Great Depression of 25 to 30 percent unemployment, if my memory is correct, even when we reach that, it's still not so bad.
00:06:19.600 | I have friends in other parts of the world. Notably, I'm thinking of some friends of mine who live in Nigeria.
00:06:24.600 | And the employment rate in their country is in the single digits, not the unemployment rate, the employment rate.
00:06:36.600 | What would you do if you lived in an economy where one out of 10 of people in your friends and family circles had a job?
00:06:46.600 | It would change your perspective on life a little bit.
00:06:49.600 | And I'll tell you I often feel a little bit guilty when I look at all of the wonderful jobs around me that I could go and get and I think about, "Joshua, why are you not doing that work?"
00:06:57.600 | Well, because I'm chasing my dream.
00:06:59.600 | I feel a little bit guilty just because I feel like I should appreciate those opportunities that are there more.
00:07:06.600 | The beautiful thing about getting a job is you can earn money doing a job even if you don't have an idea, if you don't have any special skills.
00:07:14.600 | You could just go get a job.
00:07:17.600 | And you can start at the absolute bottom and you can work your way up.
00:07:23.600 | Did you know that in the United States of America, if you're going to go and take a job, you're going to be earning at least $7.25 per hour of work?
00:07:34.600 | That means that if you can work a 6, 7, 8, or 9 hour a day, you could be earning as much as $50 or $60 a day.
00:07:43.600 | Can you imagine how much money that is compared to the world population?
00:07:49.600 | Just think of what you can do starting with $50 or $60 a day.
00:07:52.600 | Now, I know that unfortunately, the federal minimum wage laws exclude some of you from the workforce because perhaps somebody listening to this podcast, perhaps your labor is not worth $7.25 an hour.
00:08:06.600 | And you would be more likely – you should be competing at $4 or $5 an hour.
00:08:11.600 | Sorry about that.
00:08:12.600 | Let's do the best we can.
00:08:13.600 | But did you know that if you're going to be able to get a job, you might be able to make $50 in a day?
00:08:19.600 | Now, here's what's even better.
00:08:21.600 | Did you know that that's just the starting place?
00:08:25.600 | Yes, I know I'm putting this kind of motivational tone on.
00:08:28.600 | I'm just trying to put things into perspective because when you look on a global or even national basis at the sheer amount of opportunity that exists for those who have nothing, no advantages in life.
00:08:40.600 | Other than their physical health, no start in life that even the most underprivileged among us can go out and get a start somewhere.
00:08:50.600 | It's really amazing.
00:08:52.600 | If you're going to go and start a business, it's fine for us to talk about business.
00:08:55.600 | But you need an idea of some kind regarding a business.
00:09:01.600 | You don't particularly need an idea about a job.
00:09:04.600 | You just need to find some kind of listing of categories of jobs that you can go and do.
00:09:08.600 | Whether that's classified ads in a newspaper or Craigslist listings of some kind, you can just go and see what jobs are being offered.
00:09:14.600 | Employers all over the place are desperate to pay you money.
00:09:18.600 | You need special skills that are not taught in order to go and start a business.
00:09:24.600 | All of most of you who have gone through the mainstream system of government schooling in your primary and secondary education, perhaps have a college degree, you've been taught your entire life by employees.
00:09:37.600 | So you've got everything you need to know about how to be an employee.
00:09:43.600 | The world of entrepreneurship, however, requires a bunch of unique and special skills, and those skills take time to learn.
00:09:48.600 | They're tough.
00:09:50.600 | But you don't need them to go get a job.
00:09:51.600 | You've already got what you need.
00:09:53.600 | You don't need money to start.
00:09:55.600 | Are there businesses that you could start without money?
00:09:57.600 | Sure, I think there are.
00:09:59.600 | But guess what?
00:10:00.600 | It's a whole lot easier to have a little bit of money to start a business.
00:10:03.600 | You can go and get jobs without any money.
00:10:06.600 | And you just simply get paid for your time and labor involved.
00:10:10.600 | Yes, if you've made it this far, you know this is not the normal tone that I take on the show.
