A more abundant life is what most people desire and one of the ways to achieve this lifestyle is by making more money. Here are five ways you can do just that!
Method #1: Increasing your work capacity
The fact is learning to maximize your work capacity isn’t rocket science. It’s a simple matter of putting in the necessary extra hours required to achieve more output. For example, let’s assume you work as a customer care agent tasked with convincing customers to renew their cable subscriptions. If you spent 5 hours convincing 5 customers daily, that means you spend an hour per customer. So should you want to increase your value in the company to increase your pay, you could put in an extra two hours daily. That would mean two extra subscribers to the delight of your boss, which can translate into more pay.
Moving on, if you’re an entrepreneur with a business, you’ll need to employ more hands to get the increase in output you desire. Remember, two heads, as they say, are better than one, and the same philosophy can be used to get more done by employing more hands. In short, to attain great wealth, you’ll need to leverage other people’s time and resources. As you’re starting to see, the plan here is not just about putting in extra hours yourself but with the help of others. However, you can also achieve greater output through employing greater focus. When you work, you need to eliminate all distractions. This means no open emails, no phone close by and definitely no distracting music.
However, to employ this approach in the most effective way, you must ensure you are focusing on getting the right things done. To do this, identify what tasks are of the highest value to you and ensure these items become the focal points of your work. Any tasks that are of lower value should be offloaded.
Method #2: Investing in income-producing assets
How can we discuss the creation of wealth without discussing investments? The acquisition of assets like real estates, mutual funds, bonds and stocks, is an efficient and intelligent way to multiply your income. Now, if you ask me, seeing your income grow is a delight, and the truth is, if your income isn’t growing, then it’s declining; there is no middle ground; inflation made sure of that. With all of this being said, let’s go a bit deeper into what these income-producing assets consist of.
To start, investing in stocks and bonds is one low-risk investment plan that everyone should try. It’s okay to work more and save your money but as Warren Buffett says, “if you don’t make money while you sleep you will work until you die”. Therefore, making passive income should be on your financial game plan.
In essence, you should be letting your money do the hustling while you earn interest and dividends. How much these dividends amount to will depend on the company’s performance and the size of your investment but nonetheless making money in this passive way is a winning strategy that many of the world’s best investors employ.
Once you begin building your portfolio up with income-producing assets, you’ll have three primary investment instruments. These are real estate, bonds, and dividend-paying-stocks. You can get involved in real estate by investing in rental properties or putting your funds in REITs or real estate investment trusts. Some individuals prefer real estate due to its tangible nature while others see stocks as a better choice due to their hands off nature. Each investor will lean more to one asset class than another and that’s totally okay!
Now, bonds offer a different benefit to investors and they come in many forms. There are savings bonds, municipal bonds, agency bonds, government bonds, and more. Due to volatility in the market and your potential future cashflow needs, I suggest you avoid buying bonds that will take more than 5–8 years before reaching maturity.
Finally, there are dividend-paying-stocks. These are stocks that you buy into when you truly believe in the viability of the companies that represent them. If that company does well, you’ll receive dividends which essentially are a portion of the organization’s yearly profit. As an investor, you should seek a company with safe payout ratios fixed at about 40% to 50% and on a broad scale, a yield of 4–6% is considered a reasonable rate.
Method #3: Leveraging product sales
Another way to multiply your income is to start selling products and they can be in either a physical or digital form. This method of making more money is great because it detaches your income potential from your time which is essential in your wealth building journey. However, whether the income stream will be a torrent or a trickle rests solely on three things: The quality of the product, the time you can afford to invest and the efficacy of your promotion. From here, I will give you examples of the best products to sell.
When it comes to physical products, your options are endless. From household appliances to t-shirts, selling tangible goods can be very lucrative and the avenues to do so are now very well established. For example, there are a ton of people making a killing selling common household goods on Amazon however this sales approach does come with some risks. For instance, you will have to buy inventory to sell therefore you could be left with a room full of cups if your sales efforts fall short.
