One day, I want to get out of the rat race; I want to break free of the cage.
What does getting out of the rat race mean? The meaning is different for each person, but to me, retirement and getting out of the rat race are synonymous: They both mean freedom from working out of necessity, simply to survive.
Getting out of the rat race means having the freedom to work on my own terms, doing what I love, and enjoying life without a daily grind.
So, how do we get there from here? I believe that there are three important strategies to getting out of the rat race:
- Cutting expenses
- Increasing income
- Having the proper mindset.
Cutting expenses
Cutting expenses is simple: a dollar saved is worth more than a dollar earned. Why? Well, our dollars get cut down in size by taxes and other expenses, before we even get to see them. Therefore, the first key to getting out of the rat race is to start practising frugality and to get out of expensive consumer debt!
Increasing income
The second strategy is to increase your income. There are many ways to go about this, including starting a side business, broadening your skill set in order to advance in your career, and moving to an area where the pay is good and your skills are in demand.
Having the proper mindset
Finally, in order to get out of the rat race, you have to believe in it. You have to be willing to be different; to be the guy (or gal) who doesn’t put all of his/her time and energy into keeping up with the Joneses. You have to be willing to defer some consumption today in order to enjoy higher consumption down the road. You have to have something to look forward to, something to dream for; something to live for beyond tomorrow.
Getting out of the rat race
Still wondering how you can move toward getting out of the rat race? Well, no worries, because I have a lot of great advice from my fellow Yakeziers, which covers everything from frugality, to passive income and online businesses, to inspiration and motivation. They have a lot of wisdom to offer in the list below specifically selected in order to help you get out of the rat race.
If you are part of the Yakezie challenge and I forgot to add you to the list below, please let me know and I will add you! Without further ado, here is the list:
- 151 Days Off: 2010 Goals
- Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance: MBA Course: Investing & Portfolio Management-Class 4 – Get Rich by being Passive
- Beating Broke: Beating Broke Rules: Dedication
- Bible Debt: You will fall for anything!
- Bucksome Boomer: Investing to Retire Early
- Budgeting in the Fun Stuff: Retirement Savings
- Canadian Finance Blog: Passive Income – How to Supplement Your Retirement
- Car Negotiation Coach: Save on gas – 11 extreme tips
- Christian Common Cents: Money Isn’t Good or Evil
- Conquering PF: Speak to the Future
- Consumerism Commentary: Start the Decade Off Right: Do Something You Love
- Cool to be Frugal: Transition From the Corporate World to Your Own Business – Lessons Learned
- Couple Money: Balancing Freelancing with an Office Job
- Darwin’s Money: US Austerity Coming Says Obama – How it Will Affect You
- Deliver Away Debt: The Debt Destroyer | The System
- Digging Out From Our Mess: How do you define RICH?
- Dr. Dean: Take This Short Personal Finance Quiz: I DARE YOU!
- Early Retirement Extreme: How I became financially independent in 5 years – Part I
- Eventual Millionaire: What is True Wealth?
- Everyday Tips and Thoughts: Social security – will it be around when you retire?
- Evolution of Wealth: Diversifying Your Income Streams
- FinancialBondage.org: Book review- Dave Ramsey The Total Money Makeover
- Financial Samurai: Feeling Like A Burden Is A Terrible, Terrible Thing
- Financially Digital: Banks or Money in the Sock Drawer?
- Financially Poor: The Path To Financial Freedom: Get Your Mind In The Game
- Free From Broke: Payoff Mortgage Faster – How Do I Do It? – Four Ways
- Frugal Confessions: ANNUALS VS. PERENNIALS: WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE ONE YEAR FROM NOW?
- Frugal Zeitgeist: Cheapest Countries 2010
- Funny about Money: Financial Freedom: An Overview
- Girl with the Red Balloon: The “why” in minimalism
- Invest It Wisely: Living to 100 and Beyond: Building an Infinite Portfolio
- Learn Save Invest: The Best Financial Advice
- Len Penzo dot Com: Behind the Green Curtain: An Insider’s View of the Millionaire Mind
- Little House in the Valley: Newlywed Financial Bliss Box
- Maximizing Money
- Miss Thrifty: Fiftysomethings with no money? Not me, guv!
