Jobs in Corporate America require trading your time for money. As your income climbs, so does your time commitment, taking you away from what is truly important to you and your family. Most people grudgingly work at a job they hate and become victims of the idea they must trade their time for money.

Consider why the Time for Money equation can be restricting:

It's a never-ending cycle. When we first start working, our needs are simple. We might share a small apartment with a roommate and have an inexpensive car. We can survive on a small salary. As we get older, we might desire to get married, buy a house, have children, and eventually retire. All those goals require larger and larger amounts of money. In addition, we must keep up with the cost of living. The need for more and more money forces us into the work-eat-sleep cycle. This leaves little precious time for our personal pursuits.

Your goals and dreams are not your own. Everyone has different goals and dreams. Maybe you want to stay home to raise a family, travel the world for six months, retire early, or just want the flexibility of being able to be at every one of your child’s soccer games. When you work for someone else and trade time for money, you are at their mercy. They tell you when to be at work, how many hours your must work, and when you can have time off.

When you stop trading time for money, you can work on your own goals and achieve your dreams.

It's risky. It's astounding to find that most people trade time for money with the false belief that their job is safe. With the global economy at play, you'll see a pink slip someday. No matter how savvy you are, how much better you are at your job than your coworkers, somewhere in the world, someone will bid for the work that you do for less. There is no insurance for your job.

Your income relies on you. You can be a powerful lawyer, doctor or an actor but your income grows linearly with the amount of sweat you trade for it. If you ever get disabled, chances are that your income will be disabled as well.

How to Break the Time-for-Money Cycle

When you work for yourself, you get to determine when you will work, how hard you will work, and how much you will make. You become the controller of your destiny rather than being controlled by the goals of others. You'll experience energy and passion that you've never felt before.

What’s the easiest way to work for yourself? Start your own home business. The right home business will allow you to work with others to capitalize your efforts with theirs and create an income that flows regardless of whether you show up today or not.

That’s not to say that you don’t have to work hard when your own a business. You work hard in the beginning, but then you work smart. Your dreams and aspirations are your own.

So what is your move? Are you content working for someone else?

Create Your Own Economy

Many of us have never thought about it, but we contribute to many economies.

• We participate in the world economy when we purchase foreign goods.
• We participate in the US Economy when we work and pay taxes or purchase goods from other states.
• We participate in the local economy when we go to our local hairdresser, accountant, or attorney
• We participate in our personal economy when we save and invest.

For the most part, we play a role in the larger economies, but don’t have much control over them. However, we have 100% control over our personal economy. We can control how much we earn, how much we spend, how much we save, how much our mortgage will be based on the kind of house we buy, etc.

Understanding that we have a personal economy that we can control is especially important in these times when it feels like the US economy is so out of control. While many people around us are losing their jobs, homes, and retirement savings, it can be comforting to know that we have the opportunity to create a recession-proof economy for ourselves.

Do you know someone who works for a company that manufactures or produces cereal, soap, liquor, beer, or laundry detergent? Chances are, they aren’t being affected by the recession. Their company produces products that are purchased regardless of how tough the economy gets. Have you ever heard a person say, “We’re cutting back this year, no more baths?” Of course not, people are going to eat, drink, and buy the basic necessities no matter what. These types of products are called consumer staples.

So, if your personal revenue (paycheck) came from a company that produced consumer staples, you would be in a pretty good position no matter what the economy was doing, right? You personal economy would not be affected by a recession. You would still be able to save and invest because your income stream would not be affected.

Let’s take that one step further now. If you work for a company like Proctor and Gamble or Colgate Palmolive, which produce consumer staples, you could still be affected by a factory closing or reorganization. While the demand for their products is the same during hard economic times, the companies may choose to find cheaper labor or take opportunity to purchase a competitor and remove duplicate positions. You still don’t have 100% control of your personal economy in this case.

What if I told you that you could own your own business in the consumer staples industry? You could have 100% control of your economy. You would never fire yourself and the demand for your products would be the same regardless of a boom or bust US economy. Would you be interested in learning more? Click here.