Careers and Life Choices for Securing Your Financial Future

1. Who do you mean by the middle class?
Being a member of the middle class embodies the aspirations most people have. Almost two of three people identify themselves as middle class, so they fall widely on both sides of what’s considered a median income.  For most of us iit means:

• Having a job or other income that enables us to support ourselves and our families
• Owning our own home or at least not having to spend more than a third of our income for have a roof over our heads
• Having health insurance
• Being able to look forward to a pension
• Being able to take a vacation each year.
• The opportunity for our children to do at least as well as we have.
  

2. Why do people in the middle class need a lifeboat?
While by international standards the American middle class are still living well, the gap between the rich and the poor is widening and the middle class is shrinking as more of us are feeling financially squeezed. Noted consumer researcher Paco Underhill finds that a third of us are feeling “the immediate anxiety of downward mobility, meaning that we are scared of living at a lesser standard than we do now.” Surveys of middle class Americans over the past year show that:

• Eight in 10 people say a middle class life is unaffordable today.
• Nearly two-thirds say they live from paycheck to paycheck.
• Sixty-three percent have such fears about paying their bills that it disrupts their lives.
• Nearly half say no matter how hard they work they cannot get ahead.
• More than a third worry about job loss.
• Three out of four full-time workers believe it would be difficult for the average worker who was laid off from his/her job to find a similar job at the same pay.
• Half of those who are employed say they’ve experienced increased healthlcare costs.
• At least 1.3 million people, or 16% of the US population, have no health insurance, most of them working citizens in their 40’s-60’s
• Over one in three have had cuts in overtime, raises, or bonuses.
• Nearly 40% of workers work more than 50 hours/week.
• Fifty-six percent think things will be worse for their own children and for future generations.

• Globalization of the economy means the US is now sharing many of traditional well-paying jobs with other countries where workers are paid far less and have fewer benefits. This includes white-collar jobs once thought to be secure such as analysts, accountants, customer service reps, engineers, graphic and software designers, marketers, programmers, and even some medical specialties.
  
• Rising costs due to competition for dwindling natural resources means US companies must cut costs, jobs, and benefits while our personal costs to buy goods and services, especially utilities and gasoline, are rising.
  
• A cultural shift in social responsibility. Cuts in private and public sector revenue leaves us as individuals and families to increasingly shoulder more of the cost for economic safeguards once provided by our employers or the government, i.e. health care and retirement funds.
  
• Rising costs of essentials like housing, utilities, gasoline, transportation, health care, child care, medication, and education mean many families accustomed to comfortable secure lives are being forced to live beyond their means and acquire high debts.
  

4. Why did you decide to write this book and what did you do to discover the creative ways middle-class individuals are responding to protect themselves in changing economic realities?

    For the past 20 years we’ve written 17 books on how to choose a secure, meaningful career and to create an enjoyable, comfortable lifestyle. But like most people we were noticing that is becoming harder to do, so we wanted to find out what people were doing to adjust to the challenges of today’s economy and still preserve their dreams, or maybe even pursue a lifestye they prefer. Three years ago we began interviewing people from across the country. We were surprised inspired by the imaginative and innovative options we discovered. Naturally we wanted to share what we learned with others.

5. What are the four steps you’re suggesting people need to take?

• Understand what's going on. It's not you. There is an economic sea change underway.
• We can’t depend on things to get better or on government or corporate America to safeguard our individual futures. We need to build our own lifeboats and we need to start now.
• Safeguard your livelihood by adapting your business or career to today's economic reali­ties.
• Safeguard your finances by using cashless alternatives to extend your income.

6. What type of careers do you believe hold promise for our middle-class in such changing times?

• Basic local services. We profile 23 of them in the book.
• Nichable virtual services. We profile 13 of them.
• Green services and products for the new economic reality. We profile 14.

7. What criteria did you use to select these careers?

 In addition to being viable in both good economic times and bad, we screened in careers that:

• Can be done independently from home if desired.
• Are resistant to off-shoring, i.e. can be done locally, or alternatively remotely via telecommunications in a specialized niche.
• Not unduly dependent upon discretionary income, i.e. things that are essential to daily life or provide needed relief, pampering, inspiration, fun or entertainment.
• Are not easily replaced by technology.
• Can be readily bartered, i.e. things others dislike doing, complain about, or don’t have needed resources or skills to do themselves.
• Have low overhead costs for needed materials and services.
• Can be done with locally obtainable materials, supplies, and help.
• Involve little travel or other uses of fossil fuels.

8. Give us some examples.
Much-in-demand services that help people with high energy bills like:

- Installing and servicing alternative energy systems,
- Retrofitting windows
- Green remodeling and construction.

The growing numbers of elders creates a need for all types of services such as:

- Daily money management
- Acting as a patient champion
- Managing retirement communities.

The demand for community managers is growing for other types of communities as well. For example, since the year 2000, nearly four out of five new housing starts have been in association-governed communities. Many of these are large enough to require professional management. 
Some of the most exciting careers are ones that are in the cocoon stage at this point, such as tabletop manufacturing, robot repair and building performance rating.

9. What are some examples of the interesting lifestyles you found people are choosing?
They range from the basic to the radical.

• Simply simplifying
• Moving to a small city, town or nearby far away place
• Living in a foreign land
• Caretaking
• Living on the road or at sea
• Bringing country life to the city or suburbs, i.e. backyard and rooftop farming
• Living off the grid
• Sharing homes and creating new communities

10 . Why are people turning to cashless alternatives and what are some examples?
Even if you’re financially secure in a lifestyle you like, if you have to work morning noon and night to support it, you won’t enjoy it. Cashless alternatives give people the freedom to work less and support one another.

• Do it yourself
• Helping out
• Coops
• Lending & sharing
• Exchanges or swaps
• Regiving networks
• Barter
• Time banks
• Local currency      

11. Are you predicting a grim future for the middle class?
       Certainly we are being called up on to make adjustments in how we live and to make wise, creative choices, but, no, the message of Middle-Class Lifeboat is not one of doom and gloom. The people we interviewed were enthusiastic and excited about the new choices they’re making. They’re not looking back. They’re looking ahead. 

12. What should middle-class voters who are seeking to build a lifeboat be looking in the Presidential candidates?