00:10:16.600 | But I'm trying to drive home the idea that the ability to go out and get a job and start with nothing but your physical labor and earn money is truly amazing.
00:10:27.600 | We should recognize it for what it is.
00:10:29.600 | It's an opportunity.
00:10:31.600 | A couple of interesting resources, I was thinking about this, and I went and dug up a book that I had read in the past.
00:10:38.600 | And I would suggest it for you.
00:10:40.600 | It's fascinating, but it's a book.
00:10:42.600 | The author's name is Adam Shepard.
00:10:44.600 | The title of the book is called "Scratch Beginnings, Me $25 and the Search for the American Dream."
00:10:50.600 | The book was written back in 2010, told the story of a young man who graduated from college, and he decided he had read some other books.
00:10:57.600 | The most famous one was a book called "Nickel and Dimed," on not getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich, I guess.
00:11:07.600 | Barbara Ehrenreich, a well-known book about how it's impossible to get ahead in the United States of America today.
00:11:12.600 | And he decided, "Well, I'm going to go out and get started, and let's see if I can do it."
00:11:15.600 | So he got on a train, went to Charleston, South Carolina, a city where he knew nobody.
00:11:20.600 | And he decided that his story would be that he had a high school diploma and nothing else.
00:11:26.600 | He didn't pay tribute to his college degree.
00:11:28.600 | He didn't use any of his connections.
00:11:29.600 | He took an empty duffel bag, $25 in his pocket, and that was it.
00:11:33.600 | And he took the train into Charleston, South Carolina, spent the night at a homeless shelter, and little by little the story chronicles a narrative format, his path forward, where over the course of the year, he was able through hard work and discipline and scraping and a lot of difficult experiences.
00:11:51.600 | He was able to get out of the homeless – get a job, get out of the homeless shelter.
00:11:56.600 | He was able to buy a car.
00:11:58.600 | He was able to save some money.
00:11:59.600 | I think ultimately when he quit the experiment less than a year later, he was able to save about $5,000 to get started.
00:12:05.600 | And it was really a fascinating story.
00:12:10.600 | He chronicled a world that few of us are ever part of.
00:12:14.600 | Very few of us have ever been totally homeless and destitute.
00:12:17.600 | Very few of us have ever spent the night at a homeless shelter.
00:12:20.600 | Very few of us have ever spent time getting to know people who are in the dregs of society currently.
00:12:27.600 | And it was a very interesting story.
00:12:29.600 | What struck me about reading it was that some people can still do it.
00:12:34.600 | He could start with $25 and wind up being able to save thousands of dollars.
00:12:42.600 | If you want to be thankful for the job that you have, go read his book.
00:12:46.600 | I'll link to it in the show notes for today's show.
00:12:49.600 | But go read his book if you want to be thankful for it.
00:12:52.600 | But let's go on.
00:12:53.600 | Reason number two of benefit, one of the amazing benefits of a job.
00:12:57.600 | If you work a job, the work that you have to do is clear cut and it's predetermined by someone else.
00:13:05.600 | This is a truly great benefit.
00:13:10.600 | I'll tell you what I find one of the most difficult things about entrepreneurship is, especially at this point, I am firmly in the self-employed category.
00:13:18.600 | Of a business.
00:13:21.600 | But at this point in time, it's exhausting because not only do I have to do the work, but I have to figure out what is the work that should be done.
00:13:30.600 | It's one of the most difficult things to do.
00:13:34.600 | We commonly talk about all of the reasons not to get a job.
00:13:39.600 | In preparing for this show, I did a search.
00:13:43.600 | I asked the duck of – and I've typed in reasons to get a job.
00:13:47.600 | And I was just thinking, what have other people said about reasons to get a job?
00:13:52.600 | Every single one of the top ten articles that came up from my duck, duck, go search were ten reasons not to get a job, ten reasons why you should never get a job, 72 reasons not to get a job.
00:14:07.600 | Really remarkable.
00:14:09.600 | But nobody – I couldn't find many articles about all the challenges of entrepreneurship.
00:14:14.600 | But if I were to go and work for somebody else today, I would find that to be easy because somebody else is simply telling me what to do, and I can go ahead and do it.
