Recently I was reminded rather forcefully that having a plan to reach financial independence is not a luxury but a necessity. Basically: my employer showed that I need to plan for the future because it hasn’t. No, it hasn’t planned for its own future, let alone mine. Unfortunately, that was brought into focus by a medical emergency.
The Lack of a Plan
Recently, I walked into the office to be informed that the head of our company* was in the hospital. Thankfully, he was okay, but there was going to be some recovery time during which he would not be in the office. For a couple of weeks, the company could run okay, so all was well, right?
Wrong.
I can occasionally tend to worry about things, so a few things crossed my mind. What would have happened if, God forbid, he hadn’t been okay? What would happen to the company then? It’s not unfeasible to think that the company might have had to shut down right then.
My worries have not been assuaged since then. Basically, the company’s response to all of this was to say that everything is going to continue exactly as it had done before. To put it simply, the future of my employer and my income depend completely on the continued good health of our company’s head. There is just as much of a plan to transfer responsibilities to others, if the worst comes to pass, as there was before: nothing.
It shouldn’t take someone ending up in one of these to make me think about my future. Image by Cor Gaasbeek from Pixabay.
A Reminder For Me
If nothing else, what happened at my company reminded me once again that I can’t depend on my current job – or any – to provide security for me. As many of the FI/RE blogs, books, and Twitter accounts like to say (or least imply), you are responsible for your own financial security. My employer isn’t going to worry about it, and I suppose they shouldn’t.
Or, as Purple put it much more succinctly: Nothing lasts forever.
And that’s why I have tried, over the past few years, to diversify my income. I’ve tried any number of things, some of which, well, worked out better than others:
- Investing
- Food Delivery
- Trivia Apps
- Selling Plasma
- Online Surveys
And, of course:
There are a few other things I’m trying to do to diversify.** Some of them may pop up in future posts.
If It Happens Again
What if the company’s head has another health scare? Or worse? It’s not a fun thought to consider, but it needs to be part of an employee’s future plans, at least one who works for a company the size of my employer.
As for me, I want to structure my finances such that if something happens to one source of income, I will have enough to support my family. If nothing else, my stress level will be better in the short term for doing so.
* My employer is a corporation, but it’s run more as a sole proprietorship.
** Like posting regularly. Hey, I said I’m trying.
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Man. The goal of anyone running/owning a business, should be so that the business operated 100% independent of them being around. My sole goal as a CEO was to ensure that the company was better off with me gone, than with me there. I am not sure I 100% succeeded, but they seem to be doing just fine without me.
Alas, you are right that even employers with good values and financial planning could still have issues. Or get bought. Or sell. So definitely always good to have a backup plan and a solid emergency fund.
I agree. We tried to get things set up for the office to run without our company’s head (I’d go into more detail as to what that entailed, but I’m trying to maintain some amount of anonymity here), but the powers that be didn’t think what we wanted to do was worthwhile. Oh well.