So what is the purpose of work? To take care of yourself? To take care of family? To build a career? Is having a job the same as a career? And does it provide you the same satisfaction?

While you think I might be talking about today’s gig economy, I was actually thinking about the entrepreneurship wave that took place in the 1980s and 1990s. From former President Ronald Reagan’s supply-side presidency, to former President Bill Clinton’s workers throughout the nation were getting hired, albeit with low wages, watching the new technology of the 1980s and 1990s slowly start to take their jobs or some of their wages. Many were also feeling “fed up” with strict work requirements and “wonderful” supervisory or co-worker personnel.

Thirty years later, that generation (yes, I’ll include myself) has now jump-started the gig economy. Yes, 50-year-olds have started this revolution and some of today’s young generation, their children, who are the first generation that have fully grown up with the powers of the Internet, are now ready to redefine entrepreneurship via the gig economy.

Some would say today that gig careers provide many benefits the old corporate America jobs do not. Flexible hours, convenience, and purpose are just but an important three. But remember, because these are career gigs and not jobs be ready to forfeit any future employee benefit programs and or perks.

According to Investment Advisor Magazine, a 2018 Deloitte study shows that up to 13 percent of our workforce today is now self-employed (as we). During the 1980s, many started thinking, especially as corporate wages barely went up, about being their own boss, about controlling their own flexible hours. That the work have a more meaningful purpose, a career-like purpose.

As these ideas started to blossom in the 1990s, entrepreneurship, started to turn into a tiny new industry: new ideas, new products, news services, new vocations, new opportunities, a new way to strike a better work-life balance sense of belonging.

In 2019, the gig economy, according to Inc. Magazine, has been recently defined. The average self-employed career person works 2.3 days a week and brings in, via gross income, about $22,000 a year. So if you have a corporate job, a part-time gig can bring in some nice part-time extra income.

And believe it or not, your full-time current employer might not just agree with you, he might encourage you. Yes, employers have realized that gig benefits, for the employer, could be best for improvement in employee retention and reducing of office costs. Hey, your employer might want you to gig for them!

But, if you are strictly just in the gig world, then one would need two to three gigs to equal a middle class job and income today.

So now here is the question: is creating a purpose, a lifestyle change, with no employee benefits, but a better flexible schedule and ability to telecommute a better trade-off?

In the article,  I said “we” on occasion. Now, I’ll clarify. The Financial Advisors Group was formally created in 1999 after four advisors, while making great money, were fed up with the bad supervisory bureaucratic corporate rules and regulations around them at Chase Manhattan Bank and the Wall Street industry. Assisting them with the Chemical/Chase bank merger, working six days, 65 to 70 hours a week. But on Wall Street that’s normal. What’s normal are brokers (then and now) making two times more than someone making middle-class income, many would say, including us, by working in a conflict of interest environment.

Twenty years later, we walk to work, three days a week, in our non-conflicted environment. We see two clients per week, provide independent financial solutions, handle paperwork, work approximately 18 hours a week, major flexible hours, and all for about 40 percent less than we made in 1999. In sum, a tough but nice part-time gig career.

So yes, some of our advisors have other gig careers. Myself, for example, gig as a professor for two colleges, two days a week for 11 hours.

So when you couple this together, our average part-time financial advisor is reaching, barely, what one would call middle class income. For this article, America’s middle class income can start at $45,000.

Is this a disaster? We don’t think so! Our gig advisors have great second gig careers, work the hours they want, use their skills as a career, and control their own bureaucratic systems while making middle class income. In my case, I call it a soft four to five day (29 hour) –  two-career week. Of course, managing the gig lifestyle is not easy at all, especially, for example, when everyday expenses, from the toothpaste to the rent, continue to go up.

But 13 percent of Americans say it’s a new way of life. And the previously mentioned study also shows a protected increase of three percent self-employment growth for 2020.

Tired of working for a job? Their rules? Their hours? Their pay? The traveling? The getting up early in the morning?

Ask them to gig you, at best. At worst, learn the gig economy and industry. You’ll never be rich in wallet. You might be richer in peace of mind. For 2019, the average Wall Street broker is making $75,000 a year. Our wallet is 40 percent poorer. Do we receive the same peace of mind?

I’m sure 13 percent of America would agree! But the final answer of life, money, happiness, and peace of mind belongs to you. But remember the ultra rich! The one percent; they can truly achieve both. The top 10 percent might have a chance at both.  That means 89 percent of us can not.

Professor Anthony Rivieccio, MBA PFA, is the founder and CEO of The Financial Advisors Group, celebrating its 24th year as a fee-only financial planning firm specializing in solving one’s financial problems. Mr. Rivieccio, a recognized financial expert since 1986, has been featured by many national and local media including: Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, The New York Post, News 12 The Bronx, Bloomberg News Radio, BronxNet Television, the Norwood News, The West Side Manhattan Gazette, Labor Press Magazine, Financial Planning Magazine, WINS 1010 Radio, The Co-Op City News, The Bronx News, thisisthebronX.info and The Bronx Chronicle. Mr . Rivieccio also pens a financial article called “Money Talk”. Anthony is also currently an Adjunct Professor of Business, Finance & Accounting for both, City University of New York & Monroe College, a Private University. Financial Focus Interactive is now an app and a place where one can: Read, Listen, Watch Talk & Learn about Financial Solutions with like minded people and a live financial advisor. Financial Focus Interactive app can be found on the Google Play Playstore or on or internet app at: https://www.financialfocus.app For financial assistance, Anthony can be reached at (347) 575-5045.