Your Life Needs a Business Continuity Plan

Written By Nicole Bracey

What I Learned When I Realized My Six-Figure Income Was U.S. and Employer Dependent

I make six figures.

And one day, while thinking about building a global lifestyle, I realized something that stopped me in my tracks:

My income only works in one country.
And it depends on one employer.

Now let me be clear — I am deeply grateful for my career. It took years of discipline, certification, late nights, motherhood balance, and resilience to build.

But gratitude and awareness can exist at the same time.

And awareness is what resilience requires.

Business Continuity 101 (Translated for Real Life)

In Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery, we ask very practical questions:

  • What happens if the primary system fails?

  • How long can the organization survive disruption?

  • What is the Recovery Time Objective (RTO)?

  • What is the Recovery Point Objective (RPO)?

  • What dependencies create risk?

We map systems.
We identify single points of failure.
We build redundancy.

And then it hit me:

I had never applied that thinking to my own life.

The Question That Changed Everything

If my employer changed direction…
If restructuring happened…
If remote flexibility disappeared…
If I wanted to relocate internationally…
If policies shifted…

How quickly could I recover?

That’s a personal Recovery Time Objective.

Six figures sounds secure — until you realize it’s geographically and structurally dependent.

My income is:

  • Tied to U.S. employment laws

  • Tied to U.S. currency

  • Tied to one organization’s leadership decisions

  • Tied to my ability to remain in a specific system

That’s not weakness.

It’s simply a dependency.

And resilience starts by identifying dependencies.

Security vs. Resilience

Security is having income.

Resilience is having options.

Security says:
“I’m stable right now.”

Resilience asks:
“How quickly can I adapt if something changes?”

You don’t build resilience from fear.
You build it from design.

What Real Personal Resilience Looks Like

Resilience isn’t quitting your job.
Resilience isn’t panic entrepreneurship.
Resilience isn’t burning everything down.

Resilience is layering.

Layer 1: Corporate income
Layer 2: Portable skills and certifications
Layer 3: Intellectual property (writing, courses, digital assets)
Layer 4: Advisory capability
Layer 5: Systems that support execution (AI, automation, structure)

That’s an ecosystem.

An ecosystem can survive disruption better than a single stream.

The Global Lifestyle Reality

When you begin thinking globally, you realize something quickly:

Not all income travels.

Some income:

  • Requires physical presence.

  • Requires specific tax structures.

  • Requires employer sponsorship.

  • Requires staying inside a national system.

If your vision includes flexibility — travel, relocation, international opportunity — you have to ask:

What parts of my income are portable?
What parts of my identity are employer-attached?
What would transfer across borders?

Those aren’t fear-based questions.
They are strategic ones.

Your Personal Continuity Plan

If you’ve never thought about your life this way, here are a few questions to journal on:

  • If your primary income paused tomorrow, how long could you operate?

  • What is your personal Recovery Time Objective?

  • What skills do you have that are globally transferable?

  • What income streams are independent of geography?

  • Where are your single points of failure?

Resilience is not about assuming disaster.
It’s about designing for adaptability.

The Shift

I’m not leaving my job.
I’m not running from stability.

I’m not rejecting what I’ve built.

I’m strengthening it.

Resilience isn’t panic.
It’s preparation.

And preparation is self-respect.

Nicole Bracey