00:14:25.600 | Working a job, I would dare say – and some jobs are more tiring than others.
00:14:31.600 | Some jobs are more difficult than others.
00:14:34.600 | But if you take the stress of being an employee and add on to it the stress and challenge of being an entrepreneur in charge of that same business, you would find there to be much more stress with the entrepreneur role.
00:14:50.600 | Reason number three, benefit number three, when working a job, you get paid quickly.
00:14:56.600 | If you're at the basic lowest levels of society and the lowest paid jobs, you get paid at the end of the day.
00:15:04.600 | When I hire day laborers, I go down and hire day laborers to do manual labor.
00:15:09.600 | I pay them cash at the end of the day.
00:15:10.600 | Done.
00:15:11.600 | They get cash every single day.
00:15:13.600 | Sometimes you get paid weekly.
00:15:15.600 | As you move up the scale, a lot of times you get paid weekly.
00:15:19.600 | Or the longest you're going to wait, almost anybody with a job in the United States of America is half a month.
00:15:24.600 | Wait till the 15th to the 30th.
00:15:26.600 | That means that it could be two or three weeks maximum between the time that you start working and your first paycheck.
00:15:33.600 | That is a huge benefit because in entrepreneurship, sometimes you don't get paid for years.
00:15:41.600 | Sometimes you pour your heart and soul into something for years, and then you get a little tiny paycheck.
00:15:48.600 | Then you get a much bigger paycheck.
00:15:51.600 | A pet peeve of mine is to read articles, and I just saw one yesterday, "How I Made $40,000 in a Day," or "How I Made" –
00:16:00.600 | these entrepreneurial stories about starting some course or some workshop, and it's all a bunch of junk.
00:16:06.600 | If you ever read an article that says, "How I Made $50,000 in a Day," or "How I Made $40,000 in a Month,"
00:16:12.600 | and somebody is talking about their business, it is absolute bunk.
00:16:16.600 | Because you didn't do it in a day.
00:16:19.600 | You didn't even do it in a month.
00:16:21.600 | You did it in all of the days and the months and the weeks and the years before that.
00:16:27.600 | That's what's never talked about.
00:16:31.600 | If I launch a course or a book or something like that that makes me money,
00:16:38.600 | and I have thousands of you who are in my listening audience and you sign up to buy that from me,
00:16:43.600 | although I appreciate that and although I would thoroughly enjoy that evening,
00:16:50.600 | being able to look at all of those nice numbers on a spreadsheet and I'd probably take my wife out to Sweet Tomatoes to celebrate,
00:16:57.600 | I would enjoy that.
00:16:59.600 | But you know what? It wasn't the product of one day's work.
00:17:02.600 | That was just when I got the paycheck.
00:17:05.600 | That was the product of months and years of work for every entrepreneur early in the morning, late at night.
00:17:13.600 | It's a tough, long slog.
00:17:16.600 | Well, in a job, you don't have to worry about that.
00:17:18.600 | You get paid quickly and there are a bunch of benefits of that.
00:17:23.600 | So that's reason number three.
00:17:25.600 | Before I continue on to reasons four through nine, I want to share with your sponsor for this half hour is Patrick Snow.
00:17:31.600 | Patrick Snow is my personal publishing coach.
00:17:34.600 | Talk about being a long time to get paid in entrepreneurship.
00:17:37.600 | It's an even longer time to get paid with writing a book because of the slog to get there.
00:17:43.600 | One of the great things about Patrick is not only is he an expert at publishing a book,
00:17:47.600 | he's a best-selling author himself and he's an expert coach to help you get that book transformed into reality.
00:17:52.600 | And not only is he really good at helping to coach you along the way, keep you encouraged, keep you motivated,
00:17:58.600 | give you outlines and information to help you with the book process,
00:18:02.600 | but in addition to that, he's very good at helping you leverage the book to build a business.
00:18:08.600 | And that's the important thing because books are rarely extremely profitable for their authors,
00:18:12.600 | but they can form the cornerstone of a very large and profitable business.
