Your Money_ The Missing Manual - J. D. Roth [51]
Tip
Over the years, the readers at Get Rich Slowly have suggested tons of ways to feel rich while being frugal. The most common suggestion? Give to or volunteer at a church or charity. (For more on this, see Church, Charity, and Community.)
It's all about balance. When you cut spending on things you don't need, you can indulge in things that really matter to you. Frugality isn't about depriving yourself of everything you enjoy; it's about making smart choices to reach your goals.
We all like nice things, and there are plenty of ways you can have nice things without spending a lot. More importantly, being frugal can help you feel a sense of achievement from money saved, not money spent. Remember that buying things won't make you a better person—you aren't what you own. As Tyler Durden says in Fight Club, "You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet."
When you stop wanting to always have the newest, best things and you realize that money is in no way connected to your self-worth, you'll not only be better at managing your finances, you'll be happier, too.
Chapter 6. How to Make More Money
"Your greatest asset is your earning ability."
—Brian Tracy
As you learned in the last chapter, frugality is an important part of personal finance: By managing your expectations and living within your means, you're more likely to be wealthier and happier. But cutting costs isn't the only way to boost your cash flow. If your goal is to build wealth, you'll get the best results by looking beyond frugality to increasing your income.
For most people, this means managing a career effectively: finding the right job, learning how to ask for a raise, and knowing when to move on. Others can up their incomes by selling stuff they already own, pursuing money-making hobbies, or starting their own businesses. This chapter explores all these ways to get more cash coming in.
Working for Others
Your health is your most valuable financial asset, but your career is a close second. Few things affect your financial situation—and your happiness—as much as what you do for a living.
Positive cash flow (The Power of Positive Cash Flow) is important. It lets you avoid debt, buy things you need, and save for the future. But you can't have positive cash flow without income. And unless you've won the lottery or inherited a ton of money from Aunt Mabel, your main source of income is your job, so you should make the most of it. This section offers pointers on how to do just that.
For Love or Money: Which Career Should You Choose?
Before you can start down a career path, you have to decide what to do for a living. Should you pursue your passion, doing work you love regardless of how much you earn? Or should you focus simply on the money? In his essay on how to do what you love (www.paulgraham.com/love.html), Paul Graham writes:
Finding work you love is very difficult. Most people fail. Even if you succeed, it's rare to be free to work on what you want till your thirties or forties. But if you have the destination in sight you'll be more likely to arrive at it. If you know you can love work, you're in the home stretch, and if you know what work you love, you're practically there.
Some folks claim that if you do what you love, the money will follow. Others say that a job is just a job—you're not meant to like it. The truth is somewhere in between. There are few things worse than a job you hate. Lots of people do enjoy fun, fulfilling careers—and earn a good living at it—but these dream jobs don't just magically appear.
To find a promising career, you have to take certain steps:
Decide what you want to be when