I believe that working for a living is a multi-faceted endeavour. Some people love what they do, and define themselves and their social status by their vocation. For instance, some people may go after a high paying job just to acquire the envy of their peers or to feel good about themselves, They feel like their job defines them or at best, it is a "calling". Some people genuinely love their job and feel challenged and fulfilled by it. I know some of these people. They are winning at the game as it has been scripted.

Most people I know see their job as "just the way it is". They go to work everyday to pay the bills, take a nice two week vacation every year, and maybe, someday, retire. These people are following the well-worn path they have been shown by their parents and teachers. They consider themselves as "normal" and hope that serendipity will buy them freedom from the drudgery. Unfortunately, there are too many people living in "quiet desperation", chained to a cubicle, not able to believe that there is something better out there.

Then, there are those who see a job as a means to an end. These are the people who I want to learn more from and send time with. They are working not just to earn a living, but to solve a bigger problem.

I know many entrepreneurs who got a job working at an entry-level position in the field they want to be in. They got a job at a company so that they can learn the industry and gain insight, experience and contacts. These people see the job as a paid training period. When they feel they have gained enough knowledge and skill, they open up their own business in that field and try to be better, unique or different than the rest. They used the ordinary "job" as a launching pad for their business venture.

2. Some people use a job as a savings plan. Some people spend there lives working at a job to save up enough money to do what they really love. They perhaps spend the summers working so that they can ski all winter. They may work for a couple of years to save up enough to backpack for a year. This methodology sees the job as a piece of a grander puzzle.

My philosophy has been to work at my job to fund my financial freedom plan. My financial freedom plan is a giant, all-encompassing philosophy of self reliance. The goal is to be able to live off of my investment income without needing to work for anyone else but myself. It is not a traditional retirement plan, because I don't want to wait until Im 65 to start enjoying my life.

Entrepreneurship

There are people out there that embody the entrepreneurial spirit and just have to do it. They live for the thrill of building something. They see a need and then find a way to fulfill that need through innovation, invention or efficiency. They are action oriented and know how to get things done. That is great, if you have the guts.

I have a full time job, and two businesses. Why do I do this? To feed my financial freedom plan. Every cent I earn above and beyond my expenses from ALL my sources of income go back into my investments. I do this so that eventually my investments will earn me enough money so that I don't have to work.

I'll probably still work, but at things that inspire and fulfill me. I like to have purpose. I do not want to sit under a palm tree and sip tropical drinks for the rest of my life. I want to contribute to society and continue to learn and grow. This makes me happy. The key difference is that when I am financially free I won't HAVE to work. I can CHOOSE to work.

This is my core belief. I am obsessed with personal sovereignty. I HATE being told what to do. I HATE working hard just to make someone else's life better. I HATE having to ask for anything from anybody. This is the concept behind my Be Your Own Bank program. It is a plan that puts you in the driver's seat for your own financial life. No more going to see the bad man at the bank, hat in hand, to ask for a loan. You give yourself a loan. No more going to see the "boss" and begging for a raise. You give yourself a raise whenever you want. No more hoping that the world economy stays in any particular state. You make money no matter what. This is freedom. You create it, maintain it, grow it, and reap the benefits. It is all you, baby.

So my side-hustles are fun, but they are not sources of "income" per se. they are feeding the machine that is my investment portfolio. I prioritize the channeling of all money into the machine because that is the most effective way I can think of to care for myself and my loved ones. I march steadily towards financial freedom, in spite of life's ups and downs because I have a system. The system is designed so that I am constantly moving towards my goal of financial freedom in every financial climate. I pay myself first.

So, I am suggesting that you look at your efforts in your job or your business from a long-term perspective. Ask yourself,

"To what end?"

It is similar to having a corporate structure where you have a holding company that is the shareholder of all your other endeavours. Your job could be considered a "Company" in your portfolio of income earning activities. Your rental property could be another. Your lemonade stand, yet another. The overarching umbrella company (The financial freedom fund) would be your focus. This is where you send all of your earning from your subsidiaries (Job, Business, side hustle, interest, dividends, tax-returns etc.) and protect and grow that money until it takes care of you whether the subsidiaries are producing or not.

This gives you freedom. The freedom to change careers if you want. To tell that overbearing boss to shove it. To take a year off and bike across Canada. The possibilities are endless. If your money-making efforts have a higher purpose, then you are not just existing, you are progressing. That is a huge, both financially and psychologically. You are never static, as a human being, you are either growing or dying. I believe I would prefer growing over dying, but that is just me. You are free to choose.

