by: Liron Rose
It is a common say today that there is now job security whatsoever - that is true fact worldwide - US, Europe (see what is happening in Germany), Australia or any other developed country.
What basically happens is that globalization causes our jobs to be relocated to countries which have cheaper labor. For example, many programmer jobs are being moved to India, Russia, Estonia etc... where labor might cost only ten percent of its cost in a developed country.
So - its time to forget the golden watch and the dream of easy sweet retirement at 65. And as far as that is concerned things are getting even more complicated since we tend to live longer years but have less children - who is going to pay for our pensions?
Governments are already in the process of changing the laws and we could reasonably expect the official retirement age to be raised to 67 and perhaps 70 in the next few years. Also the social benefits system of some countries is in dire straits with too many claims by the impoverished and a too small contribution of the middle working class.
Robert Kayosaki in his book Rich Dad Poor Dad has pointed out that we live in an age where we must ensure that we have Multiple Sources of Income. He correctly identified four ways of earning money:
Kayosaki argues that an individual seeking financial freedom should try to position himself in both nos. (3) and (4), which is exactly what the rich do - they either own a business (its management can be outsourced at a cost to a professional manager) , or invest surplus capital in other people's business - and both these do not require an individual to work (i.e. trade time for money).
The point is basically to be free from being wholly dependent of an employer.
A wise man does not work for money, but lets money work for him.