Category: Personal finances

Everyone wants to earn more to thrive in the current market situation with high inflation rates. Here I am going to share my top tips to achieve what is possible and how to get a raise at work. By following these tips I have managed to get from a medium salary to 1% in less than 4 years!

When to change your job?

Before giving your all to your work you should consider if this is the right company to do it in.

Is there a way to grow?

At first your should consider is there a way to grow in your company. Are there any positions where you see yourself in a few years? Will there be new positions where you could grow in the future? Is there a way how to get a raise at work?

The best kind of company to to do this is a large company with many levels of management or a fast growing company to creates new positions every year.

If you want a high salary you shoul avoid small companies.

Management views

Another thing you should consider is how your management sees their emploees. Do they value them and reward them ofter? Or do they completely ignore people and there a huge change of people in your company.

The best way to go is with a company that values their people and do not let them go easily. A good manager always asks the question of how to get a raise at work. Usualy it is very cost ineficient to change people often because it costs more to train new people instead of keeping the old ones.

Work climate

Do you like your job and your coleagues? I think this is the most important part because you spend around one third of your life in work.

If you are not happy there you probably should search for a new place.

For example, I have this red line where if someone at work shout at me it is either they are going or I am. In the past I left a good position because my manager was yelling at me at a daily basis and it was not good for my health.

Work Ethic

If you are already at the company that you like and there are ways to grow you should really put your best there. Your manager and coworkers are judging you by your work ethic.

You can be the best specialist in your field but if your work ethic is lacking everybody will hate you. Well at least the ones that are working closely to you.

Be kind to others

As much as you want a good working climate at your job you should create it yourself. If you are in a higher position than somebody else it does not give you a choice to downspeak to anybody.

The saying that you should treat others as you would like them to treat you is true here.

Don‘t slack around

It is very uncommon that you have finished all your mandatory tasks early if you were not slacking. If that is the case you create a free time for yourself to reflect, plan your next tasks and think about improvements to the company or your position. Always have this question on your mind – how to get a raise at work?

Always do thing before deadlines

When taking on tasks always consider time buffer if anything were to occur, so that you would still finish your tasks on time.

This most valued thing in the work place. As I was lacking in other fields I made sure to finish my work on time and it got noticed.

Both my direct manager and the CEO noticed this and praised me for ti.

Possitive atitude

We all have good days and bad days, but the truth is that nobody really cares about your bad days. At work what is important is finished work on time.

You should make sure that if you are feeling down if would not reflect on your work. Negative emotions should be kept at home and you should deal with them yourself, with your family or your psychologist.

Do extraordinary things

To get a raise at work and be noticed you have to more or do things that others can‘t/won‘t. Nobody is going to give you rises or promotions just because you asked for it. You must have something to back your request.

Learn how to do your job

When you are starting at a new position no matter what everyone else is saying your first priority is to learn to do your work like you are supposed to. Usually this takes those 3 months trial period.

If by 3 months mark you feel confortable in your position and do not make mistakes in everyday tasks you can start thinking outside the box.

Thinking outside the box means looking for things to improve like to save time or to do something in a better quality.

Always think how to get a raise at work.

Help others

In every workplace you should treat your colleagues with trust and respect. Only when you do this you can really do a better job with your clients or suppliers. If you have internal company conflicts you are wasting energy that can be direct to earning more for your company.

This starts with helping your colleagues when they ask for help. If you made an impression on them surely they will mention it to at least one other colleague and sooner or later this goood feedback will come back to your boss.

Find ways to create value

The more direct way to get noticed by your boss is to create value, even more than expected. When you manage to do that make sure to mention it to your boss. It is always the best to know your numbers.

If you managed to get a big sale or managed to reduce prices from your suppliers it is very good for your resume. It means you are a valueble employee.

Use your free time at work

A lot of difference between you and your collegues can be made during brake periods. At work I notice that there are always people who like to socialise with other, have a laugh and so on. The people usualy say that they do not have enough time, have to work overtime.

And then there are people who can be social but for most part they leave the social aspect to after working hours. These hard working people show better results and gets noticed.

Be proactive

Everyone solves problems that are with a highest priority. But really you are a lot better of solving a problem before it really becomes a problem.

This is called being proactive. Usually people do not solve these because it does not seem like highest priority, they do not have time, they do not care and so on.

Learn

Most people go to their jobs without having big goals. They do it to pay their bills, to pass time or to socialy interect. People who want more and actually makes an effort to get more usually does.

This is pretty much like in sports – hard work beats talent everytime if talent does not work hard.

Even in music this is the case. If you do not believe me you should listen to Ed Sheeran singing before he became famous.

Take courses

You can find a lot of usefull information that you need for your work in the internet. The are plenty of cources both free and paid.

