Years ago, in our parents and grandparent’s generation, the phrase ‘work-life balance’ was not heard of. People just got on with what they had to do.

But now you want better work-life balance. Well, everyone does.

Obviously, the reason for this is we believe we deserve more free time to enjoy other things in life outside our job. But most of us are not feeling we are getting a good balance between work and life nowadays.

But there is a new way to achieve the right balance that was not possible for the previous generations. And this is not by packing up and moving into a commune.

Let me explain.

Good income + more free time = balance

via GIPHY

OK, first of all, what I want to make clear is what the right balance between work and life actually looks like. I believe the definition is this;

‘Having more time to do the things I enjoy while my income stays the same or increases’.

Do you agree?

Having said this, we cannot create more time in a day as each of us only have 24 hours a day so, what we really mean by this is;

‘I work fewer hours than I do now in order to earn the same amount of income or more’.

Basically, if we can spend fewer hours working without reducing our current income, we will create time to do other things we enjoy, and then we feel the right balance between work and life is achieved.

Earn while you sleep

If you have a stream of income coming in regularly, whether you wake up and go out to work or not, the pressure to constantly produce income is reduced.

Creating a passive income used be reserved for those who are already rich or have a large capital investment which in return provides a regular income.

However, the internet of things has given ordinary people like us an opportunity like never before and is regarded as the 4th industrial revolution. This is also known as Industry 4.0.

But this is not an industrial revolution like the ones in the past. This time it is the workers who are in charge of their own destiny. But this is so, only if we can harness the potential and use it properly.

Klaus Schwab of The World Economic Forum says in his book The Fourth Industrial Revolution “Today, a middle-class job no longer guarantees a middle-class lifestyle, and over the past 20 years, the four traditional attributes of middle-class status (education, health, pensions and house ownership) have performed worse than inflation.”

This is quite scary for us who grew up believing working faithfully to move up the corporate ladder was the way to live. There is no longer a guarantee that we are going to have a pension to live on.  The pension is a whole different topic and I have written a separate article about this. But the millennial and the younger generations have already woken up to the idea of generating a passive income by using the internet. Earning money using the internet is no longer a ‘hype’ or a ‘trend’.

That is the way forward if you want to harness the opportunity.

Relative income vs absolute income

Most people are obsessed with measuring income by the annual gross income. That is because the average of 40-hour working weeks is the norm. We’ve got used to defining someone’s financial status by stating their annual gross income. We assume people work full time to produce that income.

But what if there are two people earning the same amount of money per year, let’s say $50,000, one works 40 hours a week and the other only works 20 hours a week?

Which of those two people are better off, have more balanced life and possibly more fulfilled, do you think?

Always think in relative income rather than absolute income. You will start to develop the mindset taught by Tim Ferriss the author of The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich.

Your job is costing you money

via GIPHY

You think you are going out to a job to earn money. Right?

But there is a cost associated with that. For example, if you commute to work, there is a cost of commuting, such as the cost of vehicle fuel, insurance, wear and tear or public transport fares. If you pay for childcare or school holiday camp, that is a significant cost in itself. And what about the work clothes. Do you wear what you wear to work any other time? If not, clothes and possibly shoes are costs associated with your job.

There might be other costs you don’t normally think about. Such as additional takeaways and cost of eating out, because you are too tired to cook. Don’t forget about the additional treatment therapies you pay for relieving stress or pampering sessions you have regularly but actually not necessary if you were not so tired or stressed out in the first place.

What about the additional cost of having someone clean your house or a paying for a dog walker because you are not around or too exhausted to do it yourself.

There are things you are paying for BECAUSE you have to go out to work in the current job.

Now add all those costs up and see who much it actually costs to go to work. The formula to work this out is;

The annual cost of all of these (transport for commuting + childcare + working clothes/shoes + unnecessary take away + unnecessary eating outs + stress related medication and other unnecessary costs) / number of weeks you work

Then you can see what it is costing you each working week.

Look at it another way, if you didn’t have to go out to do your job, the income you need to produce will be less.

For example, if you are able to work for yourself, from home or anywhere you want, work flexible hours to suit, and be around for your kids and pets, and ultimately less stressed overall, you will be saving all that money! It’s a win-win!

Invest in yourself and your future

It might be difficult to get your head around what I have said but I truly believe that the right balance can only be achieved by working smarter, not harder. We can do this by using the readily available tool called the internet.

Learning how to use it to generate an income is the new type of education. If you don’t want to be left behind in this digital economy, now is the time to invest in your future by learning this skill.

I hope you’ve found the above useful. If you have any questions or comments, please enter below and I will be more than happy to help you out.