Maximizing Your Income in 2023 #623

have done like five years ago. This is it's a more general type of episode, but honestly, it kind of demonstrates our tendencies, like our personal tendencies, like you and I were pretty frugal dudes, and because of that, I think we do tend to talk about topics that lean more and the cutting back side of the equation when it comes to your personal finances. Right, But this is a topic that we need to talk about more, and

we are remedying that. Today. We're gonna talk about how you can maximize your income this year, how you can make more money. I'm excited to discuss this today. And I think, by the way, some of the things that we're going to talk about on today's episode, You're right, like, this is a topic we can talk about at any time. But I think three is a year where there are there's extremely low hanging fruit more so than than most times. And so yeah, we'll get into that too. That is true, man.

All right. So I've got a little story for you. I was story time was my favorite. Pull up a chair, have a seat on the floor, criss cross apple sauce. So I was biking home yesterday, bikro home from work, and I am lucky then and that there's a path like a walker jogger bike path that goes all the way basically from our office from our little clubhouse here

all the way home. And I was approaching an intersection like a you know, where a road crosses over the path when ahead started to bike across it, and I look up and and there's a car coming at me pretty quick, and I'm thinking, surely this guy's gonna stops right for you. Well, there's a stop sign there for him as well, so like, I mean, by law, he has to stop. But no, he did not, dude, And he got within maybe like two and a half feet. I mean, he was freaking close. I was pretty mad,

pretty passed right in the moment um. And so I was like, all right, whatever, kind of got all grumpy, kept biking, and he had turned the direction that I happened to be going as well, and so I caught up to him at the stoplight and I decided, you know what, I'm gonna have a few words with this Yeah, and so I just I pulled up next to him on the passenger side of the car and knocked on the window, and I was just like, hey, I told

him what's up. I mean in a in a kind way, but I just wanted to let him know that man, he he almost took me out, but I I guess what I wanted to ask you. This made me think of how we often do frugal or cheaps on the show. And do you feel that I was being um like a jerk bike commuter or was I just being a concerned biking advocate who was politely informing this guy that of of his actions, Like, I mean, what would you have done? Do you think in that really close to me in a car when I was on a bike

like that, like and I felt endangered? Then yeah, I would hopefully I would take a moment to calm down like you did, and then knock on the I mean window and didn't have a conversation, But I think luckily I had a stretch of biking to where I think I was able to burn off a little bit because, like, had he stopped right in the moment, I think I would have been like, hey, man, did he how did

he respond? When he talked so okay? It seemed he was genuinely shocked, And so what I asked him, I was like, hey, did you know that you got really close to me? Like I wasn't I was being kind, I wasn't looking for a fight. Again, I felt like I was kind of I was in my in my right mind at that point, Like when I knocked on his window and I knocked on it gently, you know, kindly, But I was just like, hey, do you realize that you got really close to me back there at the

at the stop sign? And he looked at me just with shock, like horror on his face. He's like, no way, did I really? He's a teenage driver. Does not seem that he has been been driving me very long? Um, And so the lesson for him, and honestly, exactly, there are much worse ways to learn that lessons. Well, that's the thing. I just wanted to like educate him and to inform him that, like, man, there are other bikers out here, I'm not the only one, and he's not going to be able to learn and maybe pay a

little more attention. I don't know how he didn't see me though, I mean literally, I we never locked eyes, but I was right there. Teenage drivers you never know and completely distract even non teenage sharpers. Just everyone looking at their phones more and more driving, even though it's illegal in many states. And but yeah, yeah, and I wanted to share that, I guess too, just to like, I don't want to scare folks. Um, this doesn't happen very often, but I do think it is important to

watch out. Um. I think it's a reminder to me as well to consider even like turning all my blinky's like during the day, because I do think, okay, maybe if I had those flashing you know, on the front, they're switching it because during the daytime you can switch it to flashing at night and always keep it on solid to actually light up the road light up the path. But I'm like, you know what, I want to keep those blinky's on even during the day, just to make

yourself a little more visible. It's even I mean it was during the day when I was riding home but it's still kind of in the winner where it's still it's a little darker by the time we get out of bike safety matters you keeping yourself safe, but then

also hopefully kindly educating other people in the road. Okay, bikers exist, even up here to the Burbs where we live, there's bikers, and I like seeing bikers on the road, and I want to see more people feeling free to bike those roads because, like we actually talked about last week. At the end of last week, we talked about just how jammed jammed these roads are with congestion, and we need more bikes on the road to relieve some of

that congestion. But drivers have to be courteous to make that our possibilities right, Well, all right, but I'm glad you're okay, uh, and thank you. Thanks for Matt storytime. Let's move on. Let's mention the beer we're having on this episode. This one is called Painting Dreams by Fighting's Brewing. Will give our thoughts on this one at the end

of the episode is a West Coast IPM. So you know what I meant to do was since uh, the last episode to this episode, I was planning to look up how to actually pronounce the name of this burner, because I would feel so bad if we're not getting the name right, because, as we will share later on, this is a fantastic beer and I want to make sure they get all the props. I can't imagine there

are too many possibilities for the pronunciation. Yeah, something like that, But it's I would think it'd be fittings if it was two days, but it's one, So you never know. God with a hearty, it's a proper name. They could say, you say it in a way that sounds good. They could, all right, but let's help every right, Let's talk about

maxing income, Matt. That's the topic for today's episode, and and and in particular, there are specific ways that we think that people are going to have extra abilities to do this, and I'm sure there are at least a few how the Money listeners who have set out goals already this year, and maybe one of those for a lot of people is to lose weight. I think that's a common one. I mean, there are just a lot of folks out there who want to shed some pounds,

and I hope that endeavors going well so far. If that's something you've you've you've chosen to do, you're working on. But Matt, let's say, you know, just imagine if some of those folks they were only focusing on eating less, if they were just intent on cutting their calorie intake, if that's the only way they were trying to achieve that goal. Is that going to help him out? Sure? Right, that's gonna make some some of the difference in helping

