Your Money: The Missing Manual

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 ...