By Petra-Ann Brown, Brown Financial Solutions
Yesterday was Labor Day.
And, as the name suggests, I got up and did some labor.
I worked in my business. I worked around the house. And I made sure to take some time to hang out with my boys.
But somewhere in the middle of all that, I started thinking about the word labor and what it has meant throughout my life.
As an immigrant, I grew up believing in hard work.
You work for what you want.
You don’t make excuses.
You don’t expect anyone to hand you anything.
And you certainly don’t look for shortcuts.
We have a saying in Jamaica:
“Shortcut draw blood.”
In other words, taking the easy way out can sometimes cost you more in the end.
That mentality has served me well in many ways. I’m not afraid of work. When I want something, I’m willing to put in the effort to make it happen.
But as I’ve gotten older, learned more about money, and learned from people who have built wealth, I’ve realized something:
Working hard can’t be the entire plan.
What If Your Money Could Work Too?
Most of us understand exchanging our time for money.
We go to work.
We put in the hours.
We receive a paycheck.
And then we do it all over again.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Work allows us to provide for ourselves, support our families, contribute to our communities, and build our lives.
But is that all there is?
How many people do you know who worked their entire lives but never seemed to have the opportunity to enjoy much of what they worked for?
That question bothers me.
Because I don’t want to spend my entire life working just so I can afford to keep working.
I want to live too.
And part of learning about money has been understanding that my labor doesn’t have to be the only thing producing income.
My money can work too.
Money can earn interest.
Investments can potentially grow over time.
Assets can increase in value.
A business can create income.
And when we intentionally build these things over time, we begin moving away from a financial life that depends entirely on how many hours we’re personally able to work.
That’s something I wish more of us were taught earlier.
There Has to Be More Than Working to Eat
Part of what started my own financial journey was simply being tired.
I was tired of money always feeling tight.
Tired of working and wondering where all the money went.
And eventually, I started asking myself:
Is this really how I want to live?
I wanted more.
Not necessarily more stuff.
I wanted more life.
I didn’t want to sit around talking about all the places I wanted to travel while knowing I didn’t even have a passport.
At some point, I had to stop talking about the life I wanted and start financially preparing for it.
Other people were traveling.
Other people were building wealth.
Other people were changing their financial circumstances.
That meant it was possible.
And it’s something I tell my clients all the time:
Why not you?
If change is possible for someone else, why can’t it be possible for you too?
Hard Work and Wealth Building Are Not the Same Thing
This is something I’ve had to learn.
Being a hard worker doesn’t automatically make you wealthy.
You can work incredibly hard and still live paycheck to paycheck.
You can earn a good salary and still have nothing invested.
You can work overtime every week and still have no emergency savings.
You can spend decades earning money without ever acquiring assets that have the potential to grow.
Hard work matters.
But what we do with the money our hard work produces matters too.
That’s where saving comes in.
That’s where investing comes in.
That’s where retirement planning comes in.
That’s where owning assets comes in.
That’s where building businesses and creating additional streams of income can come in.
The goal isn’t necessarily to stop working.
The goal is to make sure your labor isn’t doing all the work.
What Is Your “Enough Is Enough” Moment?
Since I was a little girl, I’ve loved hearing stories about people who came from very little and changed their circumstances despite the odds being against them.
Those stories fascinated me.
And one thing I’ve noticed is that somewhere along the way, many of them had a moment when they decided:
Enough is enough.
That doesn’t mean everything suddenly became easy.
They still encountered roadblocks.
They still made mistakes.
They still had setbacks.
But something changed in the way they thought about their circumstances.
We’ve all had—or will have—one of those moments.
The question is:
What is yours?
What would make you decide that something has to change?
Maybe you’re tired of living paycheck to paycheck.
Maybe you’re tired of carrying debt.
Maybe you’re tired of saying, “One day I’ll travel.”
Maybe you want to retire without worrying about whether you’ll have enough.
Maybe you want more time with your children.
Maybe you simply want options. Whatever it is, don’t dismiss it.
Sometimes that frustration is the beginning of something new.
I Want to Work. But I Also Want to Live.
I will probably always work.
It’s part of who I am.
And trust me, that Jamaican work ethic isn’t disappearing anytime soon.
But my understanding of work has changed.
I no longer believe the goal is to work myself to the bone and wear exhaustion as proof that I’m doing something right.
I want my work to build something.
I want some of the money I earn today to continue working long after the workday ends.
I want to build assets.
I want to invest.
I want to create income that isn’t completely dependent on my time.
I want to travel.
I want to spend time with my family.
I want to experience the things I’ve spent years dreaming about.
I want to enjoy some of the fruits of my labor while I’m still here to enjoy them.
Because providing for our families matters.
Building wealth matters.
Preparing for the future matters.
But so does living.
I want to live.
And in my eyes, that is equally important.
Keep your money Irie.
