On Tuesday I made a blog post about what can make you wealthier. Going to college for a degree, or simply just being an entrepreneur and determining your own destiny? I think the overwhelming majority of readers would agree that being an entrepreneur allows more opportunities to make the big cash.

However at the same time, I suppose it is not fair to say nobody should aspire to work the 9-5 and everyone should be entrepreneurs. If it weren’t for people like my twin brother and my little brother, the world would not have the great teachers and doctors in it that we have today. Instead it would be a bunch of money hungry people like me, sitting in sweat sedo’s all day counting the money they are going to make before it has even been earned.

I know myself and other full time affiliates paint the picture that this job is so easy, we never work, and all we do is lay around all day and hit refresh watching our bank account balances go up. Let me explain however a few of the things us full time affiliates envy about the 9-5 schedule.

Work Hours - Oh sure, we can all make are own hours. But to be honest I sometimes miss the idea of showing up at a certain time and then being able to leave at a certain time and not even have work cross my mind. In this business it seems like you are on the computer from morning til night.

During the day I’ll sit in my office and work. Then at night I have the laptop in the house to speak with people across the world on Skype. Even if I am not working, I am still occasionally walking by the computer to see if a new email showed up or an issue I need to deal with has come up. Not to mention the late late hours we end up working some nights. I would love to have only a 40 hour work week.

Having several emails to answer, support tickets to get back on, and writing content is very time consuming. And this doesn’t even take into account that having 10-20 people blowing you up on Skype in one morning is not uncommon. Doing this full time is really not as much of a cake walk as some would think.

Consistent Paychecks - There are not many poker affiliates I know that live on a strict budget. Why? Because we have no idea how much money we are going to make from month to month. And then we have no idea when we are actually going to get paid. There have been times I have waited over 30 days for 4 and 5 figure affiliate payments. This sucks, no matter how much money you have.

Take away investment accounts and savings, people live within their means and expect to be paid on time. A paycheck every other Friday with a nice base salary and big commissions was so nice when I was in the real world.

Insurance and Investments - If you’re like me and have a family then you know having good health insurance is not optional, it’s mandatory. The amount of money I pay to ensure my family’s security is sick. In the good old days I had a few hundred dollars deducted from my paychecks. I also could go to the doctor and just pay a small co-pay. Then when my kid would get an ear infection, I could just pay $10 at the pharmacy and be on my way.

Now I pay EVERYTHING out of pocket until I hit my yearly $6000 deductible. And for the price I pay per month for this garbage policy, I could be driving a brand new BMW. Bottom line is that private health insurance in the states for a family sucks. In regards to investments and 401K, I don’t see any company matching my deposits or offering me a reduced price on company stock. Contributing to an investment account with matching was so sweet in the old days.

Lack of Social Interaction - This is probably one of the things you hear me talk about most. But at least in an office setting you have others to talk to. Even if it is in the coffee room talking about the football games this weekend, or bitching about the boss. Regardless you have other people around to talk to.

As an affiliate working from a home office, you spend a ton of time isolated in a room by yourself. For me this sucks because I am very social. This is why I absolutely love that Thursday night is my guys night out. I look forward to that every week. Chatting on Skype and email is really not the same as having face to face relationships with people.

So as you can see, being an affiliate is not all sunshine and roses. There are down sides to the career. Fortunately money is not one of them if you are in the category of “Super Affiliate”. At the end of the day however you must choose a career in life that makes you happy. If I weren’t happy as an affiliate I would quit. There is not enough money in the world for me to put my career before my family or happiness.

Life is actually very short on a relative scale. When you are on your deathbed, it won’t matter if you have millions in the bank or are dead broke. What will matter is how you lived your life and what legacy you leave behind. When that day comes for me, I want to be able to look back and say, “Wow, what a ride that was, I had a great time and did everything I wanted to do in the world.”

So if you are working the 9-5, love your job, and simply are an affiliate for extra spending money…… just ignore half the bullshit you hear me say when talking about Corporate America or being a wage slave. As long as you are happy in life, that’s all that matters. Oh also with all that said, I still don’t miss working in the real world. <——-Rent this movie immediately if you have never seen it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 12:20 pm and is filed under Affiliate Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.