you lose some weight. But focusing solely on that one route to weight loss is also going to have some massive shortcomings. Right, there's this whole other realm that you're leaving untouched, namely exercise. Cutting calories is great. You know, my wife, she says weight Watchers is super helpful when she's trying to lose a few pounds. She she likes to go there and kind of type in what she's eating on the app. It helps her kind of hit her diet on all cylinders so that she's to attract

that data. Yeah, for sure, I get it. But she's also hitting up the gym four times a week, right, So she's taken the both and approach, which is what what's gonna help you get there a whole lot faster. And I think similarly, frugality, like you've talked about, like we that's something that we talked about a lot on the show, but it can only get you so far. At some point, you can't cut expenses anymore, or you're

eating just rice and beans. You're you've you've boiled it down, You've reduced your budget to such an extent that you're completely unhappy, right, and so you've got to grow your income in order to make more progress on your financial goals. And so we're gonna give a slew of thoughts on how you can maximize your earning potential in the year ahead on today's episode. That's right, And you know, like I said earlier, I think you and I both leaned

towards frugality. But whether or not that's your tendency, it just comes down to your own finality. But like you said, frugality, it won't pay the bills. Uh. And if you can't get a handle on your spending, it's also going to be impossible to out earn that crappy habit. So both of those are important. And another problem for a lot of folks is that they want to make more money,

but they just don't know how to make more money? Right, And so many of the ideas that come up when you you know, when you google this, like how do I make more money? The results are oftentimes going to be crap drop shipping on Amazon. It's like, oh yeah, earn uh more per year by staying home. And they almost all involved like trading your time for money, right, which is something that we all have to do to

a certain extent. But time is a limited resource. It's it's one of the few limited resources that we have in our lives, and we can't do that in perpetuity. And so today we're gonna offer some of the most practical advice that we have for increasing your income. You know, again cutting back it feels like something that is accessible for everybody. I think oftentimes folks, including us, tend to

lean towards that because it just seems very redoable. And I don't think everyone feels that way when it comes to increasing their income. To them, it feels like one hole too far or I don't know, one more hurdle that they have to jump. It doesn't seem like it's nearly as accessible. But we are here to say that

we think it is. And that's why we're dedicating an entire episode towards increasing your income, and well, I think a lot of the advice that we give about frugality is applicable to nearly of the people listening, right, And when it comes to earning more, well, so much depends on the industry you're in and how long you've been in it, and uh, there's just so many other factors. But so we're gonna try to give them most broad based advice so we can on on today's episode when

it comes to how to earn more. You probably won't be able to take every single one of these tips and implemented into your life. But if you can just take, you know, a few of these and try them out at your place of employments or as you're shopping the open job market, you can find that it will lead to meaningful increases in income. And this might be intuitive map,

but I feel like it's worth saying out loud. We talked about investing a lot too in regards in addition to frugality, but it's a lot harder to invest when you've got a major income when you're not making enough, and some folks are just way overthinking, like their asset allocation. When they're only investing let's say a few hundred dollars or maybe a thousand dollars a year, they're hoping to to coax outside returns out of the dollars that they're

putting into their investments. And and these folks and a whole lot of others would truly be much better served by working towards increasing their investable cash flow by making more money than by optimizing their investments or finding yet another way to cut back on their expenses so that

they could invest a touch more. Exactly. Yeah, it's like, oh, i'd say, tendcects on Netflix, when what you're leaving on the table oftentimes is the potential to earn thousands of dollars more a re single year, way more than that

Netflix spell. And so instead of spending hours investing obsessed over which which streaming service to cut, or you know, obsessing over which funds to stick your dollars into an attempt to choice those returns, the payback is going to be higher if you instead look to increase your income and you just stick to the boring investments that we always talk about. You're not going to get rich via

the investment decisions you make. You're gonna get rich via your work and your income by increasing that income and the ability then to invest more of it. That's right. Yeah, this is an instance where you want to make sure that you're asking the right questions. You want to make sure that you're asking the thirty thousand dollar question, not the thirty dollar question. Sometimes we can get so preoccupied with the details that we we missed the bigger thing

that's lying there in front of us um. And you know, the good news is that the job market right now is pretty hot. If you're someone looking for new work, you're in a strong position. The job market is like Hansel and zooland so high right now. Last year was the second best year for job growth in U S history. Despite many predictions of a souring job market, they haven't

really materialized. There have been some layoffs happening that we hear about that that get all the headline attention um, specifically from a few specific tech companies, but they've been fairly minimal um. And there are still one point seven jobs available per job seeker. So that means that if you if you're out there looking, you have your pick

of the litter. To a certain degree. Um, I mean we joel like, we took a trip recently and we were still passing bonuses being written on you know, pieces of paper in fast food windows that are still windows McDonald's are still saying, hey, look extra five hundred bucks or a thousand bucks just for coming to work here. That's in addition to higher normal hourly wages too, exactly. So there's a lot of employers who are still looking

to fill empty positions. And you know what, while many of the things that will discuss Intudy's episode will be applicable uh next year and the year after that as well, you do have more ability in the current market to increase your your income because of how hot the job market is. Um, it's not quite as nice as it was seven to eight months ago, but workers still have massive leverage to get paid more today for sure. All Right, So that does make me think, like, how do you

know if you're being underpaid? Because that's probably a really important thing to ask question. You might be at the top of your profession right now. You might be the equivalent of the air and judge for the New York Yankees, and you just you're you're hitting like he's not gonna be able to make more money than when he got this past offseason in that labor market, and like, no, nobody's gonna be able to say, well, actually double your pay, come on over here. He's at the top of his profession.

