5 Reasons Millennials Shouldn't Depend on a 9-to-5 Job…

The vast majority of millennials believe that after acquiring a college degree, their next big step should be to get a job and work for a salary throughout their active years.

Related: 12 Ways to Hack Your 9-to-5 Job and Live Worry Free

This doesn’t sound so bad when you consider the traditional education-to-job path that schools and communities put us on.

However, the fact that as a millennial, you trade your time for money and get paid only when you work is enough to make you realize that everything is wrong with this approach. As Warren Buffett said, “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.” 

Despite the endless inconveniences, most individuals still depend on their stressful, low-paying 9-to-5 jobs for a number of reasons, one of which is that they are ignorant of reasons to create a side fix or some other way to earn money.

Another reason could be that they don’t know what else to do and how to do it and are unwilling to put in the work to find out — so they just suck it up and continue along the traditional path.

The fact is, there’s no better time to succeed than now. Just remember: Only intelligent individuals who disregard the path of the majority and create their own trail are able to just that.

In that regard, here are a few of many reasons to never depend on a 9-to-5 job.

1. Job insecurity

More and more graduates with impressive results are tossed aside by companies on a daily basis. As a result of the abysmal lack of jobs, most of these grads will take any job, at any pay rate, even when it’s way below what their educational level might indicate.

Hence, when a company sees someone ready to render the same services as you do, at a lower rate, it will naturally go for the cost-saving option.

In no time, the words, “You’re fired,” could be thrown at you and everything you depend on taken apart right before your eyes.

2. Limited experience

By depending on a particular job, all your expertise and knowledge will be devoted to that particular field. Though this can help you specialize more in that field, it can also serve as your gateway to failure because of:

• Company misadventures — While a company may be dominating the market and generating massive profit now, the future is never guaranteed. Catastrophes like bankruptcy can spring up at any time and force any company to do away with certain employees (including you). If and when this happens, it will become almost impossible for you to pick up the pieces and master a new skill/trade, since you’ve known only one all your life.
• New opportunities – New trends rise and generate massive income for many individuals on a daily basis. Such income streams could be through strategic investing or even franchising, which a lot of celebrities and mega sports stars are now focusing on once they retire.

However, if you focus only on your 9-to-5, you’ll find it difficult to learn of these trends, much less actually earn money off of them.

Related: 7 Desires That Drove Me Out of 9-to-5 Banking and Into Entrepreneurship

3. There is no lifelong pension anymore.

Gone are the days when almost all large companies paid pensions to workers who attained a certain age. Now, once employees grow weak and incapable, most business owners devise a way to lay them off — pathetically.

Hence, if you’ve decided to suck it up in the hope of pension at a later time, you might as well consider a different option now.

4. Limited space and time

No one working a 9-to-5 ever has enough opportunity to explore and engage in his or her desired activities. Everyone’s dream life is different — whether it’s climbing a tall mountain, exploring the world, etc. However, irrespective of what ideal lifestyle you crave, a rigid career life will never make it happen.

As a result, you can and will most likely be placed in a situation where you earn sustenance without freedom. And that can lead to poor life choices: A study of hospital emergency rooms led by drug addiction expert Maria Ulmer of Summit Behavioral Health, showed that 35 percent of patients in the study sample, being seen for an occupational injury, were at-risk drinkers.

5. Domination by an employer

Everyone wishes to be his or her own boss at some point in time — this means living on your terms and doing your things your own way. Depending solely on a single job creates a greater potential that you will undervalued or underappreciated because your employer is aware of your apparent lack of alternatives.

Related: Did Millennials Kill the 9-to-5 Workday, or Just Point Out That It’s Dead?

Given the reasons noted above, it is clear that depending on a single income source is never a good option, let alone a low paying 9-to-5 job.

Lanre Onibalusi

 Lanre Onibalusi is a Digital Marketing Expert / Consultant with almost a decade worth of experience. He majored in Economics at the University of Ibadan and is currently a self-employed entrepreneur. A huge part of his expertise invol…

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