Attention All Hard Working Dads - Are You Playing 'Life' By The Old Rules?

Dads often accept a lifetime of getting the short end of the stick because they think everything will somehow work out in the end. But then, their work hours start getting longer and suddenly they find that their jobs are no longer as safe as they had thought. Look at your employment contract right now: what's your notice period? One month? Three months? That's exactly how much security you have. Don't kid yourself that you have permanence.

Of course, the job-for-life generation also told us that if we worked hard we'd end up with a great retirement. If we stuck at that soul-destroying job, when we were 60 we could live fabulously, travel and have a whale of a time (assuming you make it that far). Wait a minute... would those be with those same retirement plans that took a nose-dive in the crash of 2008? Where thousands upon thousands of regular Dads who had worked their whole life for the dream at the end were left stranded?

Analysts are predicting that a large percentage of the population won't be able to retire until their seventies or eighties. They have even gone so far as to brand this as 'The 45 Year Plan' (or 60 year plan for the very unlucky ones) where the average person works for 45 years (that's 90,000 hours by the way) in a thankless job that pretty much chews you up and spits you out with nothing more than a limp handshake and cheap wristwatch to thank you for committing to four decades of wage slavery.

This is the sad reality of the workplace today. The question is: are you still playing by the old rules? Jobs have not always been the default way to make a living. Prior to the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s, working for yourself was seen as a normal and laudable pursuit.

Some of you may be thinking, 'But I love my job!', 'My company is the best', 'I've never had it so good', 'It's what I studied hard for', 'I've got my eye on that management position'. And so long as you can comfortably accept the following 3 facts, good luck to you:

1. Full time employment is the equivalent to being self-employed with only one client (your employer). If they get into trouble, there goes your income.

2. Someone else is in control of your life. As an employee, the reality is that you have little control over the source of your income. If you already have a lot of debt, your employer can determine whether you get your next pay cheque or end up on the streets.

3. Someone else has control of what you do, when you work, what you earn, what you work on, and when you are allowed to take a day off. You abdicate choice over what you do every day for most of your life in exchange for a pay cheque.