Most people’s plan is to save as much money as possible so we can retire at age 65 and live off our nest egg. In theory this seems sound. Besides, everyone else is following this path. So it must work, right? Wrong.

There are 3 primary flaws with this plan: 1) You’re always living for tomorrow, thereby unable to enjoy today. And that is no way to live. 2) You are stuck in the rut of trading time for money. Frankly, time is the most precious commodity we have. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. 3) The amount of money you would need to save over the course of your lifetime in order to live off the interest your money generates is simply obscene and completely impractical for the average wage earner (and even for the above average wage earner).

So unless you want to work a “retirement job” until the day you die, do not do what everyone else is doing. The rules of the game have changed. Rather than focusing solely on investments, pensions, 401k’s, social (in)security and the like, today everyone should be working towards creating a residual income. Residual income is where you perform an action once and get paid repeatedly. A great example of residual income is when an author writes a book. He or she writes a book once yet is paid over and over again every time a copy of the book sells. That’s the concept behind residual income.

So if you want to get control of your finances, your security and your future, start researching means of creating a residual income. This is the single most important thing one can do to get your life back and get out of the rat race.