00:18:17.600 | So Patrick not only consults in the publishing business, but he also consults in the speaking business, the coaching business,
00:18:22.600 | and he runs a really, really great business with a proven track record of him earning multi-six figures on his business
00:18:28.600 | and him able to share that information with you to teach you how to do it.
00:18:32.600 | So if you've ever thought about writing a book or if you've ever thought about checking out
00:18:35.600 | and possibly building some kind of professional expert business, as they say, go to thepublishingdoctor.com,
00:18:42.600 | thepublishingdoctor.com, read some of the information from Patrick, listen to the past interviews of him on the show,
00:18:48.600 | and consider reaching out to him for a consultation to see if he might be able to serve you.
00:18:53.600 | So Patrick, thank you so much for the help that you've been doing to me.
00:18:56.600 | Thank you for encouraging me through the long slog.
00:18:59.600 | We all need a friend when slogging through the long road of entrepreneurship.
00:19:04.600 | Let's go on. Reason number four, beautiful benefit of a job is that you can leave your work at work.
00:19:12.600 | And in many jobs, you get your evenings and weekends off or at the very least most jobs.
00:19:17.600 | The exception of the president of the United States, most jobs, you can leave your work at work.
00:19:22.600 | You go to work, you do your work, and when you're gone, you're gone.
00:19:25.600 | That does change. And again, I know that I'm making some blanket statements.
00:19:29.600 | I'm fully aware of that. But for most jobs, you can leave your work at work.
00:19:35.600 | As an entrepreneur, you never leave your work at work because you're always responsible.
00:19:39.600 | You're always accountable.
00:19:40.600 | Certainly as an entrepreneur, you can build boundaries into your life that – just things that you say and do.
00:19:47.600 | But you never leave your work at work. You're always tied to it. You always care about it.
00:19:52.600 | It's your baby. It's your thing.
00:19:54.600 | That's a huge benefit because you spend your time thinking about your thing, working in your passion project,
00:20:00.600 | and it puts a lot of emotional energy behind it.
00:20:02.600 | But it's also a liability because it's always your thing. You're always working on it.
00:20:07.600 | So if you have a job where you can leave your work at work and you get your evenings and your weekends off,
00:20:13.600 | I'll tell you, evenings and weekends that are totally free, you can do a lot in an evening and a weekend.
00:20:19.600 | You can do a ton when you don't have to think about anything when you leave on Friday afternoon.
00:20:24.600 | You don't have to think about what you've got to face until Monday morning.
00:20:26.600 | That can be incredibly beneficial.
00:20:28.600 | I have a friend of mine, a good friend of mine, who is a mailman.
00:20:31.600 | I look at his job and he specifically chose it because he didn't want to be in a place where he's working with lots of other people.
00:20:39.600 | He just wanted to kind of have a solitary type of job.
00:20:42.600 | I look at his job and I think, "Man, that would be – maybe I should go and do that."
00:20:47.600 | Now, you run the risk of the fact that his job will be extinct in a decade or two.
00:20:51.600 | But beyond that, it's got a lot of benefits.
00:20:55.600 | You go to work on Monday morning and you work your hours. You don't have to do anything until you get there.
00:20:59.600 | You know when you're done. The whole time you're working, you're alone.
00:21:02.600 | You've got some customers on your route, yes, but you just go and do your work and when you're home, you're home.
00:21:07.600 | You don't have to worry about what's happening on the road when you're at home.
00:21:10.600 | That really is a huge benefit.
00:21:13.600 | Benefit number five in having a job, there is very little risk to having a job, very little indeed.
00:21:20.600 | The cool thing is about having a job, you're simply not financially liable in really any way.
00:21:24.600 | Remember, you're not trading time for money.
00:21:28.600 | You're not trading money for money.
00:21:30.600 | You're not making an investment.
00:21:31.600 | You're not putting your resources in.
00:21:32.600 | You're just trading your time for money.
00:21:34.600 | So that means that if something happens to the company, you've only got your time invested.
00:21:40.600 | Now, if you start putting these things together, you can see the true power of a job because remember, with a job, you get paid quickly.
