If you want to become wealthy then let money work for you. But if you have no money to invest, then invest your time. But most people have no time to invest. Why? Because they think that working harder and longer will make them richer. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Have a look at these facts:
The average U.S. worker spends 1,804 hours per year at work, the highest output in the world.
56% of Americans report doing work from home
20% report doing it every day of the week
25% didn’t take any time off last year
43% took less than a week off
Those numbers represent a 400% increase in productivity since 1960 and a lot of tired, time-constrained US workers. But the inflation-adjusted wage growth for the middle class has stayed stagnant or declined. According to the Economic Policy Institute, from 1973 to 2013, the hourly compensation of a typical production/nonsupervisory worker rose just 9%, while productivity increased 74%. So, working more does not necessarily mean you make more money.
The difference between Employee/Self-Employed and Business Owner/Investor is that the first group is often too hands-on. They fall into the classic error that it’s more important to work in your business than on your business. By getting occupied in day-to-day details, they never work on the business to take it to the next level. They don’t trust that anyone can do a better job than them, and they don’t trust a system that can run without them. They are the barrier to their own success.
People work more to earn more money. The problem with this approach is that you only make money as long as you work. The only thing of value that you have to sell is your time. So, in order to make more money, you have to work longer hours, which is physically stressing. Because you only have a finite amount of time and energy, as an employee, your earning potential is limited.
The wealthy invest their time different. They do not invest in more work. It is a poor mindset to think to trade the finite resource of time for money. The wealthy invest money or time in investments and businesses that provide steady cash flow each month and let this cash-flow or money work for them. Adding assets doesn’t require working longer or harder because they provide steady passive income, even your are not working.
Sven Franssen