Nine to Five Escape Plan Read online

  The message has been sent out ‘you are entitled to the very best, don’t accept anything less that that. If you can’t afford it then put it on credit – why should you go without’? So poor unemployed British people sit at home in front of a giant flat screen TV watching their two hundred channels of satellite subscription, while paying the minimum payment on their ever-expanding credit card. They won’t work and they refuse to accept the reality.

  Then along comes an immigrant from a country where poverty means poverty. Forget not having a big TV, we are talking about not even having enough food to eat. No decent healthcare, no prospects, no free handouts – nothing! A lot of these people have lived through communist regimes and revolutions – they have seen and experienced the very worst of humanity. Back home, even if they wanted to dig the soil to earn a little money, the opportunities simply are not there. When an immigrant lands in the United States or the United Kingdom they can’t believe what they see. A land of opportunity and possibility awaits them. They get offered a job, so it’s only paying five pounds an hour and it means working hard in a field digging up potatoes for eight hours a day but it’s gold dust compared to what they left behind. The immigrants are grateful for the work and they have no problem putting their backs into what they do and working hard for the opportunity.

  While the entitled folk look down on the work and declare that it is beneath them, the immigrant calls home and says ‘Wow this place is amazing! There are plenty of jobs available. I have money in my pocket, somewhere to sleep and I even get a day off. You should come here too’. The friends and family of the worker jump on a plane and come to join him. It is at this point that the entitled start to complain that these bloody immigrants are coming over and stealing all the jobs. The mentality of these people is so poor is they even feel entitled to the jobs that they have previously refused to do.

  Kicking the rat race into touch and becoming a successful entrepreneur is not an overnight journey, it’s not easy and it does require hard work and passion. Anyone who tells you otherwise either knows a lot more about this stuff than me or they are selling snake oil. I am asking you to trust me on this because I know you would rather be successful than right! After all, doing it your way has only kept you to the 9 to 5 position you are in right now. I am going to suggest some dramatic changes, and I won’t lie to you – some of them are going to make you uncomfortable for a while. Remember, your comfort zone is a beautiful place but nothing ever grows there. So try to embrace the uncomfortable and enjoy the knowledge that it is expanding your financial potential.

  If you currently don’t have as much money as you want, then it is a clear sign that your comfort zone is too small. The state of your financial health is directly related to the size of your comfort zone. The only way to expand your comfort zone is to charge up to the edge of it and when you see the warning signs that are nailed to the walls. Signs that say DANGER – Extreme Discomfort – Do Not Pass. Instead of turning back around like everyone else in the Rat Race you smash through the wall and embrace the pain that comes with it. Every time you do this the boundary of your comfort zone is moved outward to the new point you have reached.

  But what do I mean by smash through the walls of your comfort zone. I mean do things that scare you and do them often. Go for the job that you don’t think you are good enough to get, invest in the training course you have been putting off, get stared with that business that you have always wanted to do, do a charity skydive, approach the beautiful woman you pass everyday on the way to work and ask her for a date. I don’t care what you do, as long as it scares you and makes you feel uncomfortable.

  I am hoping you are thinking, yes Craig I can do that! Good, but that’s only Action Point One. Expanding your comfort zone is an ethereal challenge but I always want you to make a tangible and practical changes to your life. Action Point Two of the F*ck ‘The Man’ Mindset starts with a commitment that from this moment forward nothing goes on credit. I want you to cut off your own line of credit, right here and now. Go grab a pair of scissors and cut up the Amex and the credit cards. If you can’t afford to buy it in cash then you can’t afford to buy it, period! Stop falling for the entitlement bullshit that you deserve everything you want. You don’t and feeding your ego with purchases on credit is the fast track to a life of scarcity.

  Ask yourself how much thought to do you put into buying a can of soda? Do you worry if you can really afford it? Do you spend a lot of time agonizing about the cost implications of buying it? Almost certainly not, you buy the can and that’s that – it’s not a big deal because it’s only an insignificant amount of money to you. When a millionaire goes to buy a sports car this is how he feels. You can use this observation as a yardstick as to whether you can really afford things or not. If you find yourself wondering ‘can I afford this’ then the chances are good that you can’t and you should walk on by.

  For the most part it is the 9 to 5 set who are obsessed with looking wealthy. I have a friend called Graham, he is an engineer and he lives with his wife Emma in a nice four bedroom detached house in suburbia. On their drive they have a new BMW and next to it a sporty ex demo Porsche for Emma to drive. If you meet Graham he will show you around his wine cellar, treat you to an amazing meal and let you try on his new Rolex watch. Everything you see is an illusion, an illusion that feels so vivid and real to Graham and Emma that they can no longer see what is in front of their nose. Both of the cars are leased, the house is mortgaged and the Rolex went on the credit card under the justification that he deserved something special for his fortieth last year. Graham believes that he is rich, but simply losing his job would reveal the reality in less than a couple of months.

