This statement sounds so refreshing, but is it easily achieved with today’s economy crashing worldwide? Many times we say “you have to work hard for what you want”, and I believe many of us do, however the income might still just be enough to fulfill our basic needs with little or no room for anything extra, now that can be a bummer; it is like all work and no play.
Sometimes years of service at your company automatically give you an increase in your salary, but how much of a raise is that? I bet it might not be all that substantial to get you where you want to go financially but just cushion the bills a little better.
My advice as to how to earn higher is to take advantage of any opportunity for upward mobility in your field of specialty; whenever courses are available, do them and get your certification to get a promotion, or significant salary increase. You can even apply for extra courses and get more qualified. One can never go wrong with more education.
You can also think about the wide world of investments, whether stock or bonds; it can be low risk or risky. It is understood by many that one has to spend money in order to make money, so if you are willing you can take a risk with an investment and if the turnover is satisfying then you can go a little deeper and make it work for you.
I am a fan of the “couple-up principle”, well, that is what my brother calls it! I find that it works for many couples with whom I have shared it. This idea came about because my brother believes that nowadays, it is extremely difficult for one working person to get where he or she wants to go in terms of building net worth and purchasing assets, so he and his wife started merging their finances and their individual ideas of asset building even more.
What he did was to use his salary to take care of one asset like the car payments while she took care of the house bills. Due to the fact that his salary was solely dedicated to making the car payments, he paid for two months at a time, therefore splitting the total time to pay for the car in half. So, that’s done, they moved on to the next thing which was the home improvement and remodeling.
In this one, she takes the payments for the work done while he balances the bills. Even though all those bills and payments were being made a portion of each of their salaries still goes to compulsory savings as it is deducted automatically each month. That money is held for a “rainy day” or vacation purposes.
My brother believes that if each of them took an asset and slowly paid for it; both of their salaries would be tied up for too long with little room for flexibility. He also believes that if they got the asset building out of the way from early then they could focus on saving more after that.
The “couple-up principle” is just one way people use to live happier and get the stuff they deserve, what is your way? I am very excited to hear how you go about achieving yours, do share it with us in comments!
Photo credit: iStockphoto
