The Riskiest Income Stream Is the 9-to-5 Job
Good marketing has made people think this income stream is the safest…but it’s not
Jobs always get touted as one of the safest ways to make a living. Find an employer, do what you’re told, and keep getting paid a consistent weekly income.
If you do really well, you can move up in the organization to receive even more money. It’s no wonder jobs are seen as a safe source of income…getting a good one is the main reason most people go to college.
But I never saw it that way. In fact, I knew early on that I didn’t want a traditional job. Not only were the 9-to-5 schedule and commutes unattractive to me, but I didn’t see it as something safe.
Starting the Breakthrough Success Podcast helped me validate that latter belief.
On the show, I interview successful entrepreneurs and side hustlers…and it didn’t take too long before I heard some stories from 2008. I heard from guests who started their businesses because they lost their jobs during the Great Recession.
All of a sudden, the primary income source was gone with bills still due. Some of those people downsized and scrambled to find another income source. Others were lucky enough to be building a few income streams before ’08 and saw this as an opportunity to grow those income sources.
If this sounds familiar, it should, and not just for the people who lived through and remember the Great Recession.
5 years from now, I’ll hear entrepreneurial stories from this era that sound exactly like the ones I’ve heard about the Great Recession. People lost their jobs and had to figure out a way to make up the lost income. Many people are starting side hustles and businesses for the first time because they never thought of doing so with their job “security.”
Jobs are not secure because they are attached to businesses. It’s ironic that starting a business is seen as riskier than getting a job, and yet every job is part of a business.
And when hard times come, employees are among the first to go. To protect themselves from the accelerated downside, businesses will lay off some of their employees. If you happen to be one of those employees, you suddenly have no income.
The business owner has more options. Lower expenses and wait for times to get better, take on additional debt at low-interest rates to keep the business running, or step out. But if they step out, it’s their choice. Getting laid off isn’t your choice. If it happens, it happens.
A business can also go through shifts and determine that some of its segments are no longer useful. Thus, you can get laid off even if you’re doing a great job if you happen to be in the wrong segment at the wrong time.
When you start your own business or pursue multiple side hustles, you are always in the driver’s seat. You get further control and can more readily adjust to challenges. If you have multiple income streams and one of them dries up, you can allocate more time towards the other income streams. It’s a small setback, but one that isn’t devastating.
If you lose your job and that’s your only source of income, that’s devastating. It happened in 2008, it happened in 2020, and it’s going to keep on happening. People are going to get fired and laid off in good times and in bad times.
If you have a business, you get to make the decisions, and I’d rather be in the position to make decisions than hear what was decided. This is why jobs are the riskiest way to make money.
If you have a job that accounts for the majority of your income, start making investments that generate cash flow. These investments will compound over time and can speed your path to retirement.
Furthermore, pursue a side hustle. If you’re single, make it a big side hustle and fully embrace it. If you have a family, still put the effort towards a side hustle, but there’s extra balance between the side hustle and spending time with family. The way you balance your responsibilities is up to you, but one thing is clear…
…it’s far too risky to just have a job.