00:21:47.600 | At the most, you're half a month away from a paycheck.
00:21:51.600 | So if the company folds its doors and goes away, well, guess what?
00:21:55.600 | You're out of a half a month of time, but beyond that, you don't generally have more risk than that.
00:22:00.600 | So there's very little risk.
00:22:02.600 | You're not responsible for the actions of the company.
00:22:04.600 | You're only responsible for what you personally do.
00:22:07.600 | There's no financial liability.
00:22:09.600 | You just put in time and you get money and all that money is yours, very little risk.
00:22:15.600 | You get a job, you can go out and get another job.
00:22:17.600 | It's a little harder if you close one business to go and necessarily start another one perhaps, but if you get a job, there's lots of jobs out there.
00:22:24.600 | So there's very little risk.
00:22:25.600 | Number six, your earnings are generally predictable, and this, my friends, is a huge benefit.
00:22:32.600 | I do my best to help with as much financial content as I can, but one of the ones I often find difficult is when somebody has a steady, stable income and they're not able to plan on that.
00:22:48.600 | Now, I recognize that that's a major function of my work is to try to provide solutions and that we all need to learn how to impose self-discipline and plan on things.
00:22:56.600 | But you know what?
00:22:57.600 | When your earnings are predictable, you can set a budget.
00:23:00.600 | You can set your life on that.
00:23:02.600 | Much more challenging when your earnings are not predictable.
00:23:05.600 | No matter how low your earnings are at a job, you can make whatever adjustments you have to make knowing that you've got to fit within that budget.
00:23:15.600 | Lots of those adjustments are difficult, but they can be made because you know how much you make.
00:23:22.600 | If you know how much you make and when you make it, you can sit down and you can look at your goals and you can make a plan and you can say, "What will I do in order to make progress toward these goals?"
00:23:33.600 | Predictable earnings are valuable, hugely, hugely valuable.
00:23:39.600 | In a business, when you are trying to figure out, "Okay, what do I do?"
00:23:46.600 | It's hard to know because you're always on the cusp and the borderline of, "Well, I can make a little or I can make a lot."
00:23:53.600 | And so it makes it much harder to know exactly how to budget and what to do and how to plan and how to predict.
00:24:00.600 | It's not easy.
00:24:02.600 | Again, not complaining.
00:24:03.600 | Just trying to point out the – I'm not complaining about entrepreneurship.
00:24:07.600 | I just want to point out to you some of the benefits of a job that we often don't think of.
00:24:11.600 | Finish up with the last three benefits before we do, though.
00:24:14.600 | Sponsor this second half of the show is SoFi.
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00:24:31.600 | You can, in a few minutes, get an idea of will they allow you to consolidate your student loans and will they cut your interest rate and save you money.
00:24:41.600 | That can be a very, very valuable thing for you to do.
00:24:45.600 | It can free up some more money from your job for you to do other things.
00:24:49.600 | Hopefully, if you've got student loans, hopefully, you got a college degree.
00:24:51.600 | Hopefully, you're turning that college degree into higher income because it can be helpful, especially in the job marketplace.
00:24:58.600 | It can be helpful for that.
00:24:59.600 | And so if you've got student loans, just take a few minutes and check to see if you can save money.
00:25:04.600 | If you use that tracking link found at RadicalPersonalFinance.com/SoFi, RadicalPersonalFinance.com/SoFi for social finance.
00:25:14.600 | If you use that tracking link, you will get a $200 credit to your account.
00:25:18.600 | So I'll save you $200 by using my tracking link.
00:25:21.600 | I got a commission and you get a nice credit.
00:25:23.600 | So thank you very much for doing that.
00:25:24.600 | Number seven, benefit of a job.
00:25:28.600 | Having a job allows you to have a very simple and generally effective approach to handling your benefits, to handling your investments, to handling your taxes.
00:25:39.600 | Really, it is very, very simple.
00:25:42.600 | Most employers, especially once you get up out of the bottom end of the market, tough as a day laborer, it's tough to put your benefits together.
00:25:49.600 | It's tough in a menial manual labor job.
