The title of an October 5, 2017, article(*) addressed a problem and the author’s solution: “The cure for student debt isn’t frugality – it’s reforming the unfair loans system.” We disagree. An alternative to student debt. Or as the teacher in this image has written on the board, “There is an alternative to student debt, but it requires…”
Paying for College
If you’re not independently wealthy or haven’t gotten grants to cover your full costs of going to college, what possible alternative could there be to:
– going to college (for 2 or 4 years); and
– graduating with student debt?
An Alternative to Student Debt: Start Your Own Business (Even If On the Side)
The alternative is to go into business for yourself directly after graduating from high school (or start a business before you graduate from high school).
Some people may need to work for someone else for a while to bring in enough money to pay the bills. But once the part-time home-based business income equals what one is earning from his/her primary job — called “replacement income” — one can feel the freedom to leave what was the primary job to work his or her business full-time.
One can even wait to make sure that the part-time business income exceeds the full-time income before letting the full-time income go.
Let’s see what this looks like theoretically…
Some Real Numbers
The image below contrasts the career paths and income streams of two fictitious guys:
- Ben, who chose to work full-time and become an entrepreneur on a part-time basis with an established company; and
- Bill. who chose to go to school full-time for 4 years and then go to work full-time for someone else.
(Note: The numbers in the table and chart for Ben are the average incomes of all Young Living Essential Oils’ Independent Distributors by rank for 2016. Updated Income Disclosure Statement information is available here.)
Major Differences
There are some major differences between the incomes enjoyed by Ben and Bill, though.
- Bill never has the satisfaction of working for himself and works only at the pleasure of someone else.
- If Bill is being paid on the basis of his time, he is trading his time for money, whereas Ben is leveraging his time for money.
- If the economy changes, Bill may find himself out of work, whereas if Ben goes to work with a network marketing company that has unique and needed wellness products, there will always be a demand.
Isn’t it time to consider your options?
As long as there are people on the planet, there will always be a need for Young Living’s essential oils.
Become an Independent Distributor or contact us today.
* https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/05/student-debt-loans-tories-jo-johnson