- Money Beagle: Staying Motivated During The Personal Finance Blahs
- Money Crush: How to Make an iPhone App When You Don’t Know How to Program
- Money Funk: Early Retirement Extreme 21-Day Makeover
- Money Green Life: Budget Your Own Finances: Have More Control Of Your Money
- Money Help for Christians: Starting Your First Business: 5 Things You Should Know
- Money Reasons: Losing Control To Lifestyle Inflation
- More Style Than Cash: 25 More (Inexpensive) Ideas to Give Your Life Luxury
- My Financial Objectives: Everything Happens for a Reason
- My Journey to Millions: Time is Valuable Even When Creating Multiple Streams of Income
- My Money Minute: #015 — The MyMoneyMinute Economic Stimulus Plan (Part 1)
- Narrow Bridge Adventures: What is Inflation and How Does it Impact Me?
- Nerd Wallet: Unemployment is the Mother of All Invention
- Not Made Of Money: How to Prepare for your Retirement Early and Well
- One Money Design: Make Wise Financial Decisions: An Unhurried Approach
- Out of Debt Again: Saving Money on Energy
- Parenting Family Money: Five Steps To Improve Your Family’s Nutrition
- Peak Personal Finance: Are You Ready to Retire?
- Personal Dividends: Planning for a Prosperous Retirement
- Personal Finance By The Book: Debt Free in One Year: A True Story
- Personal Finance Firewall: The Importance of Extreme and Specific Focus
- Personal Finance Journey: 4 Milestones on Your Personal Finance Journey
- Planting Dollars: Is Passive Income Possible?
- Punch Debt In The Face: Don’t be the awkward cat lady.
- Rainy Day Saver: Do You Define Yourself By Your Job?
- Redeeming Riches: Will You Have Enough Retirement Savings?
- Retirement Investing Today: Investing mistakes I’ve made – not considering investment fund fees
- Saving Money Today: Famous Quotes About Money
- Simple Life in France: Radical simplicity, frugality–for couples only?
- Single Guy Money: If I Won the Lottery…
- Single Mom Rich Mom: The ratio-nal way to retire early
- Smart On Money: If Your House Is Worth Less Than You Owe, Is It OK To Just Stop Paying Your Mortgage And Walk Away?
- Squirrelers: Financial Freedom via Portfolio Income
- Stay at Home Mom CFO: Don’t Count Your Money Until it’s “There”
- Sweating The Big Stuff: The Millionaire’s Retirement Plan Is Backwards
- The Amateur Financier: Book Review: Rich Dad, Poor Dad
- The centsible life: Give without going broke
- The Consumer Boomer: Doh! Avoid These Retirement Blunders
- The Debt Hawk: 4 Steps To Change Your Relationship With Money Forever
- The Life of an Insurance Salesman: You Never Know Who Someone Might Know
- The Saved Quarter: The Best of The Yakezie Challenge
- The Wealth Artisan: Creating Space Series: Retire, or Work Until the End of Time
- Tight Fisted Miser: Mini-Retirements
- Ultimate Money Blog: Having a Baby- Is it Cheaper When You’re Younger, or Older?
- Watson Inc: Thoughts on Escaping The Rat Race
- Wealth Informatics: Different retirement plans – What is right for you?
- Wealth Pilgrim: Best Investments for Retirement Income
- Well-Heeled Blog: 5 Year Travel Plan: Making Your Travel Dreams a Reality
- youngandthrifty.ca: youngandthrifty review: Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
- Zordane.com: Making Extra Money – Good or Bad?
Carnivals
I was included in the following carnivals this week; if I forgot to mention you, please let me know!
Have a good weekend, everyone!
Nice pick, and thanks for doing this for everyone!
Sounds like you have a nice goal and plan!
thanks for the mention.
Mindset is so important — I’m glad you mentioned that!
Thanks for the link love!
Great list Kevin, thanks for putting it together!
Hello! Thank you for the mention. Have a great weekend.
Kevin
I love this quote “Getting out of the rat race means having the freedom to work on my own terms, doing what I love, and enjoying life without a daily grind.”