But how would you even find out if you're not well. It helps to know what's going on in the market in order to be able to maximize the utility of our time and our skills. Like, for instance, a lot of truck drivers and folks in the service industry, like you're talking about math, they've seen rate pay rates rise significantly over the past year. Part of it is though sign up bonuses. Part of it is just more robust

starting salaries. But it's massively helpful to pay attention to the current trends when shifts are happening in your industry. That way you can know whether or not you are getting paid appropriately. And so if you're looking for resources that can be continually helpful, we'd say sites like glass door or even just producing job postings on the web that include salary ranges, they can help you see what

the pay ranges for some more positions to yours. Those are good ways to kind of figure out what's going on in the market and where am I at in relation to it. That can help you just assess where you fall on the scale and how much potential there is for you to increase your income, even if in the end you opted not to make any changes based

on some of the recommendations were about to give. Yeah, and also I think just talking about money, hopefully that is something that you've done with your friends, that's something maybe that you've done with your coworkers. And if that's uh, if those are discussions that you're having, then I think it's going to be easier for you to determine whether

or not you're getting paid well compared to your your coworkers. So, for instance, if there's a you're at a company and that you know there are some new hires and if you're if you realize that they're getting paid more than what what you're getting paid, and you've been there for six months, maybe a year, year and a half, well I think that's maybe it's time for you for there to be a discussion. You know, like if if you haven't talked to your boss, if you haven't gotten um

like a performance review, that's a bad sign. That's Okay, uh, you know, it seems like your your pay has been been stagnant, and this is beyond maybe just even just the standard cost of living basic percentage increases that most folks oftentimes yet and that's just what we'll talk specifically about negotiating at your current job or and how to go about effectively increasing your pay if you find yourself

in a position like that. But what you're talking about kind of still is is just the market research portion of this. Yeah, market research, and just I mean, and I think a part of that market research is just talking about it with other folks that's not only relying on glass door indeed linked in different job sites, which are all very important. You want a bunch of data points really exactly like you want the Internet, but you also want real life, real life data as well. Dude.

One thing that's worth considering is how to use the new pay transparency laws to your advantage as well when it comes to making more money. A few of those went on the books in early three including in California, and that's in addition to two others I think New York as well, that have been passed by other states prior years. But when California gets into something because just of this the sheer size of the state. It's got a tenth of all Americans like live in the state

of California. I think it's like the fifth or sixth largest economy in the world if it was its own country. So yeah, it's massive influence. Yeah, it's got all these ripple effects on everywhere else, on all the other states. Um So this year, you're going to see a lot

more pay ranges listed on Internet job boards and listings. Granted, some of those pay ranges they're not always gonna be helpful because the spread it's so ridiculously between Like, I don't know what that means, but I do think that they'll function sort of as a backstop, maybe some back of the napkin math to help you to to see

where you're pay stacks up against others within your industry. Yeah, those pay transparency laws, they're not necessarily some sort of bulletproof thing that's going to aid you in this negotiation, but you are. The more you produce those boards, the more you see those pay ranges listed. It is again, it's one of those other data points, and you want as many as you can to help you understand what the market is paying for people in position similar to

yours or the position that you want to have. That can be just another arrow in your quiver so that you are able to negotiate for higher pay for yourself. And and because of some of these new laws, Matt, unlisted jobs are actually starting to become more common. I think some people are trying to avoid having to post the pay. Some employers are trying to avoid having to spell it out, Hey, this is what we pay for these these jobs. But a lot of the unlisted jobs

are actually six figure jobs. There are actually jobs that pay really well. How do you get one of these jobs if they're unlisted? Then a little more word of mouth, isn't it? Yeah? Exactly. A lot of how you actually go about getting one of those is having a good network in place so that you're notified when an awesome job comes along that you're a good fit for. We're going to talk more about how to do that, along with a bunch of other tips for how to maximize

your income this year. We'll get to all that right after this. A right, man, we are back from the break, and let's talk about how you can ensure that you're gonna make more money this year at your place of employer a mint and if you don't, you could sue Matt. There's no guarantee this episode. We can give your email at the end of this episode. But we just talked

about how it's really important to know the market. It's important to know the pay ranges that are out there, to to know the salaries of similar jobs as yours given the degree of experience that you have. That's sort of like an external factor to keep in mind. But it's also important to pay attention to the internal factors as well. It's important to make yourself more valuable in

the market. And by that I mean is it's not necessarily about getting an expensive advanced degree or learning new skills, right, although those can be smart approaches depending on what industry you're in, what job it is that you're looking for. But I'm kind of talking about first of all, like your mindset, your work ethic, and what you add to

the company is what is going to make you promotable. Uh. You know, you may not be gunning for like a like the position of CEO, but many of the top companies have leaders that moved that slowly moved up the ranks in the company over the course of years and decades. And so it's important to keep in mind that it comes down to the value that you're able to provide the company. But also it's important to develop an owner's mentality,

like JACKO. Willing calls extreme ownership right, which I think is just a good way to live in general, but

very very helpful if you're trying to make more money. Yeah, I mean, that's what is going to get you recognized by your your manager, by your boss, because it often it's gonna make them look better as well, and so they're gonna want to keep They're gonna want more people like you working under them, working on their team, and just finding ways to make yourself indispensable by by going above and beyond, is going to make your current job not only more secure, but it's gonna put you in

line for better positions as they become available. Um you know, I mean, shoot, they may even create a new job, a new position for you, if you're good enough. I say all that the small caveat there's a fine balance there because going above and beyond that also sounds like working more. And so it's not necessarily that we want you to only work more hours, but work additional time or put extra effort in in a way that's going

to reap you the greatest room. Don't want to like give sweat, blood and tears in perpetuity for no return on your effort to an employer, because that's like the old model, right, and I think like the new model is quite quitting. But there's a balance of like, when you're working, you're working hard, right, and you're doing good, and you're doing your best what cal Newport he says, be so good they can't ignore you. And I think the better you are at your job, the more results

