The 40-40-40 Plan; The Hard Truth About Jobs

Today, I will be revealing a little secret about the old plan which was once the most safest plan to live by. The 40-40-40 plan. It simply means," work on a JOB, 40 hours a week for 40 years and retire on 40% of your BASIC salary". Sounds familiar?
This system was once the safest place to be. Playing by the 40-40-40 plan was one of the best option one could ever get. This plan powered the education system to be more stronger and demanding. It is obvious that almost everyone starts thinking about schooling once their children turn 5 years old. Its time to be told the facts. But before then, lets understand the 40-40-40 plan very well.

There are three 40's in this plan. The first "40" represents working on a JOB for 40 hours a week. In this New economy, It will be like heaven for most people if they were to work only 40 hours a week but here lies the case just a view employees work this less. Some employees work almost 24 hours a day. They wake up at 4:00am and get back home at 10:00pm with loads of work which they can barely finish even if they worked all night. They sleep around 12 midnight and some even sleep less than 4 hours a day. Yes there was a time in the history of man where people worked 40 hours a week but not in this new economy. 40 hours a week can be simplified as 8 hours a day for 5 days in a week. But who does that now. Very hard to find right?

Working on such a stressful weekly duty is enough to keep you looking for new opportunities. This brings us to the second "40". The second "40" from the plan represents working for 40 years. How on earth do you plan on working this stressful weekly duty for 40 solid years. This keeps me thinking. Its almost impossible to continue this stressful schedule 52 weeks a year for 40 years. Over 90% of workers cannot stand this stress. This is why most people keep changing jobs and statistics proves that, in this new economy, people change jobs every 2years 2 months. Its simply because, working on such stressful jobs for a paycheck that can barely get your family going is really disturbing.

Now, to the most interesting part of this plan. The third "40". This represents retiring on 40% of your BASIC salary. The keyword here is "BASIC". This is the truth. The hard truth. After working for over 40 hours a week for an average of 40 years, you retire on 40% of your BASIC salary. Most people do not ask about this. All they think of is the fat paycheck they get after their services. There is global price increasing, currency devaluation is happening everywhere, well, except a few currencies. So if you are to take $10,000 as your fat pension paycheck in the next 40 years and live on 40% of your BASIC salary monthly, can you imagine how worthless this amount will be? How well were you on 100% of your BASIC salary plus incentives plus bonuses and after 40 years, you are forced to live on just 40% of your BASIC salary. This is the hard truth about the 40-40-40 plan. This plan was once the safest to play by but now, it will drain you.

This is a statistical fact about the 40-40-40 plan in this new economy.
By age 25, most people have an idea of what profession they will enter, anything from a fishing guide to a surgeon. But forty years later, out of a typical 100 people,
5 are still working,
36 are dead,
54 are dead broke (or at least earning far less than when they were employed),
4 are well off and only
1 person is wealthy.
There is only about 5% chance that you will be well off with this plan. Do not depend solely on it, Try your hands on new amazing opportunities. There are many opportunities out there. If you find one, grab it.
I will love to hear comments from my readers. What do you think about this 40-40-40 plan?

Surviving And Thriving In This New Economy

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.
                                           Alvin Toffler

Surviving in this new economy is very essential especially for the youth of Africa where they are less informed about the changing world. Most people complain about economic hardships but it is funny to know that this new economy is not responsible for the economic hardships. In fact, there are many opportunities now than there has ever been in the history of man. So why all this hustle?
Well, the answer is simple. Most people are educated illiterates. "Illiterate" defined from Alvin Toffler's quote. Most people are not willing to learn, unlearn and relearn. How can you survive this new economy if you are not willing to learn new things and unlearn certain things? You would hardly survive, not to talk of thriving and if that is the case, you would hardly see the opportunities this economy has to offer.
Most people are not thriving in this new economy because they have not realized it yet. Especially our African youth. As the saying goes,"understanding the question is part of the solution", same thing
applies to this also. Understanding the new economy is part of surviving and thriving in it but it all begins with realizing that, the old economy is gone, we are in the new economy.
To survive and thrive in this new economy, you need to be a literate, you need to be someone who can learn, unlearn and relearn. If you remain being an educated illiterate, the new economy will not be a nice place for you to live.
So its simple, to survive and thrive in this new economy, you need to be willing to learn, unlearn and relearn, you need to be a literate of the new economy and thats when you see the opportunities.
I would love to hear your comments and views about surviving and thriving this new economy. Kindly share with us:-)