Then, there are digital products. Digital Products can be defined as virtual items that you instantly download for use after making payment. Quality digital products possess huge value as the industry is believed to be worth around $200 billion. So, if you’re a music producer, you can make and sell your beats online. If you’re good with story-telling, you can publish an e-book through Kindle. More examples of digital products you can sell include photography, fitness plans, software programs and more.
Method #4: Learn a high-income skill to sell
So, first off, what is a high income skill? A high-income skill is any skill you can offer clients to earn $10,000 or more a month. This could be learning to code, offering graphic design services, SEO optimization and the list goes on. What’s better is that most of the high-income skills out there today do not require a formal degree. For example, there are a lot of coding boot camps that you can start and finish in just 12 weeks.
However, if you ask me, one of the best aspects of having a high-income skill is that it can never be taken away from you. Once you possess a valuable skill that you can use to increase your income at will, you can continue to use it as long as that skill is still in demand. This is unlike certain assets that will fizzle out over time and will cause your money to disappear right in front of your eyes therefore investing your time into honing a high-income skill is a great way to multiply your income.
Now, I must admit that having a high-income skill is only half the battle, you must also be able to sell. Now, luckily, selling your high-income skill to others can be easier than you think. For beginners, you can start by leveraging existing freelancer platforms like Upwork and Freelancer.com to find your initial set of clients. Also, you can use email marketing and leverage your network to start to get your name out there and once you are able to get your first set of clients, future sales will become much easier.
One way to ensure your ongoing success in this space is to deliver quality and deliver it on time. In the digital world, quality is just as important as deadlines. This is because everything is moving at the speed of light, and your competition is just around the corner. Hence you can’t afford to miss deadlines, not if you want to keep your clients.
Method #5: Leveraging employment raises and promotions
Employee compensation is a topic that is very touchy for most people. In fact, it’s top of mind for most employees yet it’s a topic that employees rarely talk about with their bosses. Often, people daintily tiptoe around the topic of raises and promotions at the office, while they complain about it in the privacy of their homes.
For me, I strongly believe that compensation reflects how an employee is being valued in the company. I believe that pay should rise as an employees value proposition increases over time. So how can you successfully raise your employment value and earn more through promotions and raises?
The truth is, a lot of employees don’t comprehend the workings behind their pay. When individuals initially begin to work as teenagers, they generally earn via an hourly wage. Hence the simple equation equals: The more work you do, the more you make. However, after some time, most people start to wake up to the idea that their time equates to how much they’ll earn. Their thought process then goes along the lines of ‘I’ve been working here for many years, so naturally I should be earning more money! I deserve a raise!”
Sorry to disappoint you but as far as getting a raise is concerned, value is not calculated based on the time you’ve put in to date. Your organization will pay you for your time, but as for how much they’ll pay, that depends on your value. Businesses increase employee compensation based on the value you bring to them. Simply put, you’re an asset to your company, and your paycheck is your employer’s investment in that asset.
For instance, if I invested $1,000 in a new business asset — say an online promoting service — to justify that purchase, I would want to make at least $1,000 in sales from it. Now, if that asset begins generating about 5 or 6 times the $1000 I spent on it, I would definitely be willing to spend more on it because the returns I get from it are greater.
This whole concept of value is why millions of students attend college each and every year. While you may be in school because your parents told you that you had to attend, at a more macro level, you’re learning so that you can offer your employer more value than you presently have as a fresh-faced teen.
However, formal education isn’t the only way to increase your economic value. For example, if you’re employed as a graphic designer, you can take an online course or watch tutorials on your craft to better yourself. Generally, learning more and practicing more will have your skillset rising over time and this skillset is what you will end up trading in exchange for more money.
To summarize, all that’s been said, if you want to change your financial future you need to start implementing ways to multiply your income at scale. Therefore, endeavor to apply these 5 proven ways to multiply your income as you continue your journey to financial freedom!