My personal experience is that what is free does not neceseraly have good quality and may have outdated topics. The paid cources usually can get you were you want to get.

Attend conferences

Depending on your field there might be conferences that you could attend to broaden your views, learn something new and get new usefull contacts.

For example, my wife is a great speaker, so after every conference she gets new contacts to Linkedin. Some of these leads then offers her a job at their firms.

Read news about your sector

To learn more and be up to date in your industry you can read related articles to find what is relevant and new. This can get you an advantage in making decisions.

For example, my sector is electronics and there are plenty of news sites which publish news regularly. After I subscribed to them I get all the newest information to my email.

Prepare for the meeting

After a succesfull year in your company when you manage to show results in your positions you problably have built quite a resume to yourself if you did everything that was written before.

If that is the case all you need to do now is to prepare for the meeting with your boss.

Be clear what you want

When you have this annual meeting with your employer you have to state what you want.

If it is the raise that you want then you have to specific about the numbers. For example, if it is a 10% raise then you have to tell that.

On the other hand, if it is the promotion you have to know what position you want. Here timing might be more important because it is a lot easier to get a promotion if there is an open spece for it.

You can even ask your boss this question – how to get a raise at work!

Research similar work salaries

When you want a raise at first you should start by reasearching what other companies are paying for your position even better if you see that your company is hiring for the same position that you are in right now.

Always check salary ranges for the position an try to figure out where do see yourself. Do you make more value than everyone else? If so can ask for the highest possible salary or even a litter higher if your really created more value than it was expected.

List your achievements

You do not have to write every 10 dollar achievement that you made. Figure out the bigest 3-5 things you did in the last year that generated most value.

You can also mention things like were you helped your colleagues and how they look up to you for your advice.

Think what tasks you can do

When you want a higher salary than it is planned for the position you can think ahead what other tasks you would be willing to do that your colleagues do not do.

It is only fair that you get paid more than your colleagues if you do more work than they do or you do something that nobody else can do or want to do.

Don‘t mix up your personal life to work

In these kind of meetings do not talk about your personal life and how you need more money because of your health or that you want a better house.

Your employer does not pay for that nor should he or she.

Don‘t threaten your employer

The absolute worst thing you can do is to threaten your employer that if you do not get a position or the salary you will quit. No matter how good person is performing if he is decited to leave now it is only the matter of time before he things of a higher number of positions.

Personaly I let these people go and I believe a lot of other managers do to.

You have to be very delicate about these situations and when, for example, you have an offer from another company that offers better conditions you probably just be honest were you stand.

Meaning that if you want to stay in your current company let your manager know that and tell what you would like to get to stay were you are.

There is not much else you can do just to let your boss decide whether he or she is willing to pay you more to stay.

If you want to read a more in-depth guide on how to prepare for the meeting – you can check this Indeed.com article.

Conclusion

• To get more money from your workplace you have to evaluate if the current company is right for you and if it can offer you a space to grow as a specialist or a manger.
• You have to have a good work ethic. In some companies you can be the most valuable person but if nobody else can work with you then most likely you could be let go.
• To get noticed by your boss you have to stand out of the crowd and deliver more value.
• To stand out your current knowledge might not be enough, so learning my boost your salary a lot.
• Think about your situation – how to get a raise at work. It may be diffrent!
• When you do all these things do not miss your change and prepare for the big meeting with your boss.

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Every millionaire that is self-made at least at some point in their life saved money and invested it. And if they are still millionaires you can be sure that they have their money invested. If your goal is to get some money saving tips and acquire more money this article should give you an idea of where to start.

Why you should save money?

More than half of Americans do not have more than 3 months of savings  – CNBS

As I wonder how this is I can understand that a lot of people choose instant gratification over delayed gratification. And by doing this people are putting themselves at a lot of risks.

Unplanned expenses

No matter if you are the luckiest person in the world things can still happen to you that you cannot plan for!

You should consider the risks of not having spare money:

• Getting sick
• Car breaks down
• Kids outgrew their old clothes
• Losing your job

There are tons of things that can happen. You might be able to tell that a crisis in the market is coming. But do you know when? Let me tell you – nobody knows!

 A Better House or a better car

We all dream of a better car that we feel has a lot of power, maybe you want that new Tesla, or maybe you are more down to Earth and you want a bigger car to comfortably travel around the country.

Probably, you want to move to a bigger home, because this one needs renovation… badly. Or maybe you cannot fit your stuff in your current place? All those things laying around the house do not have space for themselves, so you have no motivation to clean the house.

Well, let me tell you are not alone!

Taking care of your family

I bet you have been dreaming of that trip with your friends or family for a while now, but there is always something else that you have to spend your money on.

Do you have kids? If yes, are they going to college? Have you prepared for all of that?

