Hello friends, to catch up on this topic, you can read up on the first part by clicking here. Now let’s continue…
There are only two ways to earn extra income. The first way is within your current job and the second is from outside sources.
Earning Extra Income within your Job
To earn an extra income within your job you need to develop high-income skills and move towards adding value that has a measurable and direct impact on the company’s revenue and profit. You must also be willing to embrace a higher workload and responsibility. Because as far as the career world is concerned, income and workload go together. This is the sad truth that most people are trying to dodge. Especially if they are already drowning in workload or do not like their jobs.
According to a global poll by Gallup, an American analytics company, 15% of the world’s one billion full-time workers are happy in their jobs. A monumental 85% of people are unhappy in their jobs. The last thing a person who is unhappy in their job wants to do is embrace extra workload.
READ: How to move from middle class to upper class (Part 2)
So this income-earning path may not work for you if you are among the 85%. This path is for people who love their jobs and are in alignment with their work. For these people, there are three things they need to do. First, they need to identify the position they want to reach. Understand what it will take to get to that position. Know how the person who is sitting in that position got there, and discover the fastest way to get there.
Second, they must assess the distance between where they are and where they want to be. They must evaluate the qualification and competence they have versus what is needed for this role. They must also understand how they can get there and how long it will take.
And third, they must get a sponsor or mentor within and outside the organization who sits in the same or a higher position than the position they admire. This is because it is easier to be pulled up by these people than attempt to climb up yourself. You need the guidance of the people who have taken the path that you are about to take. But make no mistakes, attracting the attention of these people require that you must first become a person of visible value. Your value must be visible and impressionable on the people you are trying to attract. And you must be willing to initiate the relationship in certain instances by offering value.
READ: 8 Ways to set yourself up for financial freedom in your 20s
But if working harder and increasing your workload at your current job is not for you. There are two other options to choose from. The first is to find another job where you can embrace more work. And the second is to look to outside sources of side hustles that can facilitate your exit.
To get a better job, the fastest way is to become the person that better jobs are looking for. You must become a person of high value and work on your relationships. You must also apply the three steps highlighted above for rising within your organization.
To exit the career world successfully and never look back, there are three things you must do. The first is to get your finances right. You must never exit from a stable income to no income. To get started you must work towards building solid cash reserves that can sustain you for 12-24 months. Once you have this cash reserve or investment you are ready for the next step. The next step is to develop high-income skills. If you are ever going to succeed in the outside world you need high-income skills. The third step is to choose one of the four outside sources described below.
The FOUR outside income sources
There are four broad paths to follow if you want to earn extra income outside your job. The first is the Passion Path. The second is the Money Path. The third is the Purpose Path. And the fourth is the Solved Personal Problem Path. Below, I explain each of these paths in detail.
The Passion Path
The passion path is any path to earning extra income that is focused on following your passion. Your passion is what you love to do and what comes naturally to you. You would think that following this path would be easy. But it’s not. And there are a few reasons for this. First, most passion paths are low-income producing. This means that they can hardly make you wealthy. Second, making a passion profitable can take time. And sometimes a passion is just a hobby and cannot produce any income. This is why the advice to follow your passion may be misleading. I will rather say follow your Purpose. And there is a huge difference between the two. To follow the passion path, you must answer the following questions.
The first question, is this passion wealth-producing in nature? Second, has this passion produced many millionaires or billionaires? Third, how long did it take for those that succeeded in this passion to become millionaires? If the passion you choose is not profitable. You may pursue the passion after you have made money through other paths.
The Money Path
The money path is similar to the unhappy job path. It is any path that you are solely in for the money. It usually comes in the form of a business and like any other path like it, the end road is stress and unhappiness. You may make money but you will also end up miserable, unhappy and bored. And the stress on this path could damage your health in the process. This path is also likely to affect your efficiency at work if done part-time as it requires enormous time and energy investments. If you must follow this path, do it for the short term. And know that this path is bankrupt of lasting happiness and fulfilment.
The Purpose Path
The purpose path is doing work that is aligned with your purpose. Purposeful work is doing what you are designed to do and not necessarily what comes naturally to you. A knife is designed to cut and not to be put on a decorating table. Similarly, a bird is designed to fly and not to be put in a cage. Once you do work that is aligned with your purpose you will struggle less and have fun more. Purposeful work is also focused on making an impact, serving humanity, and making the world a better place. When you discover your purpose, you begin to live a stress-free life. Your work becomes more like leisure. And you achieve wealth, happiness, and fulfilment. However, Starting and succeeding in this path takes enormous hard work, discipline, and sacrifice. It is not a path that you can do successfully part-time. To really succeed in this path, you must face it full-time.
