Jobs Are Temporary - How To Use Them
Do you really want a job? What for? The paycheck? Maybe you
enjoy the work itself (if you're one of the lucky few), but does
that mean you need to have a boss? Fortunately no. There are
many ways to both do things that you enjoy doing and make money
from your work. And although they can help you get to your goals,
jobs are temporary, so why not see them that way?
Don't start that job search until you consider what's actually
important to you. You can then look at your employment options
as the means to accomplish goals that have real meaning. As long
as the process is approached in this way, jobs do have their
advantages. The following are some ways to use a job in this
way.
1. Jobs Buy Time
It's common to claim we don't have time - even for the people
we care about, but this isn't true. No one else is deciding how
you spend what time you have. If you really want to spend more
time with loved ones or writing that novel, just stop using your
job to buy nice clothes or new cars and use it to buy time instead.
For starters (until you really learn how to use both time and
money more creatively) set aside enough of that paycheck to take
off a week and spend it how you want.
2. Jobs Create Money To Save For Goals
A job creates income, and some of that can be diverted into
savings for future plans and goals. I personally used a good
job to pay off my first home early. Then I quit the job. That
bought me a lot of time to do the things I wanted to. Several
of my past jobs were devoted to earning money for traveling.
Your job can provide money to start a business or buy a cabin
in the mountains.
3. Jobs Provide Business Training
It's common to think of a job as an end in itself, or a means
to a better job sometime in the future. That's okay if you really
love being an employee, but in many fields you can use a job
as training for owning a business of your own. In businesses
like carpet cleaning and restaurant management this is common.
Learn the business from the inside, then start your own company
with the training and education you got.
4. Jobs Let You Live In A Place
Suppose you want to be where the best skiing is, but can't
afford more than a weekend there every year? What do you do?
Why not get a job there? Ask a few bartenders and other employees
in Aspen, Colorado how they moved there. You'll find that many
came not for the job, but for the skiing opportunities - and
the job was just the means to that end. Get a job in the Florida
Keys if you want more time at the beach, or in another country
if you want to learn a new language and culture.
5. Jobs Teach You Skills
Many jobs are good places to learn skills that will be useful
to you later. Some join the military for this reason. You don't
have to go to that extreme, but if, for example, you work as
a tax preparer for one season, you could apply the knowledge
and skills learned to all of your future business activities.
Being a car salesman for a year might prepare you with the sales
and negotiating skills to become a great real estate investor
or business tycoon.
6. Jobs Pay The Bills
Although not an exciting use for a job, this is sometimes
necessary. But unless you really love the job you get, make this
temporary. Here's how: Keep in mind that whatever job you get,
if you got one that paid a little less you still would have survived.
that means you're making more than enough to save a bit and plan
something else. Pay those bills then, but also put a little bit
of every paycheck aside and start looking for ways to pursue
more interesting goals. You can at least continue your job search
after you are hired, until you take one more step up in income,
and then save even more for what matters to you.
Use that job as the tool or temporary stepping stone that
it is!
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