278. A Fixed Income Is a Sucker Bet

A Fixed Income Is a Sucker Bet By Steve Pavlina Do you live on a fixed income, earning the same amount of money paycheck after paycheck? Maybe you pick up a cost of living adjustment or a raise now and then (or suffer a pay cut or reduction in hours), but barring any major changes like getting promoted, fired, or laid off, is your income fairly stable and predictable? Do you have a good sense of what you’re going to earn during the next 3 months? Would it be exceedingly unlikely for you to earn double or triple – or half – of that anticipated amount? If this describes you, then who decided to fixify your income? Who made that decision? You made that decision, didn’t you? You decided to earn a fixed amount of money per month. You can trace your decisions back to some moment where you said yes to a fixed income. Are you aware that saying yes was entirely optional? In fact, if you give it some thought (which I’ll encourage you to do in this article), you should be able to see that accepting a fixed income is a rather stupid choice, all things considered. A fixed income is a sucker bet. How is that choice working out for you so far? Are you blissfully delighted with it? Do you like knowing that you’ll earn the same amount of money month after month? Does it feel comforting to know how much you’re going to make? Or is there some part of you that’s bored and frustrated beyond recognition? Do you like the stability of it? Is it truly stable, or is your feeling of security rooted in a hopeful illusion? If some individual can decide to turn off your income with the words “You’re fired,” it’s hardly stable. If that’s your situation, it’s safe to say your income is unstable and conditional rather than stable and secure. We can say that all income is conditional, but how stable are those conditions? Does someone else wield the power to turn off your income?