I have met quite a few people that are waiting to have kids just because they are not financially stable. I mean I respect that, but is there something you can do about this situation? Of course!

Investing

Why should you invest in the first place? It is so easy to buy all the expensive stuff, go to bars or clubs every other day, take credit, and get a new car, and a bigger home that is in beautiful surroundings. Well here are my reasons:

Not dying for a paycheck

First of all, do you love your job? Do you even like it? For a lot of people, a job is just a place where you go and you exchange your time for money.

There is this book – Dying for paycheck by Jeffrey Pfeffer. It has been some recent studies that when people are working in a place they hate they develop some issues with their health. I believe a few of you felt depression symptoms and a lot more of you had anxiety for at least a while.

If you feel that way you should change something. But how do you know that in another place things would be different?

In my experience, there are problems in every workplace and it will cause you some stress.

Not to lose money to inflation

I hate losing money, even if it is to inflation. One of the money saving tips is not to let your money sit in your bank account. If you do not know what it is here is an example:

Imagine that last year you ate an apple every morning which used to cost 1 USD. This year an apple from the same store costs you 1.1 USD. That is 0.1 USD more expensive than the last year which makes 10%. That means annual inflation on an apple was 10%. On the other hand, we use „inflation“ term when talking about the whole market of the cost of all products and services combined.

Right now in the US inflation rate is around 8.5%.

The point is that if you have money laying down in your bank account or your closet it is losing money because everything is getting more expensive every year.

Retirement

Do you have a plan for your retirement? It depends on in which country you live because there is a very different situation in each one of them. For example, in the US folks have a great thing called 401K, where your work can transfer part of your salary to a 401k account and the money is not taxed.

In my country (Lithuania) we have a somewhat different thing, but we can choose to add money to our chosen investment account from our salary, and again the money is not taxed.

Either way, the situation in your country might be different and you have to analyze it carefully and make decisions from there.

Earn more money

We all must have heard that people are living from dividends. But what does that mean?

To put it simply some companies that are already huge do not plan to grow X10, X100, or X1000 times, so to attract some capital they use motivation to investors by giving them dividends of 1 to 10 percent of their investment.

This is great right? Well, it depends on the sum that you have invested. If you invested enough money you might not have to work anymore and live from dividends.

Start or expand business

Maybe you already are a business owner? If so congratulations on your proactivity!

Either way, you might need money to start or expand your business. The question is how are you going to do it?

Are you going to ask angel investors for it? Or maybe you will ask for a loan from a bank? Sure there are some advantages to this as you can start or expand right away.

But maybe nobody wants to invest in your business or you do not want to own anything to anyone. In this case, your only solution is to work for that money yourself.

Getting rich, financial independence

I bet everyone who is reading this right now at least once in their lifetime dreamt about getting rich and becoming financially independent.

By accumulating enough money you achieve financial independence by investing and passively getting money every month so you do not have to work anymore. Or at least you do not have to work any job you do not want to do.

You cannot find any millionaire who has become one without investing money. Those who acquire money easily by lotteries or by inheritance and do not invest usually end up in the same position financially as they were before.

The reason for that is that they do not know how to manage their money and they should follow money saving tips.

Where to start? Main places where your money goes

If you want to start budgeting or improve on doing that first you must analyze where your money goes. One of the best money saving tips is to track where your money goes.

For example, my bank has a budgeting tool installed, so it is very easy to analyze where you usually spend your money.

There are also possible to do this by doing your budget on a piece of paper, Excel, or getting to the 21st century you can use any of the online tools.

There are 3 main categories where your money goes:

Necessities

This is everything you must spend money on every month to survive.

                            Food – this is pretty basic, but can draw a lot of your money. For example, you spend a lot more money by going out or by ordering food. One of the money saving tips is that It is much cheaper to cook at home and prepare your lunch for the next day.

                             House – Do own your place? Great, you do not have expenses here. But do you have a mortgage or do your rent your apartment? If so you have to make a payment every month. The only way to save here is to see if you can afford the place you are living in right now.

                             Bills – There is not much to save here and the costs should be about even every month except if you live in a country that has a heating season. In that case, you should take into account that some months will require more money.

                             Transportation – Can you use public transport? Is it necessary to own a car? If so make it realistic. You shouldn‘t own a 20k USD worth of car if you make 20k per year. One of the money saving tips is that it is much cheaper to travel by bus.

Wants

In this category is everything that is considered your leisure time or general want but not needs.

                             Vacation – We all need to get away from every trouble that we have and I believe it is true for everyone. One of the money saving tips is, also depending on your situation instead of all-inclusive luxury hotels, it is a lot cheaper to travel by car, go camping and be nearer to nature.

