There is a classic Peanuts comic strip that shows Charlie Brown opening his lunch on a few consecutive days and dreading what he finds. Finally, Lucy asks Charlie Brown who makes his sandwiches. He says that he does!
Many of us continue to go to work day after day, fully aware that we can do better but not doing whatever it takes to change our destinies. How are your sandwiches? If you have read this far, the answer is probably not so great. Isn’t it time to make a new one?
I speak and write extensively about the modern workplace, and I have and continue to represent both employers and employees. And, when I provide guidance it is not about picking sides, or convincing you that employers are bad and employees are good. Instead, it is about providing you with a guide to the modern workplace—the loyalty-free workplace—so that you can make informed decisions and achieve unprecedented success.
One theme that runs through all of my books is that it is critical for everyone–both employers and employees–to re-evaluate how we look at employment. The reality is that most of us will not work for the same employer for our entire working life. Because of this, I focus on the significance of what I refer to as side hustles, which are projects or income streams that are designed to supplement our primary job and source of income.
Why is this so critical? First, your side hustle will serve as a safety net in case your initial stream is disrupted. Remember, even if your primary income stream is stable, in the loyalty-free workplace there are no guarantees. There are factors beyond your control, such as your boss or economic conditions, that can work against you. No one is immune from circumstances that can result in the sudden loss of your job and possible financial disruption. The trick is to safeguard yourself with a Plan B (and maybe even a Plan C) so that you can withstand whatever disruption occurs while still propelling your income to new heights. Establishing this foundation will go a long way toward eliminating the financial chaos that may otherwise materialize if you rely on a single income stream.
Further, even if you do not lose your job, a second income can help you recover from a financial shortfall if we do not receive a financial payment we had expected from our primary employer. In a perfect world, each year we will earn more money than we did the year before, plus we will likely experience large jumps in salary as we move from one company to another. But we do not live in a perfect world, and as such, there may be times when our salaries will not increase as much as anticipated.
Suppose your company decides to forgo holiday bonuses because its stock value has dropped. Or perhaps the company lost a lucrative account, or is about to be acquired by another company, or is facing a lawsuit that requires them to spend millions of dollars on a legal defense, a legal settlement, or even to pay a damage award. Regardless of the reason, you were likely counting on that bonus, and now you are not going to get it. Consequently, the amount of money you expected to make that year has been significantly reduced. The problem, of course, is that you still have bills to pay. In some cases, when an employer is faced with a crisis, your wages may be frozen. This may address your employer’s shortfall, but your mortgage or rent payment will likely be the same and in most cases will have continued to rise. Having a secondary income will not only lessen the impact of an unexpected shortfall, but it assures that you receive a least a small perpetual paycheck to help you ride out the storm.
Consider a stock market analogy: companies often have some investments that are not high performers. Because there are ebbs and flows to any business, the gains of the better performers tend to offset the losses of the poorer ones. So if you own one stock that is doing particularly well and another that continues to decline, your investments may still show an overall gain despite this unsettling period. Knowing that a reduced tax liability for the high performer will counteract the loss from the low performer, you might elect to sell a portion of each investment.
This is precisely how you should handle your streams of income. Your primary stream will cover your regular expenses, while your secondary stream will carry you through those times when your primary earnings do not perform, so to speak, as expected.
This is just one of the many significant benefits of a side hustle, and a number of them may truly surprise you. And, there are a lot of different ways to find a side hustle, and there are many reasons why some types of side hustles are going to be more beneficial than others. Are you interested in learning more about side hustles and other strategies to navigate today’s workplace? I have you covered! Head over to Amazon to check out my new book, The Perpetual Paycheck: 5 (more) Secrets to Finding a Job, Keeping a Job, and Earning an Income for Life in the Loyalty-Free Workplace to learn more.
Thanks for reading and best of luck in your job search. I know you can do it!
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