From a retired guy who now works because he wants to and enjoys life without the daily grind, I can assure you that it is a very doable goal. But I would also add this thought: enjoy the journey too. There could be a danger of thinking life will suddenly get great “some day”. The key, in my opinion, is to plan for tomorrow (all of the great tips you and fellow Yakezie members supplied) while thoroughly engaging in life every single day.
This is a great post and a great list. Thanks for including my post.
“I would also add this thought: enjoy the journey too. There could be a danger of thinking life will suddenly get great “some day”. The key, in my opinion, is to plan for tomorrow (all of the great tips you and fellow Yakezie members supplied) while thoroughly engaging in life every single day.”
You are quite right; we need to take steps to enjoy the journey along the way, because the dream may not be realizable tomorrow. Getting out of the rat race doesn’t have to be an on-off switch, but can be something we realize a little bit more of each and every day.
Good list. I like that reminder too. Most people do want to eventually leave the rat race, and are making plans accordingly. But we should still take time to enjoy today, and the journey towards financial independence.
Good point, Darren. Escaping the rat race is simply a move to another phase of life rather than an end in and of itself, and we should also take care to enjoy life along the way!
Kevin, thanks for including my article from the MBA series!! You are doing great!! I’ve found an amazing truth-write down your goals and aspirations and most of the time, they come true!! (Of course you have to take some action too!) Regards, Barb
It actually does help to make it more concrete when you put pen to paper… or keyboard to document
Great list! Thanks so much for taking the time to include our post!
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Kevin, thank you so much for including my post Saving Money on Energy!
Great roundup!
Thanks for putting together the wrap! I have an idea for breaking free from the cage….. and that is by changing the word cage to something else positive. Then perhaps we will never want to break free!
Best, Sam
@Sam – It’s better to change the aspects of the world that make people use the word cage to describe it. Otherwise, I had an idea: Let’s change the dictionary and eliminate all the negative words. That way people won’t be able to express negative sentiments and everything will be double-plus-good. Frankly … the changing of words is something that many people would really appreciate being gone. There was a post on http://monevator.com recently about McJobs and managers making statements about “empowering customer recuperative beverage transactions” whereas the employers just see themselves as serving 50 cent coffee. I mean, who are we kidding
I remember that post by Monevator. I agree; who are those guys kidding
Sam brings up a pretty good point, though. For more than a few people, the cage doesn’t exist simply because they haven’t been shown how to look outside it, or they believe that it is preferable!
People are exposed to a singular view and mindset for much of their childhood, through public schooling and TV. Real education often doesn’t come until later in life, and can come as something of a shock. It’s a little bit like when Neo flips out and pukes out his breakfast cause he has a hard time accepting how things are not the way he believed them to be. The cake is a lie? Perhaps.
I would add that once you get over the initial shock, caused by the cognitive dissonance between what you believed and how things actually are, you are left with a lot of room for fresh growth. I believe that the path toward intrinsic motivation, happiness, and freeing yourself of the cages within your own mind is achieved by coming to grips with the way that things are, and learning to be unafraid to explore your own self and discover what lies within your soul. It’s a lifetime journey, but one that leads toward true happiness and makes life worth living IMHO.
It would be interesting (and highly relevant) from a manager perspective to consider whether the kool-aid can be improved without causing a backlash(*). There is indeed a great many people who prefer the structure, routine, and dependency. However, even though this type comprises a majority (50%), if you add up all the other factions, they make up the other 50% and they are not naturally enamored to the current “matrix”.
(*) When I hear “encouraged opportunity” I think “mandatory extra work”. Even though it might actually constitute a genuine opportunity, the word has been misused for so long that it has changed its meaning. Much like the word “awesome”.
Kevin, Great list and clearly a lot of work. Thanks for including me.
[...] or RSS. Today, we have a huge compilation of posts from the Yakezie courtesy of Investitwisely on escaping the rat race. There’s also an interview with me over at [...]
Thank you for putting this together. I know it must have taken a lot of time, but it looks great!
Excellent work, and a lot of time an effort must have been put into this.
Bravo!
I’d like to expand on the point Joe (Above) made and say that retirement is unlikely to substantially change who you are as a person(*).
