Absolutely! People should be encouraged to find multiple and diverse ways to create legitimate streams of income other than just getting a job. In fact, another way to ask this question is:
Is a job the best way to make money?
And the answer is, no, never! Jobs are the most common way to earn money but by far not the best and should never be your only source of income.
Jobs make no profits for employees. Any capital improvement realized from a job goes in the pocket of the employer not the job holder.
Even a high paying job is not a good way to make money. Along with the high salary comes a high priced lifestyle which must be maintained to keep the job. What you earn you are required to spend. Your employee even encourages this spending. The more you owe the less likely you are to leave.
A job keeps you occupied and takes care of immediate living expenses but we refer to that as “running in place” not making progress. Rarely do people make great financial strides working a regular job.
Jobs earn a living not money. What you “make” is what is left after life is paid for. To reword Benjamin Franklin’s famous saying, ONLY the penny you save is the penny you earn. Unfortunately, that is about all you have left from a regular job.
Job security? Please, there is no such thing. No one can work a job forever. If you don’t wear out naturally, technology will make you obsolete, probably sooner rather than later. And, if at any time you fail to generate enough money to make an “after expenses” profit, you not the employer is questioned, warned, moved or fired. Job loyalty is very one sided.
By the way, saving, though it is a must, is also not the best way to earn. It generates a lot of money for the savings institution but provides very little reward and there is no way to protect the real worth of the money you accumulate. The money you save today will always be worth far less by the time you retire. Inflation never lets up.
We save money for unexpected but inevitable economic down turns and for investments we would like to make in the future. It is not a good means of making money and should never be your final step.
“Making” money means finding ways to turn your abilities and resources into income producing ventures apart from your everyday job. A job can keep you going while you explore different possibilities but should never be your only means of income and it should be your primary means of income only till you can create other streams. Being preoccupied with making a living is a poor excuse for not making money.
People get jobs and fail to make money because it requires smart, resourceful, cautious and diligent effort. In other words you can’t be mentally lethargic and make money. People who make money are imaginative, creative, energetic and realistic. They think about the possibilities and try them out as they can. “Entrepreneurial” tendencies are developed abilities not inborn qualities.
There is a risk associated with money making ventures but that is no reason not to make the effort. Loosing money on investments is not the same as failure. Losses incurred can be absorbed if the investments were wisely and cautiously executed. These kinds of losses become lessons which help us learn and grow.
Easy money scams abound on the internet only because most people haven ‘t developed money making sensibilities. Penelope Trunk offers good entrepreneurial advice at the Brazen Careerist. Another good site to checkout is Young Money.
Loving money is evil but making it never is. Having abilities which can be used to make money and intentionally failing to develop them is insulting to God and wasteful in the extreme. It is just as irresponsible to neglect your ability to make money as it is to abuse the money you make.
Money is not a bad thing and the ability to make it is a gift from God. Not only do you need money to live, how much you make and how you manage it is a reflection of you as an individual. Those who make it steadily and manage it generously are considered stable. They are respected. Those who earn nothing or only sporadically and never seem to get by are not.
THINK!AboutIt
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