Most people who have been on their journey for financial freedom have heard buzz phrases floating around. These include “invest early,” “buy real estate,” or “start a business.” While this is excellent advice, for many of us, this is simply unattainable. We don’t have millions to throw into the stock market to comfortably live on the compound interest. We don’t have the capital, or even credit score, to start a business or invest in real estate? What can we do NOW?
Time Versus Money
While most online gurus will strongly suggest, you quit your job to stop exchanging time for money, as this is “the only way” to become financially free. While trading time for money will most likely not make you a billionaire, there are some things you first need to do to get to this point.
Exchanging time for money is only harmful when your time is more limited than your money. For many people, especially students, time is the resource we have abundance of.
“Not Enough Time”
We all wish there were more hours in the day, although, at this point, it becomes a matter of priority. If you feel like you don’t have time to clean your vehicle, because you spend 4 hours a day watching Netflix. It’s not that you don’t have time to clean your car. It’s that washing your car isn’t as important as consuming the latest episode of The Batchelor.
You could argue that you are “relaxing” by watching Netflix, and that’s why you need to pay someone R100 to clean your car in an hour, when you only get paid R30 an hour.
If you are only getting paid R30 an hour (or R4 800 for a twenty 8 -hour days), It would be best to “pay yourself” R100 and clean the car yourself.
How do you make more money at work?
This answer is much easier than most people’s egos will allow them to admit. If you are not getting paid the salary you want from your current place of employment, it’s simply because your time isn’t as valuable as you think it is.
A business makes money by providing value. The same goes for how a company pays employees.
Doctors get paid more than cleaners because their skills and knowledge are more valuable. Without doctors, people die; yet there is only more dust than ideal without a cleaner.
Sure, other factors come into play, such as the barrier to entry (i.e., Studying 8 years verse learning to sweep.). Still, the more valuable your skills are to society or in this case your employer, the more likely you will get paid a “more valuable” amount.
Looking at things like this make it’s pretty easy. If I want to get paid more, I need to provide more value to my place of employment.
How do I do this?
If you are broke, the best thing to do is invest in yourself. Increase your knowledge, expand your skills, investing in a course that increases your value couple potentially 10x your investment.
That’s the name of the money game. We only invest in paper stock, business, and real estate to make our money work for us.
Most of these investments have an element to risk; the higher the risk, the higher the returns. This isn’t the same with self-educating. No bank, competitor, debtor, or stock market can take your skills away from you. Your knowledge is yours forever.
Being on this article means your mind is already on the right path. While it would be fantastic to be able to buy business, and live off the rent your tenants pay. First things first, invest in you.