you're able to provide that has tangible rewards. And I think maybe, uh that that's gotten a little lost in a shuffle as we talk about how to increase pay. Oftentimes it is just the external find out how much your worth and go get it somewhere else. But sometimes it is just being better and improving yourself and what you're able to provide to your card employer in the here and now. That makes a difference to Yeah, I think there's a degree of discipline that you can bring

to your job. I think, I mean, we know some folks and they will readily admit there, and they say they're like, I don't really work hard, Like my my job is kind of a joke. It's it's a non factor in the joy and the satisfaction that it brings me. I do the work and I get paid. But it's very clear that there's either not a path for those folks to advance or you're just not interested. You're you're happy with the status quo. Maybe you make enough to

live a comfortable life. Um, but it's just it's so important to keep in mind that may not always be the case. Uh. Things might change. Maybe your partner is no longer able to work after uh for for various reasons. But basically, I do think that there is a level of intensity and discipline that you can bring to your job. But depending on what you want your career to look like, I think developing more hard skills might be necessary. I mean,

like the ninja skills I just acquired. Absolutely I'm gonna pay raise for those, right. Yeah, Okay, you took a class in order to learn those skills, but that that is what we're talking about. We're talking about taking like courses or getting certifications. I think those can go a

long way depending on your industry. But before you go out there and apply to get an m b A, which by the way, it can cost a ton of stinking money, it's important to weigh the pros and the cons and to determine to see if there's gonna be a way that you can get that training, uh for free, or at least maybe you can get it on the cheap. For instance, maybe your employer will help pay for the skills that you're looking to acquire. If so, obviously take

them up on that. That's a fantastic benefit that your employer can offer. But just be careful before taking on debts, specifically not to mention the time that you're spending as well, but just the cost associated with getting that degree. Um thinking that you know, the hope of these skills might someday come in handy, I think that can be a

massive gamble. We were were always for self improvement in finding ways to make ourselves better folks, but we're also looking to make sure that we can do that on the cheap. We want you to to have more certainty about how these hard skills that you're requiring, how they will impact your future before you go out there and show out some big bucks. Yeah. Like so Emily, I've

talked about this before. She my wife. She is in school grad school to become a licensed therapist, and there's like additional training that she can take that is given to her a massive discount to become certified in this extra special niche right, and she has chosen to pursue it one because it's inexpensive, and too because she can see that people that get this certification get paid more in the future, and so it's the perfect time to

do it. If she were to wait until after she graduated, she pays full freight for that, And so, yeah, there are all sorts of little ways. Makes me think I had friends who worked at Starbucks, Matt. They were they were baristas, or they were even working their way up in Starbucks, and they had access to free education. They didn't take it up at the time. Now they're paying

for it themselves out of pocket. And so when you have something like this that's offered from an employer, don't look at gift horse in the mouth, and you you might want to reconsider whether or not the education you can procure for for free or for cheap is is in your best interest. In that case, I think they're just not looking at the gift horse at all. Inside playing Nintendo. That's right for getting the gift horse exists altogether. Well.

And another thing too. You're talking about hard skills, but soft skills are important too, And it's not something that we talked about enough, but emotional intelligence goes a long way when it comes to getting paid more or moving up the ladder in your career. Just that I Q is that EQ as well? Yeah, And and something as simple as knowing how to effectively participate in a team meeting. Like meetings are overrated, I get it, but they exist and a lot of workplaces, and so if you know

how to do it right like that can help. But getting along well with your team members, having the ability to manage those relationships to inspire creativity and others to be I call it me. And the John Stockton who was like a point guard for the Utah Jazz wasn't necessarily so much a scorer himself, but man, he disched a ball well to everybody like he was the best passer, and so like the people that do that, he's still

memorable because he was so good at that. And if you can be kind of the John Stockton of your team at work. I think that goes a long way. In addition, like taking and managing feedback from your superior as well, that's a crucial skill to making faster career progress too. We actually did a deep dive about some of these like unspoken rules to to work place success

with Gorik ng back in episode four fifteen. So if you want to kind of hear more about that and how to increase your to level up your abilities there, that's episode four fifteen. Yeah, I believe those software skills are one of the things that suffered the most during the pandemic. Obviously, a lot of folks, well a lot of a lot of the laptop class was able to

work from home. That was necessary in order to continue our economy and businesses to continue functioning back when we especially back when we didn't know the severity of the virus and what that meant for us, if whether or not we should be disinfecting our mail, you know, like these are these are all things that freaked us out

early on. But what that meant was that we weren't hanging out in person, in real life with our coworkers, And I think there's a degree, there's an element of like humanity that was lost, and now as more employers are calling folks back into the office, I think a bet a result of that is going. I think we're gonna see productivity skyrocket because I think folks are going to realize, Oh, I like you, like you know what.

We've been working together for years now, but I forgot how great it was to work together in person, to collaborate in a way that not only makes the business more profitable, but but that's also fun. And so I think there's sort of like a self gratifying, like a self off aspect of honing those softer skills as well aside, like completely aside from just like the business and the

profitability side of things. But let's let's talk about networking sort of like uh like real estate, right location, location, location, Um, so you've you've heard the saying is it's not what you know, but it's who you know. And of course this you know it's not gonna be accurate, but we do think this is as close to the truth is you're gonna get in a pithy little phrase like this. And the great thing about growing your network, about meeting

other folks in the industry. Is that anybody can do this right, Like, it is not off limits to to anyone. It just takes a bit of intentionality, It takes some focused effort, and by doing those things, it's gonna put you on the path to growing your network. Um and it's it's not just building up and growing your network too, but also maintaining that network and then committing to you know, something like regular checkens with folks in your space within

your industry. That is going to be crucial as well. Look up some different conferences, uh, like where you can get to know folks in your space, like send them an email, see how some when you hit it off with at the conference, see how they're doing. Maybe you knew about a project that they're going to be on or a new position that they're taking on. And as you do that, make sure to seek to provide value