                             Shopping – Cloths are necessary, but do you need all the designer clothes to show off? I mean who cares if it‘s 20 USD or 200 USD as long as it looks good, right? Money saving tips say it is better to look for cheap good quality clothes.

                             Subscriptions to everything – Being realistic if you want quality content you probably have 1 or 2 subscriptions. However, if you have subscribed to Netflix, Disney, Amazon Prime, and some others maybe it is a bit too much. Do you even have time to watch everything? Following money saving tips it is not necessary to own all the subscriptions.

Money Saving

This is the main category where you want to put your money. If it is at least 10% then great! That is a great start – keep doing at least that.

                             Retirement – I talked about this before, so just to add – it is never too early to think how you are going to live after all those years of work.

                             Children‘s future – if you do not have children you should probably not worry about this just yet. However, if you do have them you should sit down with your spouse and decide what you want to give your child or children. Do you want them to go to college? Do you want to buy them a car or maybe a house?

                             Emergency funds – no matter what your situation is the absolute bare minimum you should have is one month of your expenses. There is a lot that can happen and you do not want to take any credits.

                             Investing – After you have freed yourself of any credit card debts and have accumulated 3-6 months of your expenses it is a good idea to start investing.

Saving strategies

There are a lot of strategies on how to save your money by having a different account, having physically your money separated into envelopes, and writing what they are for. I will give you a few examples.

Zero budgeting

The key idea here is planning your every purchase one month in advance. You can read more about it in Ramseysolutions.com article.

50-30-20

The 3 numbers represent necessities (50% of your income), wants (30% of your income), and investing (20% of your income). You have read about it before in this article.

The key principle here is to try not to spend more on the first 2 categories. It is good if you can invest more than 20% of your income.

My strategy

I use a combination of some of these ideas. When I get my salary I transfer my money to 2 other bank accounts:

I transfer money for my mortgage and other bills

Then I keep a fixed sum that I calculated I need for this month

And I transfer all the rest to my savings account

Bills account

So, my first account is self-explanatory – I do not want to miss my obligations.

Spending account

The second account is for everything that I will need. It is a good idea to check this number once in a while mostly because of inflation. From here I can spend anything I want guilt-free.

Yes, you read that right. That is the money I do not care for and if I want – meals at a restaurant, a new game, books, courses, and so on.

The reason for this is that we are all human and need to have some leisure to keep us sane. We cannot just stay at home for 30 years or so till we get to our goals and say that now we start to live.

Chances are if you do not spend some money on yourself your whole system will crumble and you will be ending up spending even more money than you intended.

Saving account

The last account is for my savings. Here I keep my money for a rainy day and I invest any surplus from this account.

The key point here is how much money can you allow to save.

If you are used to spending all your paycheck then maybe it would be great to start from low numbers like 10% and gradually increase this number as you get used to it.

I save around 50% of my paycheck which is a very healthy number. Of course, this does not happen every month and I do make some financial inaccuracies. But the idea is not to stop the progress over one bad month.

However, this might be impossible to save 50% with your current salary. In this case, you should see how much you spend on your rent or mortgage. Maybe it is too expensive for you at the moment?

Or maybe the problem is in your other monthly expenses. Do you need that Starbucks coffee every morning?

Maybe the solution would be to find a better-paying job.

All of this is very individual. You need to do this analysis yourself.

Alternative strategy

I got another example from one of my friends. As it works for him it might be a good fit for you too.

In his household, he is responsible for groceries. So, he uses only 2 accounts.

His primary one from which he invests

And the credit card account from where he spends everything.

In this case, my friend transfers the needed amount to his credit card and uses it for every purchase. If he uses more money he simply adds more money from his first account from the next salary.

From this, he gets a slightly better credit score as he uses his credit card and always pays on time.

As you know if you tend to miss your payments your credit score will suffer and you will get a higher interest rate on every credit you might take in the future including your mortgage.

Conclusion

To conclude you have to find what is the best way for you that works. It‘s okay if one or two months you do not keep what planned to do – it is a continuous journey. Consistency is key here. Last of my money saving tips – If you do not stop budgeting you will eventually succeed.

Earning more

If you say it is impossible to keep to the principle above maybe you do earn not enough money.

Why it is important

It is a huge difference when you earn 20k USD per year and when you earn 100k USD per year. Your saving amount in the first case would be only 4k USD per year if you use the 50-30-20 strategy in the second example it would be 40k USD per year.

So, if you invested all that money to 10X your money per year would be nearly impossible. Because of that, it is a much better idea to try to get your income higher.

How to do it?

I believe you all think it is easier said than done, right? Well, I disagree. It is not hard if you keep your working principles intact. I started from the most basic position earning 8.400 EUR but I managed to turn this around in just a few years and become a high-level manager.

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