How to Make More Money

It’s a simple fact of life that it takes money to support yourself and your family. As the adage goes, “Money doesn’t grow on trees,” and if you’re one who’s looking to make more money, you’ve already figured that out.

There are lots of ways to make more money. I’m going to share with you some of the methods I’ve learned to go from being nearly broke as a young adult in his 20s to having more than enough money to support myself and my large family by my mid 30s.

Two Approaches to Making More Money

Making more money than you currently do can be simplified to the following two factors:

1. Increasing the number of hours you work, or…
2. Increasing the amount of money you make per hour that you work

It really is that simple as it relates to income from working. Of course, there is the investment approach to making more money, which involves using the money you’ve saved to create more money, but there is also time and work involved in investing your money as we

Which Approach is Best?

Ultimately,  you’d like to be able to spend more time not working while still making enough money to accomplish what you want financially. Making more dollars per hour of work is, then, the better approach long-term. However, many people who feel the need to make more money have an immediate need for additional income. In that case, the best approach in the short term is to increase the number of hours that you work.

Determining which approach is the best one for making more money really depends upon your current financial situation. If you have some savings and are able to control your spending such that you are not living paycheck to paycheck, it would be better for you to focus on a more long-term strategy that involves increasing your skills or finding a better job that pays more money. However, if you’re struggling to keep up with bills and having a hard time supporting yourself, the best approach is to add more hours of work into your daily schedule so that you can experience financial relief sooner.

Making More Money By Increasing Work Hours

The most immediate way to make more money is to increase the number of hours you’re working at your current job. If you’re an hourly employee, this means simply talking to your boss about adding more hours to your schedule or asking for overtime work. If you’re working in a salaried position, your weekly pay may seem fixed, but it still may be possible to have your employer give you more income simply by explaining your situation and your goals, and asking your employer if there is something that can be done to help. That help could come in the form of a raise, incentives for better performance, or even a possibility of being paid for work done in addition to what you’re expected to do as a salaried employee.

Finding Other Employment Opportunities

If you’re not able to add hours to your schedule with your current full-time employment, there are other options out there that will allow you to add 2-4 hours per day and collect some extra money to get some relief from your current financial strain. Dave Ramsey, a widely recognized radio personality known for his straight forward advice about how to achieve financial success, often suggests getting a job delivering pizza in the evening. You can normally find temporary work through a temporary employment agency in your area.  Depending upon your skill set and/or willingness to try something new, you might find a new career opportunity by “moonlighting” and doing something that’s unrelated to your current job.

You can find temporary and other part-time jobs on Indeed.com and other websites dedicated to helping people find jobs.

Here is another idea that may interest you: become a freelance writer. If you’re good at writing (especially technical writing), there is no shortage of demand for your talents among marketing agencies and departments of companies. There are specific job sites online that are dedicated to matching writers, who are paid piecemeal for their articles about various topics, with companies who are looking to expand their influence on the internet.

Temporary and Part-Time Jobs Abound

If you want to make more money through a part-time or temporary commitment, there are easily hundreds of opportunities to go after. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Food delivery: hours are normally flexible and tips can be great depending upon who you’re delivering for; pizza places like Pizza Hut and Dominoes are standard go-tos.
• Waiting tables: if you find the right place to wait tables, and if you have a positive personality, waiting tables is a good option to make money in the short-term.
• Offering handyman services: if you have skills with fixing things around the house, you can put an ad in your local Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace to get clients, many of whom are eager to find a friendly and skilled person to help.
• Sell things online: if you have things you don’t need around the house, or if you have access to discounted products, you might want to try your hand at selling products on eBay, Etsy, or Amazon. eBay is the easiest place to liquidate your unneeded stuff or to potentially launch a new business.

Asking for a Raise

It is very possible that you’re making less at the job you’re working now than what your employer is willing to pay you to do that job. In that situation, all that you would need to do to make more money is to ask your boss for a raise.

There are obviously different approaches to asking for a raise, and you may need to broach the subject carefully to avoid losing your job. However, if you lean heavily on your interpersonal skills and simply talk with your boss about he or she things you’re doing with your job, even what things you can improve upon, it’s likely that you can naturally introduce the topic of your pay and find out whether or not there is some room for increasing your pay. You might even suggest that you feel like you could be accountable to the company for contributing more if you were paid more.

Finding a Better Position or Job

It’s common for businesses to take their employees employees for granted, especially if you don’t have the type of personality that demands that your compensation matches what you contribute to the business you’re working for. If you feel like you’re maxed out in your current position in terms of earning potential, it is likely time to begin looking for something else. With the size and diversity of the worldwide economy, there is a good chance that another company or another department within your current company will value your skills and what you can provide more than what you’re experiencing in your current job situation.

For the majority of people who are not content with earnings from their current job, moving to a different company is the best way to increase pay rate. However, if you like the company and work environment where you’re at, it’s worth looking around internally to see if there’s not something available internally that would pay you more, possibly even give you the chance to develop a new skill or two.

Increasing Your Earning Power

Increasing your overall earning power by developing your skills and abilities is the most ideal way to increase your income potential and make more money. There are as many different ways to increase your earning power as you’re willing to consider.

Here are a few of the best ways to increase your earning power through skill development and start making more money once those new skills are fully ripe.

• Develop a technical expertise. Software and IT boot camps have gained popularity among the workforce because of their proven ability to take people from their ordinary jobs into the tech world and get them large salaries as computer programmers, database administrators, and in other twenty-first century jobs high in demand and high in pay.
• Get certified in some specialty.
• Go to college. This is my least favorite option because of how long it takes and because of how expensive it tends to be in both time and money. However, if you are very intentional about what you want to do (meaning your involvement in college will have a very reasonable ROI), and it involves getting a 2-year, 4-year, or post-graduate degree, then that may very well be the solution for you. I’d CAUTION (with capital letters) against going into debt for a college degree. There are too many people who have stories to tell about trying to pay back student loans and struggling after completing their degrees, and there are too many good  college alternatives to allow yourself to give in to the college temptation.

Now Go Make More Money

There you have them, my ideas on how to make more money. I wish you success in your journey to prosperity through working, developing skills, and contributing to society in a way that is fulfilling and rewarding.