The Solved Personal Problem Path
The solved personal problem path is any path that you have taken or are taking to solve a problem. If you have solved a personal nagging problem in your life that affects many other people then you could use your experience to help others and earn extra income. There are four elements that must be present to succeed in this path. First, you must be solving or must have already solved the problem for yourself. This will ensure that you have the confidence and authenticity to tell others about it. Second, this problem must affect a lot of other people. Third, the industry or company with the product or service that can help these people must be willing to pay you high income. That is, it must be a lucrative industry or a company where earning a high income is possible. And fourth, the speed of earning an income should be fast and the workload should be minimal.
This path, unlike other paths, does not require you to create your own products and services or build your own brand reputation. You can leverage the brand reputation of the company you work with. This is also the only path that has the advantage of a high income for a small workload. All you need to do is tell others about your own experience, help them take the right steps through the solution provider, and you are paid high income. It is the fastest way to earn high income, although not all industries offer this opportunity. The solved personal problem path is also the only path that you can comfortably combine with other paths. You can also use it to facilitate your exit from the career world.
Step 4. Preserve the Income that You Earn
The best way to create a lucrative income is not just to earn a high income but to preserve a big part of the income that you earn and then grow this path through investing. You must be able to control the side that brings in income as well as the sides where income can be lost. This is why income preservation is important. If you earn income and lose income, you are like a financial treadmill or someone suffering from financial diarrhoea. Managing your finances this way will only delay your financial freedom. If you want to achieve financial freedom you must keep, grow and preserve a major part of your income. And there are three problems I see that prevent people from preserving their income.
The first is maintaining a decent lifestyle that keeps savings below the 25% mark. The second is investment losses. And the third is investment risks. If you save below 25% of your income you are not preserving enough income for financial freedom. And if you lose money through investing, you are a victim of your own greed. You are going for gaseous and liquid investments instead of first building a solid investment foundation. Liquid investments are investments that go up and down with the economy. Gaseous investment is an investment that can disappear at any time. Solid investments are stable, high returns but long-term investments that are difficult to lose. If you fail to first build a solid and stable investment base before going after unstable investments, you will keep losing money, pilling up regrets, and at some point, give up. There is a reason why the foundation of every house is stable and there is also a reason why rich people rarely take the kind of investment risk that poor people take. Losing money through investing is never the fault of the investment. It is the fault of the investor who is investing with a losing plan. The best way to invest is to invest in ways that advance you towards your goals and not take you back and forth. Progressive investing is how wealthy people invest.
The other thing that can destroy your savings is failing to protect your investments from the devaluation risk. If your investments and savings lose their value due to a lack of protection from inflation or economic fluctuation, you have simply cancelled all the hard work that you have done. Thus, investing without risk protection and losing money through investment is the fastest way to postpone your own financial freedom.
Achieving financial freedom may be everyone’s dream but only a few people have the balls to pursue it. To attain financial freedom, you must pursue all the elements discussed last week in the first part of this article and also those discussed in this concluding part.
If you need help implementing any of the elements discussed in this article, send an email to info@createsolidwealth.com to learn more.
About the author
Grace Agada is a recognized leading Financial Expert on Nigerian Soil. She is a Renowned Speaker, Author, and Column Contributor in Punch Newspaper, This Day Newspaper, Vanguard newspaper, Business Day Newspaper, Leadership Newspaper, The Tribune Newspaper, and Online Platforms like Nairametrics, Proshare, and Bellanaija. Grace is the author of “The Financial Freedom MBA Program, “The Passive Income Retirement Blueprint” and “The Wealthy Business Blueprint” for Advisors, Consultants, and Coaches who want to get off the roller coaster of irregular income. Grace is on a mission to shrink the middle class and populate the upper class. Her ultimate goal is to create a tribe of professionals that are thriving in any economy. Grace has been featured on BBC Africa. Business Day TV. Inspiration FM. and inside Naijatv. She has consulted for Numerous Top Organizations, Company Directors, Senior Executives, and Top performing Professionals.
Grace, thanks a lot for this article and the first part of it. Please how does one preserve their investment against inflation and devaluation in our country, Nigeria, where the inflation rate is perpetually high? Inflation was 17% last month, this month it’s 18.7%.
Thanks for the solid advice
strongly disagree with the work load goes along with income as far as Africa concern is pure lie .Though that is what is entail in western world