Boosting our earnings is a universal desire—just ask me! However, achieving this might not be easy, particularly if you’re dependent on a single job. Corporations often have a maximum limit on annual salary increments, restricting how much you can inflate your pay. Upgrading your skills, on the other hand, might be a fast track to a fatter paycheck.
Why should you expand your skills? Simple—diversifying equals growth. It takes you from the known into the uncharted, challenging your brain to tackle problems more innovatively. For this reason, learning new skills not only elevates your earning potential but also improves your capacity to solve problems. You might wonder how these two are linked.
Well, every time you acquire a new skill, it thickens the myelin sheath—a layer that protects the vast neural network in your brain that governs all bodily communication. By enhancing this layer, you speed up and elevate the accuracy of messages traversing your brain thereby raising your cognitive abilities and problem-solving prowess.
Increased problem-solving capacity makes any task a breeze hence raising your efficiency and effectiveness at work. Learning new skills, therefore, boosts your problem-solving abilities hence enhancing your market value that might trigger a pay rise.
Regardless of how much you love your job, there’s always room to add new skills. Learning just one additional skill could supplement your main income. Is this possible? Yes! By acquiring a skill pertinent to your profession, you become an asset to your employer. You can now handle an additional duty or deliver better results, thereby growing your worth. In turn, excelling at your job due to the newly acquired skill can lead to an increased income.
So what are the high return-on-investment skills worth considering? Here are a few:
Accounting, Bookkeeping, Currency Exchange Trading, Customer Relations, Data Analysis, Digital Marketing, Excel, Graphic Design, HTML/CSS Coding, JavaScript, Mobile App Development, Networking, PowerPoint, Public Speaking, Python, Real Estate Investing, Social Media Management, Video Creation, Website Development, Writing.
Another excellent way to broaden your skills involves embracing side gigs. They not only diversify your income streams but increase your income too. The beauty of several streams of income is it cushions you against risks associated with dependency on one source.
So, when your main job or market conditions change—which is inevitable—you suffer less. Multiple income streams, therefore, enhance financial stability. Here are some side hustles I enjoy a lot:
Accounting/Bookkeeping (via Quickbooks), Airbnb & Airbnb Experiences, Buying and selling electronics, Real Estate Investing, Rover (for boarding dogs), Selling at Consignment Sales, Stockpile, Surveys (such as America Consumer Opinion, Pinecone Surveys, Survey Junkie, and Swagbucks), Uber and Uber Eats, writing a book or copy.
Summarily, acquiring new skills enriches your competencies. As you expand your skillset, you’ll notice improved problem-solving and increased efficiency in your job, which makes you more valuable to your employer or opens up side hustling opportunities. Either way, your bank balance witnesses growth because you enhanced your know-how.
By diversifying, you’re upgrading yourself to a more enlightened version, which automatically enhances your marketplace value. Now that you’re aware of how up-scaling your skills can lead to a higher income, why don’t you pick up a new skill?
What ways have you discovered to diversify your skills and boost your income?
