How to Escape The Rat Race?
The rat race is a way of life in modern society, in which people compete with each other for power and money.
In other words, the rat race can be described as chasing a goal of happiness that moves every time you reach it. Typically it looks like this:
- Finish school and enter the college
- Finish college and find the job
- Get married
- Have children
- Become the CEO
- Buy an expensive house and car
- Retire.
The best representation I have ever seen of the rat race is Steve Cutts short film named “Happiness”, take a look.
The problem
The main problem of the rat race is that you never reach your goal of happiness. Every time you almost there, it moves and you need something more to be happy. You work harder to spend more money on products that should make you happy, but it does just for a very short time. You put all your energy and hard work to compete with others for promotion or a raise, so there is no time left for the family. At the end of your life, you understand that you lived a boring and useless life, and the biggest regret you have is that your children will live the same rat race life since they do not know any better.
Solution
So how to escape the rat race? First of all, you need a plan. In fact, you need three plans: short-term, mid-term, and long-term.
Start from a long-term plan, think about what you want, about what you really want. What you want if money would be no problem? In other words, if you already have all the things money can buy, like a house, car, and luxury life you wish. So the main question is what will you do when you no longer need to work if you retire this second?
When you know what you really want, think, maybe you already have it, or maybe you just need to be brave and make your side hustle like singing, painting, or cooking the main work as it makes you the happiest you ever felt. Sometimes it's the little things that make us happy.
Having a long-term plan, you split it into smaller bits and have mid-term and short-term plans. The long-term plan will probably never change, but the mid-term plan might change a bit, where the short-term plan should change very often, usually every year.
Secondly, you need to set your financial mindset for saving, investing, having passive income sources, and balanced frugality. Here are some of the best quotes for seeking an escape from the rat race:
“Never depend on a single income”,
“Make investments to create a second source”,
“If you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you need”,
“Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving”,
“Never save the depth of a river with both feet”.
— Warren Buffett
For setting your mentality I recommend the book Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki. Here you will find the main difference between assets and liabilities.
Lastly, act. Knowing everything, in theory, is nothing if you won't do it in practice. When you have a plan and set your mindset toward a better future, you need to start now.
- Increase your income by doing side hustles
- Save every coin you can by living frugally
- Invest in assets which creates passive income
- When passive income will reach your spendings level, you will be financially independent and now you can escape the rat race any time you like, just keep in mind what you learn during the journey since getting back into the race will be faster than escaping from it.
Conclusion
Escape the rat race is not as simple as it might look from first sight. You need discipline and most of all you need motivation. You should truly want to change your future and work extra hard and extra smart now, to live effortlessly in a decade.
“If you don't find the way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.” — Warren Buffett
