Learning Stage (< $3000/month)
If you are making less than $3k/month YOU DON'T KNOW ENOUGH.
You can blame economics, bad luck, your country, but IT'S ONY YOUR FAULT.
It might sound harsh, but I'd better say it to you now and make you switch your mindset, rather than sitting and complaining about life together with you.
But the really good thing is that the only way you have is the WAY UP!
And you might say:
Okay, Andrew, I want to grow to at least $3k, but what exactly should I learn?
And this is a very good question.
From my personal experience, if you are not growing you missing one of those 2 things:
Technical SkillsCommunication skills and confidenceAnd if you are not sure which one of these to improve, improve BOTH at the same time.
Technical Skills
Improving your technical skills is quite an easy process.
You just go to the ChatGPT and paste the following prompt there:
I'm working as a Insert Your Specialisation . I use Insert list of technologies that you use on my job. Can you write down all of the topics from these technologies that I need to know well to be a Middle Developer?
Here is an example that I've used for Frontend Development:
ChatGPT isn't always good, so it's better to also go to Google and type:
What middle insert your position (ex. Frontend Developer) should know.
After that you combine the information from ChatGPT and Google and BOOM, you've got the list of things you need to learn/improve to get good in a technical aspect.
Communication skills and confidence
This part is even simpler, but it's FREAKING HARD.
I'm myself an introvert, I feel uncomfortable talking to new people and communicating.
But you simply can't succeed in SOCIETY without SOCIAL skills.
So one day I decided to step out of my comfort zone.
And now I run a blog where I communicate with thousands of followers, I communicate with dozens of my potential students, and I communicate a lot on a job and in interviews.
And you know what? I'm still an introvert, but because I was out of my comfort zone for such a long time, I actually started feeling comfortable while being uncomfortable (if you understand what I mean).
So you need to do 2 things:
Talk to a lot of people, especially on the jobBe confident when it comes to your salary and career growthBecause nobody will offer you a high salary, you have to fight for it.
And the sooner you will start trying, failing, trying, failing, trying and finally succeeding.
The faster your life will start improving.
Growing Stage ($3000/month - $6000/month)
At this point, you already got to a quite comfortable level of living.
And a lot of people stop there, as with that income you can live a pretty comfortable life in most countries in the world.
But don't let the comfort zone suck you in.
You still have a lot of room to grow.
So you need to focus on growing your salary.
Here is a list of things you can do to grow:
- Ask for a promotion
- Change a Job
- Find a second job
- Apply to a closed freelance platform
All of those things might take you a couple of months, but these are activities that dramatically improve your income level, so don't stay in your comfort zone, and focus on growing.
Leveraging Stage ($6000/month - $10 000+/month)
Congratulations, you were working hard enough and stepped out of your comfort zone, and now you are on a pretty good level of income.
It's time to start leveraging your money and make them work for you.
There are only 2 ways to make your money work for you:
- Start a business
- Start investing
Let's cover both of them.
Business
Very hard and time-consuming activity.
If you are ready to sacrifice all your free time and chill life for 2-3 years, for a chance to potentially build something cool, go for it!
But you need to understand that you'll need to go through Learning, Growing and Leveraging Stages once again, as you are starting from scratch in the business.
Investments
Relatively easy way to start making some passive income.
But to get some noticeable income from it, you will need to start from at least $10-20k capital and wait 3-10 years.
I would recommend investing in:
- Real Estate (will pay off in 10-15 years)
- Stocks and ETFs like S&P 500 (can bring around 7-10% per year on the invested amount)
- Crypto (2024 looks like a very promising year there)
Of course, it's not financial advice, these are just areas where you can do your own research.
Conclusion
If you want to succeed, it's very important to wisely use your time, as you have only 24 hours a day.
7 hours go into sleeping, 2-3 hours eating and food preparation, 2 hours rest (you are a human, and you need it), and 1 hour for sports activities. And it's only 11 hours left to do the right things, so don't waste this time.
And if you are making just $1k, instead of spending time reading about stocks and thinking where you will invest $100, focus on acquiring skills that will help you to make $2k, $3k, $4k, etc.
Because your $100 investment in stocks will bring you only $20-30 a year.
But your investment in your skills and growth can bring you thousands of dollars of extra income per month.
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