As nearly everyone knows--often from personal experience--there is very little security in having a job these days--no matter how "good" it may be. Most jobs are at high risk of being eliminated in an eyeblink through corporate mergers, downsizing, and being out-sourced, to name a few of the major causes. As a result, instead of having a single career spanning 30 to 50 years, as was the norm a half century ago, most working people now are likely to have multiple careers during their working lives.



Another inherent downside of all jobs, however, is less commonly recognized due a deeply-ingrained prevailing belief that having a good job is sufficient for financial well-being. In today's world, this belief is as illusory as the Emperor's New Clothes.

As Robert Kiyosaki has pointed out so trenchantly in his best-selling book, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad," the inherent financial limitation of all jobs, including all forms of self-employment, is that they entail trading time for income. The income that they can generate, therefore, is intrinsically limited by the number of hours that one can work. For this basic reason, it's highly unlikely for anyone to achieve true financial independence through even the very best of jobs.

Actually, however, there is massive evidence that for the vast majority of working people, their job is aptly described by the increasingly prevalent acronym, J.O.B ("Just Over Broke"). Not only are most jobs not a route to financial independence, but even worse, they're a source of great stress and dissatisfaction. With married couples, this is often compounded by two jobs, instead of one.

Here are six of the main sources of this job distress:

1. Not being able to spend enough quality time with children. Parents working a full-time job pay a high price in terms of missing out on being with their children, especially during their early formative years. Correspondingly, their children often pay an even higher price by not receiving the degree and quality of nurturance they need. This is especially true when both parents are working.

2. The rising costs of commuting to and from work, along with the massive stress this commonly entails.

3. The high cost of daycare for pre-school children. When this cost is subtracted from the income earned by working, the net gain is often miniscule. If the long-term emotional costs entailed for both parents and children are taken into account, even this apparent short-term gain may actually prove to be a liability.

4. Not having adequate time or energy to prepare healthy meals. This often results in eating fast food that is nutritionally inadequate. This, in turn, commonly contributes to obesity and sub-optimal health.

5. Lack of control over working hours. Constantly being controlled by an inflexible work schedule is often a major source of chronic stress and dissatisfaction. Since chronic stress contributes markedly to all forms of illness, the cost of which is rising at an ever-accelerating rate, this is another massive long-term cost factor of a J.O.B.

6. Conflict with work supervisors and co-workers. Although this is not universal, research indicates that it's one of the most common sources of job dissatisfaction. To the degree that it's a problem, it's obviously another source of chronic stress with all of the immediate and long-term costs that this entails.

So is there a better alternative to a J.O.B.? There is, indeed, and it's one that increasing numbers of people are discovering and opting into. Generally speaking, this alternative consists in a carefully-chosen home business. The words, "carefully chosen" here are very important, however, because there are a huge number of potential options available that vary in quality from superb, through mediocre, to outright scams.

Therefore, in making the transition from a J.O.B. to a highly satisfying and financially rewarding home business, it's crucially important to proceed with great caution and on the basis of some important guidelines and caveats. These will addressed in a second companion article.

An important source of immediate information in this regard can be found on the author's website and/or blog listed below.