  Your choice of home — and how often you choose a new one — will determine your ability to accumulate wealth. According to The Millionaire Next Door, that wealthy family has been next door for quite a while. Half of millionaires have lived in the same house for more than 20 years.

  In Stop Acting Rich, Thomas Stanley digs deeper into how your address affects your spending, writing:

  Nothing has a greater impact on your wealth and your consumption than your choices of house and neighborhood. If you live in a high-price home in an exclusive community, you will spend more than you should and your ability to save and build wealth will be compromised…. People who live in million-dollar homes are not millionaires. They may be high-income producers but, by trying to emulate glittering rich millionaires, they are living a treadmill existence.

  He cites several statistics to back this up, including:

  Ninety percent of millionaires live in homes valued below $1 million; 28.3% live in homes valued at $300,000 or less. On average, millionaires have a mortgage that is less than one-third of the value of their homes.

  If you really want to reduce your housing bill, join the 67,000 millionaires who live in mobile homes.

  If you’re looking to buy a home, Stanley provides this advice: “The market value of the home you purchase should be less than three times your household’s total annual realized income.”

  The majority of successful entrepreneurs own their cars, rather than lease. Approximately a quarter have a current-year model, but another quarter drive a car that is four years old or older. More than a third tend to buy used vehicles. What is the most popular car maker among millionaires, according to Stop Acting Rich? Toyota.

  So who’s driving all those BMWs and Mercedes? Not millionaires. Eighty-six percent of “prestige/luxury” cars are bought by non-millionaires. In fact, Stanley writes that “one in three people who traded in their old car for a new one were upside down and owed more on the trade-in than its market value.” It’s tough to get wealthy doing stuff like that.

  “Stop buying things you don’t need, to impress people you don’t even like.” – Suze Orman

  Action Point Three: You need to start paying yourself first, at the moment the chances are good that the only person you are paying first is the IRS. This is part of the 9
to 5 trap and before you even get to the money you have earned, the taxman has been there first and there is a very good reason he does this. Most people live in a world where the months are too long to fit the money we are given for our contribution to the rat race. The taxman wants paying before you get to the point in the month where you have to tighten your belt. You need to set up an automatic payment that will leave your account the very same day you get paid. This should be put into a savings account that you have limited access to. The sort of account whereby if your child needs an emergency operation then you could access the funds but with enough penalties and incentives to keep the money untouched that if you get the urge to upgrade the TV then you will find that it is not worth your while to withdraw the money.

  Ideally you should be aiming to pay yourself 15% to 30% before you get anywhere near your salary. However, I do appreciate that if you are currently struggling to make ends meet then that suggestion won’t seem very doable at the moment. Even if you can only currently afford to save 1% of your income, then do it! This is one of the key habits of millionaires and the super rich. Start small if you have to but do start now.

  Action Point Four: Be careful about small expenses

  All of us are usually careful about making big investments and huge purchases. However, we tend to spend recklessly on seemingly small expenses.

  But of course, these small expenses can amass to a big amount.

  As I have said previously, I never advocate recklessly quitting the day job and just hoping you find a way to make ends meet. I also think you will struggle if you use the loss of a regular job through dismissal or redundancy as the deciding factor of when to go after your dream. This sort of thing needs to be meticulously planned and prepared for. In my case I spent a full year in continuous planning for the day I resigned my director level job and all the benefits that came with it. Part of this planning process has to include saving. There can be no vacations, no new cars, no special birthday treats – nothing! At least during the prep period. Make your family aware of the reasons why you have turned into Scrooge McDuck and explain it is only a short term thing.

  As Suze Orman rightly points out, “Look everywhere you can to cut a little bit from your expenses. It will all add up to a meaningful sum.”

  Action Point Five: Focus on the future - It is very easy to spend money for getting something that we like but at the end of the day, you will end up spending everything no matter how well you earn. Shift your focus to the future instead of getting satisfaction in the present.

  “You can be young without money, but you can’t be old without it.” – Tennessee Williams

  Action Point Six: Put things in black and white - There are so many expenditures in today’s world that you would end up without any savings if you don’t plan and budget your money; the inflows and the outflows. Wealthy people know where their money comes from and where it goes.

  An Excel sheet can really help you in this regard.