What it means is that one will suddenly live on one’s own terms rather than one’s employer’s terms. Unfortunately, working seems to confuse the two for many people and thus if retirement is seen as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow rather than simply continuing onwards under your own terms, it can be fairly upsetting to the status quo. Without intrinsic motivation, retirement becomes boring… this is part of the reason why retirement homes have “activities”. Escaping the rat race implies leaving the work-work-work-buy-buy-buy cycle earlier than usual and thus that one has to be able to be self-motivating and able to think up things to do on one’s own.
(*) But keep in mind that many actually do not know who they are as a person and confuse it with who other people expect them to be. “You should be more organized. You should be more outgoing. You should be more spontaneous…” Despite possible inclinations to the contrary a person will eventually develop those traits but they will be somewhat taxing to live with.
This is a pretty tall order for anyone who has gotten used to toeing the line throughout life: going to school, getting good grades, meeting term paper deadlines, advancing in classes, then going to work, handing in assignments, advancing on the career ladder. I think self-employed people or people who have had more direct say in where they were going will have an easier time.
My advice is to start working on an “independence mentality” several years before actually cutting the strings. Say, someone tells me they want to retire. I ask them, what they do in their spare time. Watch TV and mow the lawn. I tell them, they’re not ready.
Wow you put lots of work into this! Good work Kevin!
Terrific topic. Thanks so much for including my post!
Thanks for the hard work in putting this together. I love yakezie and the people that belong to it have been so encouraging and inspiring.
@Everyone
You are welcome! Keep up the good posts; I learned a lot from reading this list myself!
Great list of posts. Thanks for including me.
Keep up the good work.
Awesome list of posts; thanks for including my post!
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Thanks very very much for the link. I myself have been working hard to get out of the rat race and I think I am nearly there now.
I work for myself from home with only a few clients, spend very little and currently live in Egypt. I am also planning on cutting work hours next month to 5 hours a day for 5 days a week….. Hopefully one day this will get down to 3 days a week.
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Thanks InvestitWisely for including me =)
Hope you’re having a great day =)
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Thanks for letting me be a part! =)
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Great round up Kevin! Eleanor Roosevelt said the following:
“Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.”
Granted, I’ve only been semi-retired for 6 months now (not working at all for just 2 of those months and 10 or so hours a week for the rest), but it’s not all wine and roses – well, except for drinking a cold one when out gardening.
I think many people need a vacuum in order to try on different things to even know what they would like to do after they’ve worked their way out of the rat race. I certainly needed that time and space. You may think you would want to spend more time doing some things but then realize that you don’t actually like doing them at all once you do have the time. That’s just life. I think if most people go into it with a flexible attitude, they’ll come out ok and not spend their lives in front of the tv. I’ve got a few relatives that retired young and they’re busier than ever and having a blast.
I agree; I think if someone is just looking to sit around and watch TV, they might not be too fulfilled (then again, that does satisfy some people!). I would like to ease into it where instead of working 9 to 5 for a corporation, I am working flexible hours for myself and building up passive income at the same time. Thanks for posting!
I too want to get out of the rat race, I feel like I have the ability to, but I just don’t know exactly WHAT to do!?!?! Or how to do it!?!?
Awesomely impressive link rally, I know that took some real time! Thanks for the link!
Thanks everyone, for all of the comments and promotion! It was a great roundup!
Thanks for doing this and including me in the roundup!
That’s quite a list!
Very nice collection of links; I’m especially impressed that you went back to go through our blogs and find some of the more interesting posts we’ve ever posted. Great thoughts on getting out of the Rat Race, as well. Here’s hoping you have great success in that attempt (as we all do).
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Awesome post! Such posts really motivate me to get out of the rat race myself! Although I have a good job, I want to break free and be the one who does not work in a world where everyone is chained to work for 30 at least years!
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Awesome post. Those three points you made are dead on. Working on it myself. Actually all Yakezie members follow this to a certain degree. Thanks for the articles! Will slowly make my way through them.
All the guys that have commented recently: I appreciate the commentary and feedback! Thanks for stopping by, and let’s keep pushing toward breaking out of the cage!
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