00:25:51.600 | Most of those businesses are not going to be offering benefits.
00:25:54.600 | But once you get up into the middle segment of the market, generally, your benefits are going to be provided by the company.
00:26:00.600 | Are they good? Are they bad?
00:26:01.600 | Well, most benefit programs are doing their best.
00:26:06.600 | Employers who go through the hassle and the expense of setting the programs up, they're doing the best they can with the money that they have.
00:26:12.600 | And usually, at a job, you can find some effective benefits.
00:26:17.600 | You can find the insurance benefits that you need.
00:26:20.600 | It opens up those of you who face difficult situations, whether it's health considerations, things that make it difficult for you to get certain types of insurances.
00:26:27.600 | A lot of times, you can get those things through your job.
00:26:29.600 | It can be very, very useful.
00:26:31.600 | Often, you can have an effective means of investing through your job, whether that's through a company-run 401(k) or whether that's simply through the fact that you have predictable income.
00:26:42.600 | And now you can invest a certain amount predictably.
00:26:45.600 | That can be very, very useful.
00:26:47.600 | Many people with their tax planning, you don't need anything more than a 401(k) contribution.
00:26:51.600 | That can help tremendously.
00:26:53.600 | So you can put in place a simple approach, and it can be pretty darn effective with a little bit of planning.
00:27:00.600 | Even when you start adding these things together, whether you have predictable earnings, that can lead to a simple ability to be able to get financing in your life.
00:27:08.600 | If you need financing on a mortgage or other kinds of debt, a job, hey, lenders love people who have a job.
00:27:15.600 | This is very easy for you to get financing.
00:27:17.600 | Recognize that.
00:27:19.600 | Make sure you're maximizing.
00:27:20.600 | If you're working at a job, make sure you're maximizing all the benefits that are offered to you.
00:27:24.600 | Number eight, huge benefit of a job.
00:27:26.600 | Your employer is responsible to provide the resources that you need to do your job.
00:27:31.600 | This one, and I just sat down and wrote this list down.
00:27:35.600 | It's not an exhaustive list, but frankly, it was coming out of just this week.
00:27:39.600 | I have struggled this week.
00:27:41.600 | I've struggled.
00:27:42.600 | It's been a tough week and a few things.
00:27:43.600 | It's been gray in Florida, which is no fun.
00:27:46.600 | My wife has – I'm joking here, but she really does.
00:27:49.600 | I think if we lived up north, she has seasonal affective disorders.
00:27:52.600 | When it's gray out, she gets grumpy and we joke about it, but that just makes it challenging.
00:27:58.600 | I've been a little bit sick myself.
00:28:00.600 | I don't know if I haven't scheduled enough sleep for myself or what, but I've just been run down this week.
00:28:05.600 | I've struggled with the creative juice to get these things done.
00:28:08.600 | Also, I've been challenged with some big decisions.
00:28:11.600 | I've been trying to figure out should I go and get office space.
00:28:14.600 | In the background even today, you're probably – if you're listening on headphones, you could probably hear my kids.
00:28:19.600 | I have to work out of my house.
00:28:21.600 | I've been struggling.
00:28:22.600 | Do I need to go get office space?
00:28:23.600 | Well, how do I know what the right decision is?
00:28:25.600 | How impactful on my listening audience is being able to hear my kids or not?
00:28:29.600 | I don't know, but going out and saying, "Okay, I'm going to sign up for additional rent on office space," is it really what I should be doing?
00:28:37.600 | How do I stretch the resources that I have and use them effectively?
00:28:41.600 | Well, employees don't have to worry about that stuff.
00:28:44.600 | Entrepreneurs do.
00:28:45.600 | I have to look at the amount of monthly rent I'd be paying for office space and say, "Am I going to make more off of this than it's going to cost me?"
00:28:51.600 | I've got to look at all of those things and scribe around for resources.
00:28:54.600 | As an employee, if you need a new stapler, you just say, "I need a new stapler," and your employer is going to provide those things for you.
00:29:00.600 | But when you're the employer, it's a lot tougher to be able to figure out how to make those decisions.
