Having a source of income that isn’t based on trading time for money is Everything.
This is the golden goose we are all searching for. A way to make money while we sleep and a way to make money that we don’t hate.
I started this site to learn how to escape from the hourly wage trap.
Trading time for money is for suckers *unless you really love your job. Trading time for money as a basis for life is a really bad idea, as I found out over the last 50 years and counting.
It ruins many lives and wastes creativity. Very few jobs are set up to be rewarding spiritually, emotionally and intellectually. Sure a few of them pay really well but the cost of working for years and years doing something that doesn’t interest you takes a huge toll as you are already aware.
I wish I had known this years ago and focused on learning how to build a business with my own creativity and intellectual property that would scale instead of helping other people build their empires. I have helped many others build wealth while toiling away for pennies.
I worked hard and tried to please other people and helped them build wealth through businesses that scaled. I worked multiple jobs at once and I freelanced as an illustrator and gave my services in trade for money. I survived. Period.
I ended up living in a Toyota Sienna minivan “down by the river” and teaching large discount Pilates group classes until my voice grew scratchy and my knees hurt from standing there on the cheap cement floors watching people do Pilates badly.
When you trade your time for money your trajectory is going toward less and less energy, more sadness and boredom, frustration, and poverty from what a job does to your spirit and your health.
Trading time for money with most jobs, does this to people, it sucks them dry and makes them sad and tired.
Because no matter how many hours you work you only have so many hours in a day, so it just doesn’t scale. You are not leveraging anything.
And no matter how well you invest and save and buy those blue-chip stocks that Ramit Sethi says to buy it just isn’t a good model for building wealth or living a great life. It just isn’t very satisfying or creative. Sure, a few people have rewarding careers that they love but most people are just scraping by waiting until they can quit or retire.
Sure, if you’re a doctor or lawyer or high paid designer and you enjoy the work it’s a little better. But you still have to be there every day except for maybe a couple of weeks each year off if you’re lucky.
Even a salaried job is no good because you have to be there every day. You cannot make your own schedule or be creative enough to make it worth the sacrifice.
And sure, you can do some hourly pay work or salary work if you enjoy it as a fun hobby on the side while you run your real business. But working as an employee is a form of slavery if you have to rely on it as your only source of income.
Even if you have your own freelance business, you cannot scale unless you have employees and you put them through the same brutal rigamarole that will suck them dry for your own profits. But I suggest you don’t create more of the same broken system. Do something else.
And of course, I am not saying quit your job (or jobs) today.
But I am saying you should start building something that scales with your creativity and intellectual property so that a year from now you can walk away or even stay at your job if you want to.
But a year from now you will have a choice!
Not having a choice is what makes you a slave.
So, what are you going to do to change this mess you find yourself in?
Learn how to create the life you want while integrating your money-making activities and lifestyle, so you have more time for creativity, exploration, and growth.
- Van life ideas
- Tiny house options
- Remote income so you can choose where you live and when you work
- Courses and education ideas that are affordable on a budget
About Zoe
Zoe is an artist and designer experimenting with building online sources of income selling art originals and printables so she can escape from Silicon Valley, live where she likes and make money while traveling and living in a way that makes more sense.