Now there are a few ways to escape the rat race, but it is up to you to decide how to do it. Let's start at the beginning and see what it is and how it works, then get to the different ways to get out of the rat race.
Running the rat race is like running on a hamster wheel.
You get nowhere. Now how do you escape the rat race?
The meaning of how to get out of the rat race has nothing to do with rats. It is all about people getting out of the race for more money and things. To get out of the 9 to 5 job, and have more freedom. The ting that gets us into the race is when you trade your time for money. The more money you want, the more hours you need to work or the faster you have to work. Or you need to have more experience and skill to get more income per hour.
In here we will look at some ideas how to escape the rat race.
Now to start off, what gets us in the rat race in the first place. Short answer, your mindset. Your mind are influenced by all the advertisements, movies and things you see and hear. We are conditioned to want to have more things. People keep advertising the next best thing, and shows us that it will make us happy in some way. So we want more things, and need more money to get it. So we get onto the hamster wheel and starting to run the race.
And then just as we get what we wanted, we realize that it only keeps us happy for a short while, so we start chasing the next better thing. Better bigger cars, better houses, smarter everything you can think of. Now if you stop for a while and think why you really want it, you might realize that it was someone else that decided for you that you want it, without you knowing it. No really I am not joking here. As very young kids, we didn't care about what type of watch you had, what your clothes brand was or what car your parents had. As long as you could play and enjoy life you were happy. Later on it started to become a unofficial competition to have better things than others.
Let us look at the different ways to escape the rat race:
1) Leave the rat race for the simple life
You can decide to stop chasing things. Start chasing life experiences. Choose a vehicle for it's function, for what it was made for, driving. Choose a house because it is nice to live in. Choose things for their function. In contrast to choosing things, based on their brand, or because everyone is talking about it. Or trying to have better things than your neighbours (keeping up with the Joneses!). Simply spending less than what you earn and save or invest it will go a long way. This means you will have more cash available and need to work less hours, and have more free time. You can start to produce your own food and make your own clothes, etc. Depending on how far you go with it, and how much you can do for yourself, you can get a part time job to get cash to swap for what you can't do or produce for yourself. Move to a place where life is simpler and cheaper, do more of the things you want and generate some income from that.
2) Get a different job to escape the rat race
You might like your "things", which is perfectly fine, and don't want to radically scale down like in option 1. To keep your standard of life you will need to replace your full time rat race with a more part time job. Or one where you don't need to commute to work and back, and already save a little to a lot of time there. For that there are many different options. Start a business online, supply something you can do from home which does not take too much of your time. Start producing something at home that you can deliver at say a bakery from time to time. Do repairs of things as a part time job.
It comes down to finding out what are the problems that others are having, and solving it for them. Then getting money in exchange for it. Be careful not to take on another job that will also get you back into the rat race. In other words, stop trading your time for money. So you have to look at something you can "produce" more with the same or less effort and time. The more people you can help to solve their problems, the more you can make to fund your lifestyle. In the end we only get money from other people, as money is a people thing. You need to convert something to a thing that will help others.
3) Learn to make your money work for you
This one you can do in parallel while still being in the rat race. Then when you get it right, exit the rat race. You need to learn to invest your money in ways so that it will generate more money for you. Kind of like planting seeds. You plant one seed, and get fruits with something to eat, and more seeds. You keep on doing it until there is enough to live from, and then exit the rat race. You need to learn and apply a lot of skills to be able to make this option work.
This is how I did it, I invested in property, and rented it out. Now you have to do it the right way or you will end up in big trouble,and might loose everything. You have to choose an investment that will grow at the correct pace, or else it will take too long before you are able to live off your investment. One of the most critical faults people make is that they give their money to an expert investor and think that they will make their money work for them.
Think about it for a while. If that expert investor, fund manager, etc. knew what they were doing, they would not be there in the rat race doing investments for other people. So you will have to start learning things for yourself. Otherwise your money will only work at maybe a few percent better than inflation, which will get you nowhere. You have to start looking at what you want for your life, and see if that investment will help you get there, or not.
A simple example of one investment I made. I replaced our electric geyser with a solar geyser when it broke. And calculated that it will take 2 years in electricity saving to pay for the extra cost of replacing it with a solar instead of electric. Now it might not sound wow, but we have been using a lot less electricity for years. The investment keeps working for us. Note that you will need to do your own research and need to know how to do the calculations to make it worth wile, otherwise some expert will sell you the most expensive one, which will take ages to pay off.
To help you make a decision, think of it like this. Lets say you need an amount of money to buy or pay for something. Find out how much the bank will charge per month for that borrowed amount. Now if your investment will bring you in more or you will save more than that amount, it will most of the time be a good investment. Even if you use your own money, it is a good check to do. So it doesn't make sense to spend thousands to be able to save a few cents, then you can just as well put your money in the bank to offset the loss.
4) Learn to create something from nothing
This is by far the most exciting option to get out of the rat race. It takes skills to get this done, but is definitely worth it. When you learned this skill, you can do it over and over again. Even when you have lost everything. You don't need any funds or things to get started. You can start anywhere and be able to generate income for yourself to live off.
You probably are busy thinking that this is impossible. Let me give you an example. If you are reading this, you probably are in the rat race, meaning you work for someone. How much do you pay to work? I mean do you pay like at a movie, when you get to work. No, you get paid. So you already create a salary or some income from nothing. Though it costs you money to get to work and other expenses to be able to work there. The big difference is that you work for someone and aren't able to create money on your own without being dependent on them.
You can still use your skills to help other people, maybe in a different way. Or learn new skills that will help you create the income you desire. This takes a bit of a mind shift or a mind leap to get your head around it. The ideal is to create a business where you work on the business, and not in the business. This means that you are not needed to make the business work, or are not required in the day to day activities. This will give you massive time freedom as well as financial freedom. Though from time to time you will need to check what is happening and make adjustments accordingly.
To end off I need to mention a few things. People want to get out of the rat race and retire. You have a purpose in this life, which is definitely not to retire and do nothing. If you do nothing for long enough, you will go crazy, get seriously depressed and have a miserable life. You have to find your purpose or dream, and chase it. That will give you the fulfillment that you need. You need to contribute and improve the lives of others in some way. Life were created perfect, there are always new challenges and problems you will need to solve. As soon as you have the skills to solve a certain problem, the next problem will resent itself. You need to have that challenge and fulfillment when you have solved it. This will be different for everyone as we are all unique. Find what that is for you and make it your goal to get it.
If you need help with anything you have read on this page, you can learn from my mentor who will help you massively with it. I have just shown you the start of the road, he will help you learn the way. I am excited for you to know there can be one more person joining our group of people that are busy making the world a better place. I truly know what you have read will help guide you. Make sure to check below the video for the free e-books, especially the PowerGoal book and the Formula For Riches.