My career goal was to become a Wall Street tycoon.
LOL. Why? I wanted their big, fat, juicy salary. I tried to get a job, on the trading floor of the bank I worked at, with zero finance degree.
This is usually impossible.
Most Wall Street-style jobs on the trading floor require a finance degree, great math skills, and a killer network.
I had none of that.
After the first job interview — that would give me access to stockbrokers — I got no reply. I assumed it was because I didn’t have a finance degree.
I rang the hiring manager. He gave me no actionable feedback other than “you seemed extremely nervous and should work on that.”
One year went by. Another colleague I worked with got a job in the same trading floor team. She had a stunning resume and multiple degrees.
“Hey, given this guy I interviewed with is now your boss, can you snoop around and see why I never got the job?”
Two weeks later she tells me what the hiring manager says…
“He told me you were unsuccessful with the job because they thought you’d get bored too easily. Otherwise, they had no issues with you.”
Not getting the job forced me to stay on a low salary.
I later learned those people I looked up to with the high Wall Street salaries were mostly miserable. They never saw their families and dealt with Titanic-sized stress. All they had was job title status. But zero life status.
You can be wealthy on a low salary. Here’s how.
Focus on making more money instead of being a tightarse with a budget tracker
The typical money advice is to become Scrooge McDuck.
It makes you feel awful. You can’t indulge in a $4 latte or shout your friend’s lunch. You’ve always gotta be counting those pennies.
Then there are the budget trackers. Your entire life gets chucked into an app to be gamified. If the graphs look bad, your self-worth falls off a cliff.
You can’t look at a budget tracker and feel good. They simply record all the experiences you have to miss out on, unnecessarily.
This is no way to live.
Instead, what I learned on a low salary is to make more money. It’s actually the dumbest solution there is. That’s why it’s easy to implement.
75% of millionaires have multiple income streams
The lie we’ve been told is that one income is normal.
No it’s not. One income stream is a disaster. Your boss or employer can starve you if they wish. Millionaires have, on average, seven income streams.
This isn’t an accident.
Of course, you don’t need to buy a Big Man’s Willy (BMW) and become a millionaire just like them. They can teach you a few tricks though.
Multiple income streams diversifies your risk. Now don’t tell me you can’t do it. Yes, it takes work to set up, but it’s worth every minute.
Don’t just negotiate a salary. Negotiate these things…
Austin Belcak is an incredibly successful career advisor.
He has an enormous following on LinkedIn and coaches people to get salary increases. His biggest criticism of the hiring process is that the average employee spends all their time negotiating the salary.
Austin argues there are other things you can ask for in a job offer negotiation that are worth far more than a salary.
- Bonuses — These only get paid if you smash your targets and outperform. Most companies are happy to pay them because they get a guaranteed ROI.
- Equity — Many good companies offer stocks in the business to employees. In tech, this money is often worth more than the entire salary. Ask many Amazon employees who became wealthy through employee stock.
- Paid time off — You can ask for more paid time off so your holiday period increases. One friend went from 4 weeks to 6 weeks holiday by doing this.
- Job title — They’re useless most of the time. Except when you go back out into the job market a title can help you look more qualified. Therefore, getting you access to higher pay. It’s why so many companies have large parts of their workforce with amazing job titles. They’re free so you can get one without too much trouble.
- Paid education — New skills make you more valuable. A lot of employers will happily pay for online courses. Learn on their dime and time.
Negotiation
Negotiation is another skill to learn if you’re on a low salary.
Learn how to persuade decision-makers so you can get better opportunities that allow you to work less. Everything in life is a negotiation. May as well become a master.
Read the book “Getting To Yes” to get an unfair advantage.
Side hustles
When I had a low salary I had multiple side hustles.
There’s a reason this term is everywhere. It works. Relying on a low salary to always provide for you and your family is delusional.
A side hustle is where you use your creativity to experiment with other forms of income. There’s no pressure because your main salary covers the bills while you figure it out.
The goal isn’t to get rich off a side hustle. It’s to make money online and tap into the greatest wealth transfer in history.
Oh, and you already make money online. Your job’s connected to wifi, right? Congrats you badass. You’re already one of us :)
~ Mo money, mo problems
P Diddy made a song in the 90s with this title.
The delusion is to want a high salary while working a job. A higher salary at work means more problems. You become the fall guy/gal.
When stuff goes wrong those with the highest salary cop the beating. What you want is a low salary with a second income that’s growing, slowly, outside of your main job. This is how you become wealthy.
True wealth is free time and a blank calendar. That’ll never be achieved on a salary, so you may as well know that now and work your way towards it.