Let’s say you’ve just taken out a mortgage and moved into a new home. What’s the worst that could happen? A fall in the value of the property you just bought? Unless you’re planning to sell it soon, a fall in price hardly matters. What’s much worse is if you lose your job. Then you might struggle to pay the mortgage and risk having your home repossessed by the bank.
Your job, or main source of self-employed income, is an extremely valuable asset. If you were to add up all your future annual salaries or self-employed incomes, it would amount to a huge sum of money. To lose your job, or voluntarily give it up, is to take a massive financial hit. We’re writing this in 2021, one year after the onset of a major global recession, so we’re acutely aware that many of you already know the value of a job. But to those of you who managed to weather the storm, don’t take your job for granted; it is a valuable asset that would take a lot of financial resource to replicate. We know that many of our readers are pursuing a target of early retirement, by following strict lifestyle regimes early in their working life. The foregone lifetime income from retiring early could be a larger financial asset than you’ll otherwise ever be able to accrue. For the vast majority of jobs (or self-employed work) in developed countries such as the UK and US, working is one of the easiest ways to make money. To recreate the financial value you would get from a job, without working, would take an extraordinary effort.
Your job is an asset too, and probably your largest by a long way. Make sure you pay it the respect it deserves.
To the pound 