Income Options

Option 1: A job: That's the trading-time-for-money trap we talked about before. No matter what you earn, there's neither security nor freedom in having a job. Having a job means you are two words away from the street-"you're fired!"

          

          Zig Ziglar, one of America's top sales motivators, once described the word JOB as "Just Over Broke." And in today's changing work world, the only for-sure-secure jobs are few and far between ones at the very top-or the millions of menial jobs at the very bottom.

Option 2: Self-Employment: Most people fed up with being fired will turn to self employment in an effort to create more security in their work. However, as I pointed out earlier, the odds are stacked against you even for starting up the most modest of conventional small businesses-much less keeping it open and making it profitable.

               

          If you're one of the few who make it past the first couple of years, you've got a chance, be realistic-you have less than a 1% chance of making your business 10 years or longer.

Option 3: Investments: This is how the rich get rich and how Palm Beach socialites maintain their estates and pay their country club dues. Problem is, it takes a TON of cash to maintain even a modset retirement. A million dollars ain't what it used to be. Do the math. With a million dollars in CDs paying 5% interest, you'd earn an annual income of $50,000 a year before taxes without ever touching the principle. After payroll and income taxes, that would leave you about $31,000 to spend on your million-dollar investment.(And that's assuming you have a million in the first place).