however it is that you can. Because I think that the more that the folks within your network feel that you're seeking to be helpful, that you're trying to find different ways to put them in better positions, the more keen that they're actually gonna be to help you out in a pinch, The more likely they're gonna be to keep you in mind when that new six figure position is coming on, is about to be available, and they're not going to post it officially, but they're just you know,

they start putting the tentacles, they start putting the feelers out for folks like you, who is a nice guy or a nice lady and you're caring and you're empathetic, and you you check in on folks. Yea, yeah, No, I think that that's huge, and I think we underestimate the importance and the value of building a good network. I just had a friend text me the other day, Matt, and he was like, he sent me a position that I didn't know was available. And he was like, I

don't know. I mean, I know you hate Matt now, so you might be interested in this. I was like, no, no, no no, I still love man. We love what we do, so I'm not. But it was kind of where you get your info. But it was just it was kind of a goofy thing because it was like the Braves p a announcer and I've always liked baseball, and he was like, you're you were in radio, this would be perfect. I'm like, yeah, wait, Like at the during the games. Yeah, during the games. The cool job. But you said that

was like your dream job. I mean, well, it used to be the actual announcer for like the radio broadcast, a announcer like in the stadium. Not as much and still got it. Not gonna happen. Not not interested anymore. That was a dream from long ago. That's kind of that was single, Jol before I had kids, Jole exactly, Yeah, exactly. But it's funny how people just think of you for certain things. I had a former boss reach out again recently and he's like, hey, we've got I've got there's

maybe some work I'd like you to do if you're interested. Again, I'm not terribly interested right now, but the fact that people think of you because you have, like you've maintained those relationships matters. And so here's what we would say to growing your network is also important, not just maintaining the one that You've got a couple of tips for that. You can literally proactively introduce yourself to others in your

field who are doing work that interests you. There's no harm and there's no harm in that sending a brief linked in message or an email to offer a kind word or introduce yourself to even say hey, do you have time for a quick coffee if you guys live in the same town. But we would also say don't exclusively network with peers in your field, because a bunch of folks could stand to benefit from actually responding to maybe the kind of annoying messages they get from recruiters

or headhunters in their field. You might say, listen, I'm not interested. To leave me alone, but you know, the the current job even that they're reaching out to you about to tell you about or to see if you're interested in it might not be right for you. But having a brief cordial combo with that person, letting them know what you're looking for job wise, will make you top of mind for them in the future. So they might already know about another position that you're perfect for

even at that moment. But a robust network is really what's likely to get you unlisted opportunities that we were talking about before. It's likely to get you thought of for other things, other positions you might not have noticed or you might not even have known existed. But that network, like you said, Matt, it's just like real estate, location, location, location, network, network, network.

If that's if you boil it down to one thing that's most likely to move the needle over a number of years to help repel your career, I think it's that that's right, man. Yeah, And as your network grows, you're gonna have more opportunities to to take your talents elsewhere, uh, changing jobs that gives you the highest probability for making

more money. I will say, the increased leverage that workers have right now, it's kind of shown up in the form of some like more goofy stunding movements over the past twelve months. Uh. For like, there was quiet quitting right which was like workers refusing to go above and beyond whatever their job title or description asked of them. But then there's something called rage applying, uh. And that's

where you get so fed up with your boss. You get so fed up with your job that you start applying like crazy, two dozens, multiple dozens of positions, which I will say the last have to do it with a scale in your face. I believe otherwise you're not actually you're just applying, applying um. And I do think that's a better option, uh in my opinion. But if

you don't like what you're doing. Don't just check out, don't just quiet quit, look for something better, like be more proactive about it, take your your future into your own hands, and let's make sure that you know this something better like that additional position that it pays more to that it's going to be something that is going to financially reward you as well. Yeah, it's it's kind

of a goofy name to something people are doing. Of course, this started as a TikTok trend, like everything does now. Does any any trend not start on TikTok these days? Not that I know of, But yeah, this rage applying is we kind of kind of become the hit thing. But the truth is, even though you're doing it maybe out of kind of the wrong emotional space, you're doing the right thing by applying, by seeing what options are open. Your motives are wrong, you're doing it with the wrong heart. Yeah,

but the end result might actually be good exactly. Well. Yeah, and I think too, it's important to mention that don't just look for jobs in the current industry you work in because as yet, like, there were some actual news stats recently to Matt that said that pay rates for people who stay put at, their current jobs have gone up more than at any other time in the past twenty five years since we've started keeping records on this data. But even still, moving jobs is almost always gonna let

you more on the income front. But uh, it's it's worth mentioning that looking into a different industry completely could produce even higher results on the income front for you as well. There's just nothing forcing you to stay in the current industry that you're in. If your skills translate well, not just the different employers, but the different lines of work,

starts scouring those opportunities as well. I mean, there were headlines in newspapers across the country about how in demand teachers are, about how they can quit their job and go get paid more because of the innate talents that they have that translate well to other industries. So it's not just that that teacher has other potential jobs lined up in the education sector. There are a bunch of other sectors that would welcome teachers with open arms because

of the various talents they possess. So just to plug to widen your search parameters a little more than they currently are. Yeah, and plus it's just fun to consider doing something completely different than maybe what you've done for the past ten years. Like it makes me think, like I came to podcasting from being a photographer. That is not something that I thought in a thousand years that I would ever do, but dang it, it' sure is

fun to have like gone from something that was. I don't know, I I feel like I'm at two opposite ends of the spectrum. We're still creative, but they're very different. Yes, I love the creativity that was that I've been able to find and uh, you know, and what we do obviously was able to find that in photography as well.

But I think folks should be more open minded too, and like it almost sounds counterintuitive, but to almost hit resets a little bit on their career and kind of start over from scratch if you're looking for a way to kind of shake things up, maybe if you feel like you've either hit the ceiling or if you see better potential elsewhere. Um, but as you're weighing those different options, as you're thinking about about moving, obviously folks are gonna look at what it is that they might be able

to get paid. But something to keep in mind, Uh, don't just look at the salary alone, how your job impacts your life, the hours that you're supposed to work, and the job flexibility uh that you're going to be able to realize. These are all important to think through as well as you're considering a new position. Um Basically, we want you to think through like the total package of what a job entails, right, including the total compensation package, but also the lifestyle aspects of a job as well.