00:29:05.600 | And so enjoy the benefit of a job in that you're not responsible to provide the resources that you need.
00:29:13.600 | It's your employer's responsibility.
00:29:15.600 | And be thankful, some of you, be thankful that you don't have to face the responsibilities that they face.
00:29:21.600 | Truly, they can be a lot.
00:29:25.600 | Final benefit of having a job, you're part of a team and your team has a goal.
00:29:30.600 | And I tell you, that can be really, really beneficial.
00:29:33.600 | One of the biggest challenges of self-employment in a solopreneur type of approach is it can be lonely.
00:29:40.600 | You cannot have people to socialize with, but even more important, not have people to bounce things off of.
00:29:47.600 | You're trying to make decisions and it's exhausting to make decisions on your own.
00:29:51.600 | You're always testing and trying to figure out, "Well, what's the right move? What's the right move?"
00:29:54.600 | And it's hard to know how to do those things and how to make progress.
00:29:58.600 | Well, if you're working at a job, you're part of a team.
00:30:00.600 | Your team has a goal.
00:30:02.600 | Your job is simple.
00:30:03.600 | All you got to do is keep your boss happy, accomplish the goals that are set for you, and it's relatively simple.
00:30:09.600 | So enjoy being part of a team.
00:30:11.600 | Now, do co-workers bring challenges?
00:30:13.600 | Certainly.
00:30:14.600 | But on the whole, if you talk to people, those of us who are solopreneurs, talk to those of us who work from our houses,
00:30:19.600 | you'll often find that that social dynamic is challenging.
00:30:23.600 | And if you are the boss and you lose some of that social dynamic, it's especially challenging because it can be lonely.
00:30:31.600 | It can be tough.
00:30:32.600 | It's exhausting to know how to make your own decisions.
00:30:36.600 | So take a benefit.
00:30:38.600 | Take account of the benefits of your job.
00:30:42.600 | Final two things.
00:30:43.600 | These weren't part of my nine, but I just want to add these two points here.
00:30:46.600 | Number one, in a job, the process of moving up and moving on is simple.
00:30:54.600 | Here it is.
00:30:56.600 | Make sure that you competently discharge all of the duties that you have in the best way that you're capable.
00:31:03.600 | Just do your job.
00:31:07.600 | Keep your boss happy.
00:31:10.600 | All you're responsible to do is keep your boss happy.
00:31:12.600 | Find out who your boss is and keep him happy.
00:31:15.600 | Do your job.
00:31:16.600 | Keep your boss happy.
00:31:18.600 | After you've done those things, ask for more.
00:31:21.600 | Ask for more responsibility.
00:31:23.600 | Volunteer for more projects.
00:31:24.600 | Ask for more responsibility.
00:31:26.600 | And then make sure that you find and train your replacement.
00:31:29.600 | If you'll do those things, do your job, keep your boss happy, ask for more responsibility, and then find and train your responsibility, you will be solving the problems that your boss has.
00:31:42.600 | I would love it if there were a way to figure out how to make every employee a boss.
00:31:49.600 | If we could figure out some way that every employee could be a business owner for a time and be a boss for a time and then send them back to being employees, you would all be much better employees.
00:32:00.600 | So if you got any ideas for how to do that, do it.
00:32:02.600 | But otherwise, just do those things that we said.
00:32:05.600 | And your plan of advancement is relatively simple.
00:32:09.600 | Thing number two is the wonderful thing about a job is a job is in many ways, once you have it, a sure thing.
00:32:17.600 | And you can use that job to support your responsibility.
00:32:21.600 | I do probably on Radical Personal Finance have a tendency to overplay the value of entrepreneurship.
00:32:27.600 | But I really do believe that entrepreneurship is a very viable path.
00:32:33.600 | Yes, you have to learn new skills.
00:32:35.600 | Yes, it's challenging.
00:32:36.600 | Yes, it can be exhausting.
00:32:37.600 | All of those things are true.
00:32:38.600 | But I'll tell you, at the moment, I wouldn't go back if I had the choice.
00:32:42.600 | So I recommend, if possible, set out a path to break free.
