I Made $125K+ This Year Doing Nothing More Than My Day Job
You can do the same! Maybe. But probably not.
I’ve been seeing a lot of articles with titles like I Make $8,000/Month From a Side Hustle and My Hobby Brings In an Extra $153.09/Day and I Found a Quarter on the Sidewalk Outside My Home Last Week… so I figure it’s time that I let you in on my own secret of personal financial success and independence. You’re not going to believe what I do to earn money, though.
First, a bit of background. My impressive background, specifically. I have an undergraduate degree from one of the better Ivy League schools and a graduate degree from another well-known and well-regarded East Coast university. Besides being over-educated, I am intelligent, articulate, personable, and capable. I have been in the workforce for almost a quarter of a century. I give great interview.
My time is valuable, and I believe that I should be compensated handsomely for devoting my time to someone else’s projects.
Because I “know what I’m doing,” when I was looking for a new job earlier this year, I was able to focus on opportunities that “pay well.” If I saw—or suspected—that any given advertised job paid less than a lot, I ignored it. One of my greatest strengths is being unwilling to waste anyone’s time, but mostly my own. My time is valuable, and I believe that I should be compensated handsomely for devoting my time to someone else’s projects. If someone wants me to spend 8 hours/day, 5 days/week, 50 weeks/year working for them, then I expect to be paid enough that I’ll forget I’m spending all of that time doing something I don’t care about even a little.
Once I decided that I should be paid well—and had truly committed to that idea—the rest was easy. If you apply to jobs that don’t pay well, you’re more likely to be invited to interview for jobs that don’t pay well. If you interview for jobs that don’t pay well, you’re more likely to be offered a job that doesn’t pay well. And if you’re offered a job that doesn’t pay well, you’re more likely to accept a job that doesn’t pay well, especially if you don’t have a job and you need a job.
Simply by applying to, interviewing for, and ultimately considering only jobs that paid well, I was able to start such a job earlier this year—and then, by doing that job, I was able to earn the salary I was promised. What’s more, because I accepted a legitimate job with a legitimate employer, I have received regular paychecks—one every other week. And that money adds up!
But the really crazy thing? As much as I’ve earned from my full-time job this year, I’m expecting to earn even more next year. Something I’ve learned from being gainfully employed for a while now: Good employees get “raises.” (The thing that raises is your salary. In some other countries, such as Britain, a raise is called a “rise.”) In fact, even lousy employees often get higher salaries each year for doing the same job. Basically, in the United States, if you don’t get fired, you get a raise—although I don’t know if that’s true in other countries.
And that’s my trick, really. There’s not much to it at all. Three steps, if that many:
- Get a full-time job that pays well;
- Do that job; and
- Get paid well.
If this simple scheme works for you—or if it doesn’t—please do not let me know. Reading about your experience is not in my job description.