But the Beer of Labor Statistics found that of the average employees, compensation comes via the form of benefits. It comes via things that aren't listed out on those job listings, you know with the job title, twoline description, and a salary. Reminds me of how like when we drive cars and

we think about how expensive they are. Oftentimes one of the first things people think about our gas prices, but those are actually such a small percentage of where you're But like these these benefits that you can all these other things that you need to take a depreciation maintenance to the headline salary number. But some of those other things buried a little bit deeper down about when it comes to the four one K match or when it

comes to healthcare benefits, those things can be massive. It could be it could make a big difference, right like like a new job it might pay more, right, which sounds pretty awesome. But if they don't offer a four one K match, right like, if you have to work longer days, so your lifestyle now sucks. The flexibility is

now gone. If the healthcare premiums, if they're gonna cost you, you know, substantially more, well, it might be more of a wash, right from from an overall compensation perspective, and it might not be worth the salary increase in may not be worth a squeeze um. And so a bigger headline salary number is of course massively helpful, kind of

helps you get pointed in the right direction. But before you switch jobs based on that alone, make sure that you you do your dilaons, make sure that you've done some research, that you figured out how this shift, how this change is going to impact you on all those different fronts in life, not just the amount that's going to be in your paycheck every two weeks. Yeah, for sure. Well let's let's keep talking about this man, like we

want to talk about negotiation. I think negotiation is a really really important part of how you get paid more especially if you want to stay put where you are. You're not looking necessarily to pull Lebron James and take your talents to South Beach or something like that. You you just want to get paid what you're worth where you are. We'll talk about that, but we'll also talk about striking it on your own. Or if you're a freelancer, how do you get paid more for doing the work

you're already doing. Well, we'll get to that right after this. All right, we are still talking about different ways that you can make sure that you're gonna earn more money this year, And regardless if you are going to stay with your current employer or if you're looking to take your talents elsewhere. Regardless, a tactic that you're gonna want

to employ is negotiating. So having a you know, like a competing offer, that's one of the best negotiating tactics that you have at your disposal if you're looking to move, and honestly, even if you're wanting to stay put, if you have some interest from another employer where you're gonna be far more likely to coax a raise out of your current employer. It makes you kind of the hot commodity right where they're like, wait, huh, other people you

get an offers from down the street. No, no, no no, no, we definitely want to keep you. We're going to figure out away. Yeah, kind of instill some like some of that sense of scarcity. Yeah, you may no longer be there. But I think some listeners might hear the word negotiate and they might shudder. They may have heard my story earlier and they're like, I would never knock on the window of a car that almost just hit me, But I that that doesn't make me shudder. I'm definitely less

fearful of doing that. But they see confrontation on the horizon. But negotiation, it doesn't have to be that way. I think it's important to keep in mind that this is a normal feature for for many of the cultures out there, and I think we should all just maybe become a little bit more comfortable on this frontum negotiating more. In general, I think it's a good habit to get into, and when it comes to getting paid more, I think it'll

often make the biggest difference on the salary front. The ability to push back a little bit, to ask questions. Those are some of the characteristics that we want you to embody as you're looking to either stay put or with a new potential employer if you're looking to move. Yeah, there's always I feel like every time I talked to somebody about this and I can see look in their eyes like, yeah, that's one step too far. I'm not going to do that, and there's like they start sweating

a little bit. There's like an emotional hesitancy right to even think about the concept of negotiation. And and I mean I remember I've had multiple people that I worked with kind of trying to talk them through the ropes of how to do this, and there's just a lot of fear, a lot of pushback. Well I can't ask

that question. Well I can't go in there and and and approach this conversation with my boss like that's that's gonna like put me, made me look bad, or they're gonna want to get rid of me after that, right after asking for more money. But no, no, no, no. I think we often overstate the negative effects that having this kind of conversation opening up the negotiation process with our boss can have, And we also underestimate our ability

to get what we want or deserve. And of course you're gonna want to detail some of your accomplishments that are particularly flattering alongside some of the awesome stuff you plan to achieve in the coming year. I think that's really important, not just saying here's what I've done in the past, but saying here's what I'm gonna bring to the table moving forward. I'm gonna keep being awesome for you.

And it's easier to ask for and then get a significant pay bump if you have some of those killer contributions to highlight, right, And and like we talked about earlier, knowing what you're worth by shopping those similar positions in the market is going to give you the data to ask for a raise as well. So you want to kind of combine all those things into a pot along with a really kind presentation, essentially asking your boss to pay what pay you what's fair given your contributions and

what you can command elsewhere. And I think that term fair is really important because your boss likely wants to be seen as a fair person. And if you, based on your accomplishments and based on what you could earn somewhere else, are saying, hey, my what I'm getting paid isn't quite fair. Right now, you're not accusing them, but you're saying, hey, i'd like to get paid with fair. I think that actually is one of the best ways

to present your argument. And I think there's an assumption that if you don't see anything, then the your boss is going to assume that what they are paying you is fair sure because they haven't heard from you. Another step, or another route you could take too is just skip the boss altogether. Go work for yourself. We're talking about entrepreneurship here, and it's not often going to be you know,

done overnight, but building something on the side. If you're so inclined, I think that's the best way to get to the point where you can fully work for yourself. Unfortunately, freelancing, it's becoming more normalized of American workers did at least some freelance work last year back in and you know, when we see freelance, we're not talking about gig work. That's different. It's important to make this distinction because you know, you might make more money initially if you're looking to

take on some additional gigs via some different apps. But this is a losing proposition because what you're doing here is your only trading time for money on an ongoing basis. Uh, it's okay to do that if you're in a pinch and if you need cash fast, but we don't want this to be something that you pursue long term. Um. And also, we just don't want you to be dependent

on a platform or a specific marketplace. And so that's that's kind of how we view gigs as maybe more of a negative, it's more of a choice of words, but we feel that a side hustle is something that is scalable. It has the ability to turn into a legit business over time. It might not make you money in the here and now, like maybe media as much money, but it's got more that long term potential for sure. Yeah, exactly.

