We all want to make more money. More money means you can pay your bills a little more easily and afford some of life’s extras that you’ve been wanting. Unfortunately making more money isn’t as easy as just snapping your fingers and having it fall down from the sky. Instead, if you want to make more money, you have to be a little creative and hustle, hustle, hustle!
Here are some specific ideas for kicking your income up a notch:
Ask for a raise:
If you’ve been at your job for at least six months and you feel as though you’ve done an excellent job, you can ask your boss for a raise. It’s smart to wait until it’s the beginning of the fiscal year when your company has more money to allocate. It’s also wise to have a plan in mind.
In order to get a raise, you have to show examples of your work and how you’ve contributed positively to your work environment. Maybe it was your idea to woo a particular client who brought your company a lot of money or perhaps you were an integral part in a company fundraiser. Whatever it may be, if you can show that you used your talents to improve the business, your bosses will want to keep you happy by giving you a raise since you’re a great return on investment.
Reduce expenses:
You can give yourself an instant raise if you reduce some of your expenses. For example, my twin babies just turned one, so I switched them from formula to whole milk. This change gave me an instant raise since milk is far more affordable than formula.
However, you can apply this principle to all aspects of your life. If you downgrade your car to buy something more affordable that you can pay for in cash, you get an instant raise because you won’t have a car payment anymore. Take a survey of your expenses and finances to see what you can live without and find out how much that money would benefit you if you could allocate it to other things.
Before I became a full-time blogger, I spent about 25 to 30 hours a week on freelance writing and my blog. It was an intense time for me, but in the six months before I became a full-time blogger, I was able to save $20,000 in cash. I needed this cushion, and it was only possible because I was working so much. Remember, even if working all day and night does not sound like your idea of a good time, it’s just temporary.
Working extra jobs can just help pay the bills or help make you some extra money to do something you love. There are entire blogs all about people who side hustle, so if you need some inspiration, try to become a part of a community that values it.
Change careers:
One way you can make more money this year is to change careers. Many career changes do not require additional schooling. If you have excellent customer service skills, great recommendations and an intense work ethic, many of your skills can translate across multiple careers. For example, if you work in an entry-level cubicle job but have always loved teaching kids at summer camp, you can apply to teach at a private school or abroad without a teaching certification. The idea is to make a change to enrich your life. If you don’t like your current job or career and you don’t feel like you make enough money, start polishing off your resume and make a change!
Become a minimalist:
I like to consider myself a minimalist because I rarely buy clothes, shoes or anything else. I recently bought a dress to wear to a night out in Manhattan because when I opened my closet, I had de-cluttered pretty much everything. Even my yoga pants could use some replacements!
After I lived in a developing country for three years, I pretty much lost the desire to hit the mall on the weekend and buy something cute for no particular reason. It makes me a bit different from the average American woman, but it suits me.
When you decide to become a minimalist, I promise you can find about $500 worth of items to sell right in your own home. If you thought no one would ever want your beat up old side table from college, you would be wrong. It’s amazing what people will buy. So, in order to make more money this year, go ahead and start to get rid of the things you no longer need. Then, the next time you want to go shopping, wait a day and see if the desire to shop passes. If you do this enough and develop a new habit of saving, you’ll have more money in your pocket at the end of the year.
These are just five ways you can earn more money this year, and I know there are many more. Really, just being mindful of your spending, making sure you’re being paid what you’re worth, and deciding whether or not to take on extra work can help you take those steps to become wealthier this year than you were the last.
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5 Ways to Make More Money This Year originally appeared on usnews.com