Way too many people are stuck. Stuck in life. Stuck in their job. Stuck at their current income level. If you want to get unstuck, learn something new. If you want your income to go up, learn something new, but make it something that is useful. Learning how to crochet probably won’t help you boost your income very much, so pick something else.
Since my new book The Millionaire Choice: Millionaire or Not. You Can Choose.came out, I’ve been talking to a lot more people about money. While I believe anyone can become a millionaire, it’s a lot easier when you can throw more money at it.
Invariably as we begin discussing how to build wealth and become a millionaire, the topic of “boosting your income” comes up. Always. It’s Millionaire Key #9 in the book. While there are tons of ways to increase your income, many of us overlook the obvious one, learn something new, and that’s one of the reasons over 70% of Americans are stuck living paycheck to paycheck. We stop learning new things.
My Learning Journey
I consider myself fortunate as I was a curious kid from the start. Mom used to tell me about how I dismantled the back of the washing machine when I was three. Although I’m pretty sure she exaggerated the story a bit. However, it’s easy to see that as a kid, I enjoyed learning new things. My mother’s job as a convenient store manager provided a learning opportunity outside the tradition school system.
Trapped at the convenient store after a long day at school, I entertained myself by reading the various publications on the magazine rack. It’s where I learned how to bass fish and put together hot rods. Very quickly, I became the best teenage fisherman in the neighborhood, and shortly afterwards, purchased and rebuilt the engine in my own car. Not bad for a 13 to 15 year old.
After college, the learning trend continued. I landed a job as a manufacturing engineer, but that required me to use a computer. Unfortunately, my computer knowledge was extremely limited at the time. I resorted to my old ways of magazines and books to learn what I needed about computers. Within six months, the president of the company began asking me to spec computers for the engineering department, work on the computer network, and various other tasks. Who knew a few books and magazines could increase your value in an organization? Hmmm.
At 25, I realized my lack of financial knowledge. I was ignorant about money. I blew my first year’s income and found myself $16,000 in debt. I needed to educate myself about money. After 90 days of learning about money, investing, retirement planning, etc., I began my journey towards becoming a millionaire.
During the internet boom, I became fascinated with data manipulation on the web. Resources were limited as it was a new technology during that time. Again, the bookstore for magazines and books played a role. Once again, I learned. Within three years, I switched careers to become an internet developer building online applications and business, and ecommerce apps.
Within six months of arriving on my new job, leadership opportunities started popping up. I knew very little about leadership. I had a little bit of raw talent, but it was just enough to get noticed. However, I recognized the opportunity and once again began learning about leadership through books, magazines and a few other resources which included a class an a mentor.
After that came online marketing, more leadership, strategic planning, executive leadership, more technology, etc. At each point, I learned something new and my income followed suit. More knowledge. More money. The more I learned and applied what I learned to my career and life, the more my income increased. Funny how that works.
Learning new things helped take me from being a green college graduate to a high income earning top executive of a very successful mid-size company. It helped me become a millionaire.
Did you know the average American watches over 120 hrs of TV per month? No wonder over 70% of us are living paycheck to paycheck.
If you want to make more money, turn off the TV. Turn off the games. Turn off whatever it is that is keeping your from learning something new. Boost your income.