  “A budget is telling your money where to go, instead of wondering where it went.”- John C. Maxwell

  Action Point Seven: Work hard - Unlike the common perception that wealthy people just have fun and enjoy their life, the reality is that they work harder than the common person. It’s important to point out that hard work doesn’t mean exhausting yourself trying to push a rock up a hill for someone else. Find your purpose in life and throw every ounce of your passion, energy and love into it. Most millionaires are not sitting on their yacht for ten months of the year. They are workaholics but for them work is not a bind; it is their passion… they would do it forever if they could. If you don’t currently feel like that about what you are doing to earn money, I am afraid to say you will never become rich this way.

  “I like business and the truth is I save way more than I spend. I invest. I plan for the future. I have a special eye for opportunities and work harder than anyone might expect.” – Sofia Vergara

  Action Point Eight: Have multiple streams of income: Self-made millionaires do not rely on only a single source of income. Instead, they develop multiple streams, and most have at least three.

  "Sixty-five percent had three or more streams of income that they created over time,"

  "Diversifying your sources of income allows you to weather the economic downturns that always occur in life."

  Revenue streams include real estate rentals, stock market investments, annuities, private equity investments, part ownership in side businesses, ancillary products, or services, and royalties.

  “Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving.” – Warren Buffet

  Action Point Nine: The Rules of Cats & Dogs – I want you to think about money a little differently. Imagine for me that the rat race is a dog and entrepreneurship is a cat. Dogs are very loyal animals they will stay with you through thick and thin. If you want attention from the dog, just focus your time and effort in it’s direction and it will reward you with its dedication and affection. This all sounds very lovely but remember in this metaphor the dog is bringing you nothing but poverty and misery. The more you focus on the dog the more dog you get.

  What happens when you want attention from a cat? If you grab the cat and try to stroke it, then it will most likely strike at you and run away. If you go running after the cat it will run up a tree out of your reach or scurry under the sofa where you cannot find it. If you are a cat owner you will know first hand they care very little about what you want out of the deal. If you want the attention and affection of the cat you must almost appear to ignore it. While you are busy trying to get on with other stuff the cat will seek out your time and attention. I know from personal experience that the time my cats want me the most is when I am busy at my computer typing away. I normally sit writing with one on my knee and another attempting to lie down on the keyboard. However, one night when I had received some bad news and I was feeling very low I picked up Mishu (our oldest and biggest cat) and tried to give him a hug – he nearly took my face off!

  The point of the Rule of Dogs & Cats is this. You don’t quit the 9 to 5 because you want to be rich. Wealth is not something you get by going after it. You become rich while you are busy doing something else. Success as an entrepreneur and the wealth that follows is not measured by how much you want money but rather by how many other people you are helping, how many needs you are fulfilling. If you don’t have as much abundance in your life as you want, you must first ask yourself ‘how can I serve the needs of people more’? Getting obsessed with money and focusing on it’s accumulation will only get you ignored by the very thing you need the most.

  Action Point Ten: The super tight purse strings of the prep period are an exception. Once you become successful following your passion dump the Scrooge McDuck routine ASAP. Hoarding money is not very different from being poor. In both circumstances the mindset about money is one of scarcity. This reciprocal law applies to everything in life. If you want more love you can’t hope to achieve this end by never giving away your own love to someone else. If you want more money, then make space for money to flow into your life. It might seem counter intuitive to give away money in order to get more money but this is exactly why most people don’t ever escape the Rat Race.

  There is an old Chinese proverb that demonstrates this principle well. Once, a long time ago, there was a wise Zen master. People from far and near would seek his counsel and ask for his wisdom. Many would come and ask him to teach them, enlighten them in the way of Zen. He seldom turned any away.

  One day an important man, a man used to command and obedience came to visit the master. “I have come today to ask you to teach me about Zen. Open my mind to enlightenment. But before you start I must tell you, I am very successful and have already achieved a lot with my life. So, please skip the basics and get right to the advanced level stuff.” The tone of the important man’s voice was one used to getting his own way.

  The Zen master smiled and said that they should discuss the matter
over a cup of tea. When the tea was served the master poured his visitor a cup. He poured and he poured and the tea rose to the rim and began to spill over the table and finally onto the robes of the wealthy man. Finally, the visitor shouted, “Enough. You are spilling the tea all over. Can’t you see the cup is full?”

  The master stopped pouring and smiled at his guest. “You are like this tea cup, so full that nothing more can be added. Come back to me when the cup is empty. Come back to me with an empty mind.”

  Essentially when you see money as a fluid element in your life then you create the mindset to allow it to flow in abundance. Ideally you would save a third of your income, give away a third and live on the remaining third. In the real world it will never be as fixed as this but if you are serious about joining the super-rich then give generously to worthy causes and dedicate yourself to helping other people. Remember that classic saying coined by the late, great Zig Ziglar “You will get anything and everything you want in life. If you will just help enough other people to get what they want”.