Maintain Fabulous Financials: #1 Increase Income
The first step to maintain Fabulous Financials is to increase income.
Like the old folk used to say, “you can’t squeeze blood from a turnip.” Well you can’t squeeze much from a tiny paycheck either. You might be able to save a little bit here, reduce a little debt there, but the results will be minimal or long suffering. So if you’re living paycheck to paycheck, can’t reduce your living expenses anymore, or just don’t want to reduce your expenses, you must figure out a way to increase your income. A few conventional ideas to increase income are:
- part time job
- sell unwanted items
- capitalize on your talents
I prefer to focus on the latter because it gives me personal satisfaction and the greatest return with the least amount of effort. I increase my income by:
- freelance writing
- monetizing my blog
- assertively managing my career
The first two are my play money. They fund vacations and support my shoe addiction (when I’m not on a shopping strike LOL). On the other hand, I take the latter very seriously. It is the source that allows me to take care of important things and not worry about tomorrow. It pays the bills, provides cash flow for necessities and emergencies, allows me to avoid consumer debt and donate to my favorite charities, contributes to my daughter’s future college education, funds my retirement and long term goals, and leaves a surplus to experience things I could only dream of years ago. None of this would have be possible had I not increased my income.
By focusing on all of the above, I consistently increase my income by 15% or more each year.
Do you “assertively” manage your career to increase income?
What other things do you do to increase your income?
~*~*~*~*~*~Work to achieve, not to acquire.
And always, BE FABULOUS!
This blog is the story of my financial life as a single mom. Subscribe via (feed reader) or (email) to follow the rest of my fabulous journey.
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I didn’t realize the comments were off all day. Every time I “schedule” a post, it closes the comments. Darnit!
Every October, I sit down and evaluate my expenses year to date and see what adjustments need to be made to make my year end goals. This year due to some unforseen issues I was way under in my savings and debt repayment goals So after adjusting every expense I could, including doing my own hair (I am a black woman so this was a huge deal) I realized there were nowhere else to pull from. At first I started looking for a part time job, but it was difficult to find one that would work with my full time work schedule. Instead, I decided to ask for a well deserved raise at my job, and I got it!!! I received a 20% raise and I think that should help me meet my goals by Dec. 31st!
“capitalize on your talents ” I cannot stress this more. Everyone is good at something. And in America you can definitely capitalize on your talents
Another way too is to go back to school for advanced training/certification/degrees.
When you get the certificate or degree in your hand, then what? [-SM]
I took your first option of a part time job about a year ago. I teach online as adjunct faculty, for a bachelor’s degree program. Its convenient, I don’t have to pay for more childcare. I can do it when my daughter goes to sleep. Besides, I enjoy seeing my student excited about continuing their education. Great Post by the way!!
I have a part time job as an Adjunct faculty member. I teach online in a bachelor’s degree program. Since the program is online, it is super convenient. No need for more childcare or time away from my daughter. I can log into my course throughout the day or in the evening after she goes to bed. Great post by the way!
PhenomenalAquarius
I always think I should be doing much more to aggressively manage my career. I would love to hear more from you about the specific tactics you use — I always appreciate your career posts and I think I can learn from you. From your posts over time it sounds like you have some real strengths where I have weaknesses!
Things I do well to manage my career are capitalize on my strengths, as Moneymonk says above, build relationships in many departments, coach my employees really well and consistently deliver great results. Things I don’t do well include politicking, using my network effectively, using mentors and asking for promotions and raises effectively.
Great post and great series!
I’m looking for ways to increase my income without having to increase my taxes.
Currently I am blessed to work part-time in an educational setting with full benefits and union wages and security. However if I make any more money than I already am, I will enter the next tax bracket, which also means I will no longer qualify for interest relief on my student loans, or the childcare subsidy I receive from my municipality. I will also receive less in provincial child tax benefits which add a great boost to my employment income. I hope to come up with a new idea for increasing my income, without jeopardizing what I have going on right now.
My current income-generating project is selling stuff on ebay, but running back and forth to the post office is getting me down. Maybe I should try pro-blogging?
15% every year?!? Wow. I would really like to know how you do it. I could see getting a raise one year, but are you finding the need to change jobs frequently? I’ve a sporadic worker, having taken multiple 2-yr stints off when I had my three children, but now I’m a full-time working mom. I’m proud of getting the ball rolling again, but my salary has taken a real hit. How would you recommend, getting to that 15% annual goal while updating your job skills?