It’s funny, I received my Social Security statement in the mail and my husband received a $78 severence check from his employer of several years ago on the same day.  Both incidents slapped me across the face with a thought, “Have a Plan B.”  In this day and age it’s necessary more than ever before to have a Plan B.  Sometimes Plan B becomes Plan A in the blink of an eye. 

Even if you’re close to retirement and you’re almost assured to receive Social Security benefits, this is no plan.  It won’t be enough to even scrape by.  If you’re working at a job, you could lose it at any time.  This is not as solid of a plan as it once was.  My husband’s solid job of 16 years at a Fortune 100 company ended one day with a letter in the mail.  The place folded.  Everyone got letters.  And since then, my sister lost her government job, that was union by the way, and my dad who’s worked 38 years (?) at a large company is now training his replacement by email.  She lives in China.  He’s been told to cooperate.  And as my friend so eloquently stated the other night, a man is not a plan either!  Or a woman!

Real estate investing is an excellent Plan B!  Once you get involved, it can become your Plan A on your terms, and in your own timing.  You can walk away from your job before you’re downsized.  You can plan for the day you leave instead of being left to scramble to make ends meet because one day your employer says it’s over. 

I have experienced few things more gratifying than the day I decided I didn’t need my employer anymore.  It was incredibly liberating.  When I dropped off a box full of my laptop, blackberry, and customer files, I didn’t set down a twenty pound box - the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders! 

A few months after I left, the company announced they were being bought by a competitor.  Everyone was worried sick about who was going to lose their job.  This went on for a few months while the SEC reviewed the acquisition.  The SEC decided it would make for too much of a monopoly so the buyout didn’t go through.  Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.  Then a few months later another announcement was made that another company would acquire them.  This time it went through.  The life’s work of the founders and all the employees who dedicated their heart and soul to growing that business was gobbled up by a huge German company who doesn’t understand the industry.  Entire departments were cut immediately, many more individuals were picked off one by one, and all my friends were sick in their guts with worry.  The lucky ones who remain say that the building is a cross between a morgue and hell.

Man am I glad I left before all that drama began!  I planned my exit for 18 months before I left.  Real estate is what got me out.  If you’re sick in your guts about hating your job, or your schedule, or the mind games your boss plays, or the worry that you could be downsized - at some point you have to seriously question if it’s worth it.  For years I told myself it wasn’t really that bad, I just needed to get over it, I just needed to learn how to ignore the mind games, toughen up.  I rationalized and justified until I couldn’t think of one more story.  Then one day I said “That’s it.”  I took all the emotion away, I wiped the slate clean, and I considered that job a means to an end.  Make money to buy real estate, buy real estate until your cash flow exceeds your living expenses.  Work like a banchi to make it all happen as quickly as humanly possible.  It became a mechanical formula.  And that was my new mission.  Getting through the days became much easier after that.  That place and those people weren’t using me any more.  I was in charge of my destiny.

I realize now looking back that I was playing the victim for a while.  It was hard to get past the fact that my dreams of climbing the corporate ladder were over, that my ideal of corporate America didn’t exist, that things weren’t as they should be, that corruption was alive and well, and that I couldn’t change any thing or any one except myself.  Once I finally “got it” I became a goal digger.  I knew what I wanted and I knew I would get it.  Getting it turned out to be not very hard.  The hard part was the years leading up to my epiphany.

I encourage everyone to determine what your Plan A and Plan B are.  Do you have a Plan B?  Is Plan A secure enough that you don’t need a Plan B?  Should you be putting more emphasis on Plan B, so that it can become your Plan A on your terms?