How Much is Your Enslavement Worth?

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Does your work inspire you or is it drudgery? If it’s drudgery, you’re in good company. According to a 2012 survey conducted by “Big 4” accounting firm Deloitte, 80% of those surveyed did not like their jobs. In another survey conducted by Gallup in 2013, 63% of the 230,000 employees in the survey said they were unhappy with their jobs.

The vast majority do not like what they do for a living. As a result, they feel imprisoned by their jobs. Far too many stay in jobs they hate, because they believe they have no choice and feel hopeless.

A 2010 Gallup poll reported that there were 6 million businesses in the United States. Of those 6 million businesses, 3.8 million had four or fewer employees – mom and pop shops who were trying to build a new life for themselves and their families.

In my Rich Habits Study, 51% of the self-made millionaires in my Study owned and operated their own business – their own mom and pop shop. This 51% courageously broke free of their employment prison, despite all of the risks doing so entailed.

There are two ways of escaping wage slavery:

1. Live Below Your Means (Spend Less Than You Earn) or
2. Expand Your Means (Earn More Than You Spend).

Both ways are hard. And both ways take time.

In the first escape hatch, the strategy is to sock away 20% or more of your net pay, prudently invest that savings and, over time, build wealth. Eventually, you’ll have enough wealth to quit your slave job. This typically takes between 20 – 35 years, which is still a long time to spend in prison.

If you’re in your early 20’s, that means emancipation sometime around age 50, depending on your earnings.

In the second escape hatch, you either:

1. Get a Part-Time 2nd Job – In this scenario, you would save and invest 100% of your net pay from your 2nd job. Over time, this will create wealth.
2. Start a Side Gig – In this scenario, you would pursue some side business. The key to this scenario succeeding is that you must reinvest most of your profits back into the business, which will help it grow over time.
3. Pursue a Dream/Start a Business – In this scenario, you take a huge risk and quit your job, going into some business or pursuing some dream full time. In my Study, it took the Dreamer-Entrepreneurs on average twelve years to accumulate an average of $7.4 mill in wealth.

It’s up to you to make a plan to escape your slave job and take action implementing that plan.

Human beings were not intended to toil away in a job they do not like. It’s simply not in our DNA; our human pre-programming.

That pre-programming whispers in our ears every day, telling us to, “create, grow, expand, evolve and be happy.” It doesn’t say, “Toil away in a job you hate for forty years.”

When we don’t listen to that inner voice, our pre-programming sends a stronger message – “Be unhappy.” And that unhappiness exists for a specific purpose – to force us to take action.

Make a plan today and take action. And when you do, that is when you will find true happiness and hope – hope in the form of liberation from enslavement.

Tom Corley

Tom Corley is an accountant, financial planner, public speaker, and author of the books “Effort-Less Wealth: Smart Money Habits At Every Stage of Your Life” and “RichKids: How to Raise Our Children to Be Happy and Successful in Life“.  Corley’s work has appeared on CNN, USA Today, The Huffington Post, SUCCESS Magazine, and many other media outlets and podcasts in the U.S. and 27 other countries. Tom is a frequent contributor to Business Insider and CNBC.