And and so one of the things Matt too, if somebody if out there listing says, yeah, I want to get to that point, but boy, I'm scared to do that too. I'm scared to negotiate with my boss. We're HOPEFU hopefully we give you some some helpful tips on how to do that and how important it is. But let's say you do want to strike it out on your own, but you're like, I don't know that I can do that. I don't hope that I'm ready for that. Well,

first you might not be yet. You might need to get that side hustle up and running a little bit further. You might need to have proof of concept right that you can make the income that you need but going it alone. But the other thing that you need to have is I think the more money you have saved up,

the easier it becomes to take more risk. And so if you have some financial margin here exactly, if you have three weeks worth the savings on hand versus six months worth of savings on hand, yeah, no, wonder you're scared if you've only got three weeks to cash it in the bank, to quit your job, to h and to move on and go do your own thing. But if you have six months, you're like, man, I I have a lot of wiggle room here. I have a lot of runway to kind of get this business rolling.

I don't necessarily need it to be spitting out as much as I was making before. At least right now, I've got the financial margin, the financial backstop in case like I'm not making as much money as I've projected to make or as I think I'm going to make and I think that that matters a lot. That gives you the ability that money in the bank, it's we've

called a piece out money before, Matt. If you have that amount of money, enough of a stash sitting there, that's gonna help vide the comfort level for you to be able to go strike it on your own, which you know, you're not guaranteed to make more money, but a lot of entrepreneurs find that they are able to because in the in the course of running their own business, they're able to make more than they ever were under

the roof of someone else. Totally. Yeah, I mean, and this is why we have the show, right Not only is it important to and why we talk about having financial margin and an emergency fund. Not only do we want you to avoid the stress of living paycheck to paycheck. That's like escaping the negative aspects of uh handling your finances poorly, um, but we also want you to experience the positive things, right like, not only we want to remove the negative and and we want you to inherit

the positive outcomes. And often times that's having more options, especially when it comes to the type of work you're doing. You don't have to say yes to everything that gets thrust in front of you. You can say maybe I want to do that, or actually I don't want to do that. I'm gonna start my own thing when I'm gonna do this instead. You have more choice, the more financial backs, the more choice you have over what you do or choice when your options. Yeah, and the more

you can hold out for more money too. You can be like, actually, no, this job sounds great, but you know I'm gonna keep I'm gonna keep looking because the salary is not quite a standards And you can say that with confidence when you have more more cash than

exactly yeah. And it's it's not about making all these smart financial moves in order to get filthy rich, right, Like we don't want all the how the money listeners out there to be millionaires and to retire and for your your life to look a certain way now like

we want you. It's what those funds, what that retirement, what that nesting can allow you to then do all the cool things that it's gonna afford you, right, like the ability to give tons of money away, or the ability to say yes to a different job that you never thought that you would consider doing. But also like if you have money on hand and you want to buy something cool that costs that costs a little bit extra,

or go on a vacation or something like that. It's it comes it comes down to you and what it is that you want to spend your money on business. It's not again, it's not the accumulation of just massive amounts of money and seeing your net worth grow. It's all of the different options that that is then going to afford you. That's that's the goal. That's why we have how the money and that's what that's Those are the big lessons that we want to make sure that

you're able to live with. And I think fear is what holds people back, one from negotiating like you talked about, but also from pursuing entrepreneurship, from pursuing a career in freelancing, maybe in something like that. And that money. It's not that the money makes you not fearful, but it can help you overcome some of those fears. I think it can allow you to push past them because at least that's one less thing holding you back, right, and then

it's just you holding yourself better. But I think that's one excuse we make sometimes and so if you do have more money saved up, it can allow you to feel like you can take the risk to go out there and pursue something that's your own, to build your own thing. Well, what if you are already a freelance freelancer though, Matt, We've got a lot of people on the how the Money community who who do have their own business already, who work for themselves. Can you just

raise your rates on a dot like? Just is it that simple? You could like kind of, but not necessarily right, That's not the best way to go about it. So we would say this, if you're if you're trying to increase your rates this year, would you should probably be trying to do especially right now given inflation and stuff like that. I think it's understandable people almost expect price increases right now, but make sure you give your clients

time to adjust. Don't just send them an invoice for more money one day and be like, surprise, I'm charging. That's not the way to do it. It makes me think of kind of how Sam's Club just recently did their rate increase at at the Warehouse club there, Matt. They basically said, hey, it's going up this next year, but we're gonna give you a gift card. Right, the covers the price difference of the membership from last year to this year. It kind of ease the pain, right

as am used to paying the new dollar amount. But in reality, look at the math. See we got you covered, making that transition just a little little slight of hand,

a little less painful for people. And so I would say, like, if you're a freelancer out there, your rate increases, is they're gonna go over better if you send a note telling your clients why that rating is going up, you know, and even as you raise your rates, be cognizant of how you go about it in order to make more from current clients and to lose future none in the process.

So yeah, make sure you're being you're communicating about why, talking about economic conditions and maybe even highlighting improvements in service and what you offer. That's kind of a good way to raise rates. But just saying hey, sorry, buck stops here more, that's not a good way to do it.

