Trading your hours for dollars
Contrary to popular belief, trading your hours for dollars is the most financially unintelligent way to make money! The reason why is because you only have 24 hours in a day. It is physically impossible to work 30, 58 or 100 hours in a day. The amount of money you can make is finite even if you worked a massive amount of overtime until you dropped dead on the floor from exhaustion. Society teaches us that this is the way to go not knowing that you will forever have that glass ceiling hovering above your head. Let's not forget that you must spend 8 hours a day sleeping and even more hours commuting back and forth to work everyday. Do you get paid for that? Doesn't that chip away at your earning potential?
My experience with trading hours for dollars
My experience with trading hours for dollars has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that I will never become financially independent punching a clock everyday for someone else. I remember the last straw for me when it came to trading my time for money. In 2005 I was fed up of having credit card debt that I accumulated from college, school loans, and other expenses that I had. I figured why complain about it when I can work overtime to completely get this monkey off my back. I remember for 2 weeks I barely got any sleep because I was doing so much overtime to receive time and a half. I would work until 3 or 4 in the morning, drive a hour home from Baltimore and go to sleep. Hours later I would wake up and head back to work to repeat the cycle all over again. When I eventually received my check I couldn't believe the numbers! I made $2,200 and only kept $1,500 after taxes! WTF. They took out $700 in taxes for slaving for 2 weeks while I was making $12/hour. Imagine if I would have worked for a month instead which is 4 weeks. That would be $1,400 worth of taxes in a month while I'm depriving myself of sleep! Are you getting the picture now. Do you see why trading your time for money isn't smart? Here's a visual....
$2,200 Gross
- 700 Uncle Sam
______
= $1,500 Me
Taxes
Taxes are designed to keep the poor and middle class broke. The rich pay less taxes then us. It's called the golden rule. He who has the gold makes the rules. The rich control the tax laws because they have more power and influence. Do you really think your vote is equal to Bill Gates? Let's be serious! The rich have way more persuasion then the average Joe. Ever heard of a lobbyist? LOL. My philosophy is, if you know the rich make the rules and the poor get the short end of the stick then isn't it in your best interest to become rich too and stop complaining about it?
Robert Kiyosaki talks about how it's not about how much you make, it's how much you keep. People who work jobs are taxed the heaviest on the planet! Your are the lowest guy on the totem pole. People who settled for a job are taxed income tax. If you are taxed capital gains tax like the rich are then you pay less. A worker is taxed 33% of his salary a year. Ouch! Businesses and investors know methods that will take only 15% using capital gains tax instead. Look at the math below after one year......
A typical worker/Slave
$100,000 Income from lame job
- $33,000 The income tax rape
------------- ------------
=$67,000 Your cut
Stock Investor/Real Estate Investor
$100,000 Income from stocks
-$15,000 Capital gains tax
-------------
=$85,000 Your cut
It's not how much you make, it's how much you keep!
How am I supposed to make money then?
You must unlearn the whole trade your time for money into new approaches that reflect the 21st century. Here are some ideas to get you started. The items that I listed will get your creative process going. You do not have to pick one of these. Find what works for you
- Stocks- There is no glass ceiling placed on stocks. You could pay $5 for a stock and watch it soar to $300 per share or more! Skies the limit with this way of making money. You also can buy as many stocks as you like and put a stop loss on it if it gets to low. Can you physically work at multiple jobs all at the same time? Of course not!
- Real Estate-This provides you an opportunity to own an unlimited amount of homes and rent them out bringing in passive income. While you are collecting money every month, the houses are going up in value while the tenants are paying down your mortgage. If the rent is more then the mortgage then you have a positive cash flow every month while someone else is doing all the work for you. (I recommend getting a property manager to handle the tenants for you. You should focus on getting more properties, not wasting time collecting bad checks)
- Author- If you write a book you put your self in a position where you can sell an infinite amount of books! All you have to do is write the book one time and collect residual income. You don't have to keep writing that same book over and over and over again. Only at a typical job do you keep repeating the same old task over and over and over again. That's why celebrities write a lot of books even though they are not authors. Not only does the book allow them to share their knowledge and experience with their fans, it's also provides another form of passive income. Now imagine if you had multiple books for sell and they all have the possibility to sell an infinite amount. These books will still sell even when your dead and gone! Does a job pay your family for work you did back in 1976 ? Still want to punch a clock?
- Musician- The opportunities here are similar to being an author and writing a book. With your music CD you have the possibility to sell an infinite amount of copies! Let's not forget about ring tones and other forms of passive income. They also get paid when their music is played in commercials, movies, radio etc. When they make a hit song it only has to be recorded once. They don't have to wake up in the morning and go the studio to record that same song everyday for years to get paid.
- Actor/Actress- Similar principles as a musician and book writer.
- Blogging- Do you know that with this blog I make money when I'm sleeping 24/7? Everyday I wake up and notice how much more cash I made while I was dreaming at night not even thinking about my blog. I also got my friends to sign up for blogging at blogger.com and now we all are getting closer to our dreams of financial freedom.
I hope that this has sparked some interest in you to discover a way to make cash with out utilizing your time for it. People tend to have me all wrong sometimes. It's not all about the money, it's about the time. This info is the reason why you do not get to spend quality time with your friends and family. Try to support yourself without trading your time for money at all costs. Not to toot my own horn but this article is extremely good if I don't say so myself. Lmao. If you read this and still think that trading your time for money is a good idea then I honestly think you need a stray jacket and some Prozac ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
