This article will interest you if you work in paid employment, and enjoy the security of a regular salary.

Someday you’ll have to leave that job. Will you be ready to make that transition successfully when the time comes?

I discuss a major oversight that makes many who thrive on salaried jobs little prepared for the challenge of surviving outside paid employment. I end by suggesting practical strategies you can use.

A Potential Side Effect Of Earning Salaried Income, That’s Often Overlooked

A job that pays well, and is comfortable, has the tendency to give an employee a false sense of security if she forgets she’ll have to retire someday!

People who work with large and prosperous (e.g Fortune 500) companies can be especially prone to making the above error.

Let me share a true story that made me discover how dangerous this mindset can be to any salary earner.

Between 1994 and 1998, while working in a large multinational as a manager, I let myself forget there was an outside world I would return to after my time in paid employment.

Thankfully a visit to my office by someone who had sat in my chair ten years eariler served as my wakeup call.

He had spent over 25 years rising to a senior management position before departing with a hefty retirement cheque to the tune of many millions.

But as the saying goes “If money talks, the only thing we ever hear it say is goodbye!”

A few years later, all the millions were gone. And there he stood that day asking if he could get a contract to conduct training for employees.

My answer had to be in the negative since we had a standing rule that only approved training providers be used.

Before he left, he looked at me and said “You know I did this job you’re doing now, over ten years ago.”

I replied truthfully that I’d heard and read a lot about him. As he left, I told myself that I would do anything necessary to give myself a better chance of surviving in the real world post paid employment, than he’d had.

That decision eventually led me to make an early exit from paid employment. I felt I would need the advantage of my relative youth to tackle the challenges I would face.

The benefit of hindsight reveals clearly that doing so has in no small way given me the energy and resilience to get where I am today – ten years later.

What About YOU?

Are you prepared for that eventuality of leaving your secure salaried income?

Think about the job you get paid so well to do where you work right now.

If you had to do the exact same job related tasks as an independent operator, without access to the perks/benefits provided by your company, how successful would you be?

Imagine for instance that as an IT professional, instead of using the cosy office, flashy car and spending money your employer provides, you have to personally serve client companies as a self employed IT consultant.

Do you think you’d be able to get those you approach to readily pay you anything close to what you’d earn for your equivalent time/effort back in paid employment?

Would those clients you serve be prepared to pay you as well as your current employer, just showing up for instance?

It’s doubtful that will happen…if all you do for them is to show up and put in the bare minimum work – like some people do on their jobs!

But you could get them to pay you much more than your salary equivalent, if you implement solutions that deliver valuable savings in money, time and effort to them.

Not everyone readily appreciates this point however.

Yet it is often the reality they may have to face when eventually they leave paid employment.

Practice Doing Enough To Justify Your Salary

The above is why I strongly recommend that employees use their time at work to diligently practice putting in enough quality work effort to justify the salaries they earn.

Doing so will make them avoid developing the complacency that comes from knowing that they’ll get paid even if they exert themselves minimally.

It does not matter that your employer is not complaining.

This is actually about you making sure you’re competent to deliver enough value (that will command decent income post paid employment) – possibly by – doing what you do now as an employee.

Zig Ziglar once wrote with respect to the above, by challenging the reader to become a “meaningful specific” in the workplace.

He pointed out that some salaried persons who’ve been on a job 8 years, for instance, don’t have 8 years of experience.

Instead they have one year’s experience repeated over those 8 years.

Very true words indeed – and saddening too!

Final Words: Stay “Work” Fit & Acquire New/Useful Skills To Protect Yourself

It’s ironic that a positive job situation (of great pay and working conditions) is also capable of pushing people into a potentially harmful state of mind i.e complacency.

This could cause you to neglect taking timely/important action to weatherproof your income earning abilities well beyond your salaried years.

I once read about a famous entrepreneur who reportedly became very uncomfortable whenever it appeared things had been going smoothly for too long in his business.

He would consequently begin paying closer attention to things and checking/investigating to prevent any unexpected setbacks.

The above entrepreneur’s mental attitude is reflected in the quote below:

“A little dose of paranoia is healthy.”

Many salary earners routinely get paid their fat salaries even when they consistently fail to put in the bare minimum specified in their job descriptions.

Except for those who work on performance related commission, most employees get their pay checks as and when due by simply showing up every working day.

But the above situation can be dangerous to your long term financial health, if you let it make you complacent.

Remember that no situation is permanent, and things can change quite rapidly – for good or bad.

Sometimes great employees lose their jobs because the company they work for has a setback it cannot recover from, so that it has to let everyone go.

It therefore pays to be prepared!

Even your savings and investments may not be enough to help you maintain the living standard you prefer into your retirement years.

And that’s why with the tough financial times being so slow to depart globally, the skill to command substantial additional/alternative income by delivering value to others is a great asset to have today.

Don’t let your salary mislead you into thinking you need not prepare. Many people today are doing the smart thing of running part time businesses when they’re off duty from their routine jobs.

That’s a good way to get prepared.

It’s always better to be forearmed, so you can be safe instead of being sorry.

And your family will love you for your foresight.

Goodluck!