You're gonna lose people in the process. How you talk about it matters honestly for me, and maybe I'm different than other people, but like to me, like In my mind, it matters less about why it is that prices are changing, and it has more to do with the fact that it's just even being talked about altogether, because that tells

me that they're being upfront about it. There's some there's like a level of transparency there, and to that extent, like I feel like it would even engender like more loyalty on my part because it's just like, okay, cool, it's something that they're being straightforward and honest with as

almost like the product or the service or whatever. I don't even care why I'm down with that, Like I'm happy to support that individual in particular as we're talking about freelancers, but some people and depending on how long you've had that relationship with your client or whatever, like it could demand a different kind of fitness. Are they your main client who who takes up half, you know, half your time and three quarters of you know your

revenue comes from them. You're gonna want to make sure you handle that in a specific way. You're right, Like it's gonna vary across the board exactly. Yeah, It's it's worth bringing up non competes as well. We talked about this a few weeks ago. Uh. But noncompetes might currently be preventing you from going down the street to make more money, but those might not be around much longer.

Things to the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission, there's actually a massive number of Americans, especially ones who make less than twenty dollars an hour, who are just limited, you know, by their ability to seek employment elsewhere. Uh, and therefore more money within the same industry because of these threatening

legal documents. Uh. And so if the FTC moves forward with its proposal, I think it's still in like the comment period until March or something like that, but that could be a massive policy step that would allow millions to earn more money without the fear of retribution from

their employers, without there being some sort of lawsuit against you. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's important to note, And that's a in we're talking about maximizing your income in three If this does come into effect, it's going to impact something close to thirty million people and their ability to make more in the industry they currently work in by going down the street and seeking to get paid more elsewhere. So, but that's one of those things that we'll continue to

talk about on Friday flights. As we get more updates, and I think, Matt, when it when we boil it down, like our our listeners, most people out there, they've seen some of the stories or a TikTok video of someone saying I doubled my pay overnight by switching jobs. I think you're going to be hard pressed to double your pay like that in one fell swoop. But it's also to say that's not impossible, right, some people have done it.

It's you can do it. But growing your income in a meaningful way by the end of this year, I think it's a good goal and it's possible for a whole lot of us. And money isn't everything, of course, Matt, you alluded to that just a second ago. If you love your job and it doesn't pay a ton, but

it lights you up inside, more power to you. But if you're working for a nonprofit getting paid thirty five thousand dollars a year, but you're like the mission you love, cause that's awesome, there's a lot to be said for that. There's a lot to be said for that. And we're not cold hearted capitalists who would throw away purpose and mission just for more dollars. In our bank accounts, Like, that's not our style and that's not what we want

you to do. And I think if you can live a frugal life and and do the job that you love makes me think of the listener question we had from a librarian recently. She loved her job. She's not looking to necessarily like double her income and quit a profession that she held, dear, And I think that a lot of people feel that way, and rightly so. But I think still like most of us can make three the year of making more money. That's what we wanted

to be for you. Uh, it's but it's not just going to happen to us right as we sit here doing our normal thing. We've got to go out there and make it a reality. So hopefully you've learned enough from this episode to do that very thing, and can't wait to hear the stories of your success this year in making more based on Yeah, the moves that you make, the questions you ask, the negotiating tactics that you implement. So right, man, you can't be passive about earning more money.

That is something you have to go out there and get. You gotta like hunt it down like a lion on the savannah, stalking its prey, stalking the gazelle. Let's go back to the beer you and I enjoyed a painting dreams. This is a single hop West Coast style I p a by Finden's Brewing. What what would you say at the beginning? I don't know what. Did I call it findings or fittings? I can't remember. No, you called it finns. I called it findings? Were you saying finings? I was

just one too shirt. I said, if it was two d's it might be it would make sense. Yeah, No, it's fighting's for sure. We looked it up while you're talking. I got distracted to the phone real quick, as you are prone to do, which I'm not gonna say it's a little offensive. It's a little offensive. But this was

a fantastic beer. Man Um. The last year we had by them, they had like a new fantacy hot that we've never had before, and so pizzerin, pizzerin Yeah, And I thought, you know, there's a maybe there's there's a slight chance that this beer is so good because there's

a hot here that we've never had. But this is a single hot beer which means it's only got one type, Mosaic, which, other than like Citra, is probably one of the most base widely used hop in my opinion, I feel like I've I've had many a beer, probably mosaic and Centennial or Centennial that's another one as well. Yeah, but what that tells me is that it's not the ingredients, it's how it is that they're making this beer. It's the technique.

Those guys up there in the up in the northeast, man, they I like how they do it up there, the way that they are brewing their I p a S

in particular, it's just so stinking good. This is just, honestly, like we were talking about how this is like the best West Coast ipa we've ever had, and it's partly because it doesn't really taste like a normal West Coast ip a. It tastes like like a New England style I p A masked disguised as a West Coast Yeah, it definitely was more bitter than the one that we had on Monday, but it still wasn't nearly as bitter as a lot of the West Coast styles were used

to drinking. Didn't have like that great fruit pith or pine resin action going on. So to me, this was like the West Coast sister of the Monday beer and not quite as delicious because I was obsessed with the one on Monday, but still really really good, super good. It honestly reminds me of um. I think I can't remember those Bisis Brothers or Trillium, but I remember having a session I p a by them, and this kind

of reminded me of that. It's still it was like chock full of flavor, had that hop sharpness, but just a lot lighter, didn't have nearly as much of that complex mouth feel that the one on Monday had. Well that's high praise too. To compare this beer to Bissells Brothers or two Trillium, which are two of the best

breweries in the country. Yeah, oh, absolutely well. The first result that when I was doing my phone searching while you're talking earlier, the first result that came up was that this is and this is some like you know, uber beer nerd website, but they were saying that this is the best craft brewery that you haven't heard of under the radar. It's completely under the radar. I love it now. I'm gonna start looking for excuses to take a trip to New England, kind of check some of

these guys out. Big thanks to listener Michael and Emily for sending this beer away. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Awesome. All right, that's gonna do it for this episode. Matt for want the show notes and links to stuff that we mentioned, you can find those up on our website at how to money dot com. That's right, Joel. So, until next time, best friends Out, Best Friends Out.