00:32:47.600 | But sometimes you're facing something bigger.
00:32:50.600 | Sometimes you have more responsibilities.
00:32:53.600 | Let's say that you are in the process of paying back your debts.
00:32:57.600 | That's something you need to do.
00:33:00.600 | I don't have a lot of respect for those who welch on their debts to go and follow their dreams.
00:33:08.600 | Frankly, in reading – just doing that web search I did for reasons to get a job and finding that not a single one of them was – not a single one of the results was get a job and be a disciplined, upstanding member of society.
00:33:22.600 | Be a giver, not a taker.
00:33:24.600 | Take care of the obligations.
00:33:26.600 | It's all this kind of namby-pamby air in the sky.
00:33:28.600 | Follow your heart and, okay, I'm all for that.
00:33:31.600 | But where is the balance of responsibility?
00:33:35.600 | So pay your debts.
00:33:37.600 | If you need a job, go get a job.
00:33:38.600 | Pay your debts.
00:33:39.600 | What about the people who are – if you're caring for a sick spouse?
00:33:43.600 | If my wife were diagnosed with cancer, something like that, and I'm in charge of caring for a sick spouse, I'm not sure – I don't know what I'd do as far as work.
00:33:52.600 | In some ways, being an entrepreneur can be beneficial because you get more freedom.
00:33:55.600 | But I'll tell you, you add those duties, there are times when you just need a job to go to and do your work and get home or maybe some of – many of you are caring for a sick child, things like that.
00:34:06.600 | So first and foremost, attend to your responsibilities and then build a foundation underneath you so that you can smooth the path to entrepreneurship if that's right for you.
00:34:19.600 | I don't think it necessarily has to be right for anyone.
00:34:22.600 | And I think it's good to recognize and appreciate the benefits of multiple approaches.
00:34:29.600 | If you're broke, if you don't have any money, enjoy the fact that you can have nothing, absolutely nothing, and you can take some of your physical labor and go and earn income and you can save money and you can get rich.
00:34:47.600 | It's pretty amazing when you start to think about it.
00:34:53.600 | I hope you all have enjoyed the show. I did my best to give you some thoughtful things to think about.
00:34:58.600 | If you're facing Monday morning and that's when you're listening to this show, I would encourage you, take account of the blessings that you have.
00:35:07.600 | Be thankful to have a job.
00:35:09.600 | You want to know how most people – how much most people appreciate having a job? Take it away.
00:35:17.600 | You know, there's also a period where economy is in a downturn, people are losing their jobs left and right, and all of a sudden you find that a lot of people have a lot more appreciation for a job.
00:35:25.600 | I know there are plenty of challenges. I know there are plenty of downsides. I know there are plenty of difficult situations.
00:35:33.600 | But do recognize and appreciate some of the benefits of a job because I'll tell you, it can form the foundation for everything.
00:35:43.600 | So, if you've got the job, keep doing all the smart stuff we talk about the rest of the time. Build that platform for yourself to be able to launch to something else if that's what you'd like to do.
00:35:49.600 | Or build a platform for yourself to have leverage in your current job.
00:35:53.600 | If you've got additional benefits of a job, feel free to come by the blog for today's show and comment. I'd be happy to hear them. I'd love to hear them and other listeners would as well.
00:36:01.600 | We'd be happy to hear those comments.
00:36:03.600 | Thank you for listening to today's show. If you would like to support the show directly, please consider becoming a patron of Radical Personal Finance.
00:36:09.600 | You can find all the information about that program at RadicalPersonalFinance.com/patron.
00:36:13.600 | RadicalPersonalFinance.com/patron. All you need to do is choose an amount of money that you think this show is worth.
00:36:19.600 | If I bring value to your life, I would appreciate you paying me for my work. This is my job and you are my employer.
00:36:26.600 | So, if you think I'm doing a good job or if you appreciate the work that I'm doing, please go to RadicalPersonalFinance.com/patron and feel free to send me a paycheck. Much appreciated.
00:36:35.600 | Thank you all for listening. Have a great weekend and a great week and I'll be back with you soon.
00:36:39.600 | [Music]
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