Can you survive without a job?

I got thinking about this recently when we had dinner with friends who are new migrants.

The husband had just received a job offer from the Government, and you could tell the couple were elated.

He's waited six months, sending out applications and waiting for the phone call or email that can change his life and his family's financial position.

For a highly qualified Singapore professional, being jobless in a foreign First World country can be excruciating, a sort of baptism by fire.

That got me thinking.

Is it possible to have a life where you make money without getting a job?

Can you go against herd instinct and make money in other ways?
Why does everyone seem to think that getting a job is the best and only way to make money?

I was at the doctor's today for laryngitis. J had a nasty cough as well.

When I requested a medical certificate, the doctor's first question was: "What work do you do?"

I had to explain that I'm a stay-home mum, and that the MC was actually for my husband because he's taking carer's leave to look after us.

So he made out the MC in my husband's name.

It struck me as particularly galling that being a stay-home requires me to justify the work I do.

Perhaps I should have said "I am a writer" or "I am an online business owner".

Even then, I suspect the doctor would have looked suspiciously at me and thought I was being funny.

Isn't it interesting how the default position is that everyone who is able-bodied and not studying or raising a family should have a job?

Look at the way superannuation and bank loans are designed.

If you are an employee, your organization puts in the 9% or 17% contribution into your super.

The seeds of your retirement funds start from there.

When you want to borrow money to buy a house, the bank calculates your borrowing capacity and your serviceability capacity.

One criteria they use is your income.

Without evidence of a stable income over a period of at least 12 months, you might have to resort to borrowing from a second-tier financial insitution at a possibly higher interest rate (what they call lo-doc or no-doc loans).

How do you demonstrate a stable income over a length of time?

Again, a job is the best way to do it.

And yet, when you think of it, a job is hardly any form of security these days.

Recently, Ford Australia laid off 600 jobs. This was followed by a second-round cut of 350 jobs. On the same day that the 350 job cuts were announced, the company president resigned and returned to USA.

We are talking of nearly a thousand workers and their families whose livelihoods are suddenly threatened through a corporate decision completely outside their control.

If these workers receive job offers soon after, good for them.

What happens if they don't?
What happens if their reserves run out before the next job offer comes along?
What if they are single-income families where one spouse has stayed home to raise the kids?
What if there's an accident resulting in a disability, and the insurance company or TAC drags its feet about paying out?

These are the possibilities no one likes to think about.

We think it won't happen to us.

But bad things do happen every day that could threaten our family's welfare and put us in financial stress.

Studies have shown that finances are the main cause of domestic disputes.

If the sole source of income dries up, what then?

It is too awful to think about, so most of us refuse to go there.

But this is precisely why we need to make advance preparations.

We have to start thinking of alternative ways to make money while we are relatively financially stable, not when that stability is gone.

Banks lend money to you when you don't need it.

When you actually need money, you can be fairly certain the bank manager will politely show you the door.

Let's think for a minute of alternatives.

If you haven't got a job, or don't plan on getting one because you hate being tied down to one organization (which in a sense is what having a job is about), you could do one of several things:

• Hire yourself out as a freelancer or consultant, and do what you're skilled at, but for many clients rather than one. This way, you diversify your risk. If one client folds, there are always others.
• Convert a hobby into a stream of income. Teach music to the kids in your neighbourhood, walk people's pets, sell hand-crafted jewellery at craft fairs.
• Do jobs most people would be glad to pay someone else to do. Mow lawns, distribute fliers, do packing at ALDI's, do the ironing for someone who hates domestic chores.
• Start a business. If you have the capital and your market research has turned up an opportunity for your kind of business, by all means go for it. You could start from scratch or invest in a franchise. Not many people have access to large amounts of capital though, so if this is your situation, you may have to consider other low-cost ways of doing business.
• How about joining an MLM company? Of course you will have to do your due diligence and evaluate the opportunity before you part with a single cent.
• Now consider going online, like so many people dream of doing. When you do your research carefully, you will be surprised at how easily the Internet medium lends itself to all sorts of individuals, life situations and types of businesses. Including all the ones we've just discussed.

An online business is the perfect income-producing avenue for almost anyone.

Retirees who want to enjoy life their own way.

Career changers who - like 72% of American households - want to work from home.

Work at home parents looking for a way to help with the family expenses while looking after the kids.

Info publishers and infopreneurs.

Turn your specialist knowledge about something people want into a stream of income.

Elad did it with kids' parties.



Sellers of hard goods. You could be a maker of goods, a sourcer of goods, an artist, or someone who has found a unique way to present an array of goods from different sources.

Sellers of e-goods.Watch Tomaz turn tennis into checks.

Affiliate marketers who specialize in marketing and selling other people's products. They get a commission on each sale they make.

Network marketers who prefer a unique website to the company's duplicate website. With your own website, you have a better chance of reaching out to more qualified prospects than you could ever find time to meet or call individually.

Real estate agents. If you are an agent, you may have discovered that your company website doesn't do much to help you grow your business. How do you capture some of that online passing traffic and use it to bring in the buyers and sellers who are interested in the properties you are listing?

It's incredible just how useful and how flexible the Internet is. It can help you start a business, take control of your career and finances, and enhance the quality of your lifestyle to fit better with what you most love doing.