Multiple Streams of income

The cool thing about having multiple streams of income is that it serves more than one purpose.

You can enjoy a slightly higher standard of living if you wish
You can grow your investment portfolio or "Financial freedom fund" faster.
You will learn a lot of useful skills
They are replicatable
You can keep some of them going even after you achieve financial freedom.

It may require working 16 hour days for a while to get all of this off the ground, or it may not. Once you have built an income stream through getting a second job, starting an e-commerce business or teaching piano lessons, you can grow that to whatever scale you wish or have time for. If you plan it right, you can design the income stream so it it runs without you, continuing to generate income, even while you are sleeping or off doing something else. The creation of a side income is actually an INVESTMENT of time. You are putting in an up-front investment of time, energy and, perhaps, money to get a return on your investment in the future that may even continue in perpetuity, even after you have passed on. Your heirs will love you for it.

I have written about leveraging time before, but it is worth repeating. If you can put in effort now for something that will run on its own power in the future you can stop trading your time for money as you can have multiple income streams happening at once from efforts you contributed in the past. It is like cloning yourself. That is how the big boys do it.

So to circle back to the title of this article, I refer to the cart as your investment portfolio and the horse as your income source. You should always be concerning yourself with producing income first, then making it work for you, not the other way around. Often people quit their jobs to start a business, but that is expecting the business to become something worthwhile and take care of you at the same time. This is a tough row to hoe. It makes more sense to have a job, and then start a business on the weekend so that all the spoils of your business can be pumped back into the business or into the machine. It will grow the business or the freedom fund a lot faster and it is easier to have healthy business without the overhead of a mortgage or car payments that belong to the owner.

The other side of this philosophy is that your financial freedom fund is not income. It is future income. It is investing for the future. The personal "Bank" you build is a foundation. You must prioritize this over all other spending priorities. It will eventually take care of you, but you have to feed it. You have to commit to earning as much money as you can and sending that money off to work for you. This is the horse pulling the cart. I do not ever speak of, or believe in, getting rich quick, or gaming the system. That is a fantasy. You CAN become better off than you were previously, but it must be done systematically and consciously. There are no shortcuts. Getting rich is a way of living, not a magic trick.

The Good News

That being said, it is not all blood, sweat and tears. My investing system can get you there faster and more efficiently if you learn it and practice it properly. It works great, as I amuy using it myself to rise out of poverty, but you must learn to walk before you can run. As my article "You gotta know the rules before you can break them" explains, you absolutely must master the basics before you can move on the the advanced stuff. You cannot skip over the mundane. All long-term money management and growth strategies require time, self-discipline, and consistency to achieve success, and the best way to build up your skills in these tough areas is by doing the simple things:

Spend less than you earn
Invest for the long term
Do the math
Sacrifice the instant gratification impulses

These things are hard. Once you make them a habit, you will be able to move on up to the crazy stuff I talk about in my BYOB strategy. If you bypass the hard work of becoming the person you need to be, then you will not have the necessary character traits to weather the storms that will befall you when you are playing bigger.

I am passionate about helping people, who are struggling financially, to learn about how money works, develop a plan and implement it. I love to see despair turn to hope. Nothing is more rewarding than seeing the look on people's faces when they realize that they have the power to lift themselves out of unwanted circumstances and start to believe they can achieve their dreams. My work is all about trying to help people find that joy, by showing them that it just might be possible to be financially free.

The reality is, getting ahead financially is kind of boring. My job is to remove the mental barriers to becoming wealthy. The difference between nothing and something is infinite. Often, just switching from believing that financial freedom is impossible to possible is the key to going from nothing to something.

The difference between a boring long-term plan and a get rich quick scheme is also infinite. That is going from the reality of a well-executed plan to a fantasy. Get-rich quick is as impossible as doing nothing. The only way the will work for you is if you are super-lucky.

You cannot do the same thing you have always done and expect different results. Relying on serendipity or luck to change your circumstances is wishful thinking and not very empowering. It puts you in the victim mindset. This will hold you back from achieving many things. Owning your behaviours and finding the wherewithal to stick to a long-term plan is empowering. You proactively become the master of your life. This is preferable to blowing in the wind.

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