8 Ways to Double Your Income

Sounds amazing, right? What could you do if you doubled your income?

There are only so many ways you can cut back but there are numerous ways you can increase your income and it doesn’t always mean taking on a side hustle.

Here are tips to help you double your income.

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8 ways to double your income. Image of person working remotely with a laptop.

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1. Compare Your Current Job

Look at job listings to see how much your current role would make with other companies.

Sometimes, you will get a better offer from a different company than you will if you ask for a raise.

It’s up to you if you ask for a raise first, most people we know have secured better pay and conditions by moving than by getting a raise where they are.

2. Research Career Options

Sometimes it is worth switching careers completely, not just companies.

Compare wages for careers you are interested in, their potential for advancement and growth as well as how much they are in demand.

When reviewing career choices, consider which ones will still be around in 10 years, have the opportunity for growth etc.

Certain jobs have strong demand, others are declining and in the past 10 years alone, some careers have disappeared altogether.

Now, more than ever, it is important to thoroughly research and plan ahead when it comes to careers and not all careers require university degrees.

Numerous in-demand jobs in Australia have simpler career pathways such as apprenticeships, traineeships, Tafe courses, certificates or diplomas etc instead of degrees.

8 ways to double your income. Image of female working in a male dominated industry

3. Update LinkedIn

Your LinkedIn profile is one way recruiters can find you. Update it and make it appealing and you might be surprised at the job offers.

We know people who were offered double their current wage to change jobs.

Some did it for a short-term contract which enabled them to get an even better offer at the end.

Others committed to longer and sought other opportunities for development, bonuses and increased perks during that time within the role.

4. Upskill

Studying can be difficult when juggling everything else in life.

Changing careers can significantly increase your income though.

Save up to 85% on skills to make a living & a life.

What’s harder, living off the current wage you have or studying for a bit to make double what you do now and living on that increased wage?

Both are hard but one makes life easier later.

People from admin roles can swap to be a virtual assistant for themselves or study something else such as marketing to expand on existing skills and increase income.

TAFE and many places offer free or relatively cheap courses now for different occupations.

Research how much those occupations make and the capacity to increase income over time before making the switch though.

8 ways to double your income. Image of woman working on a laptop

5. Learn to Negotiate

Negotiating is a skill and fortunately, one you can learn.

In the book, Never Split The Difference, you can learn everything you need to know about negotiating from Chris Voss, a former FBI hostage negotiator.

The methods shown in that book are not only for hostage situations, they can be applied to any negotiation.

Without negotiation skills, it is likely you will accept lower offers which can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of your career.

Why would you leave that money on the table instead of taking it home?

6. Negotiate More Than Wage

When securing a job, the wage isn’t the only thing to consider that can impact your income or cost of living.

Some companies offer perks such as free food during work hours, gym memberships, cars, extra time off through paid leave, flexible work options, health insurance etc.

All of those benefits can save you significant money if they are already an expense you have.

8 ways to double your income. Image of laptop and computer

7. Side Hustle or a Business

We know we said doubling your wage isn’t about having a side hustle and it’s not.

However, we would be remiss not to point out that having a side hustle or your own business can double your income as well.

Our favourite side hustles turned into full-time incomes with minimal hours and provided travel opportunities we never would have experienced otherwise.

23 ways to make money on the side has tips, 43 ways for single mums to make money has a selection of flexible options.

101 ways to make money from home and how we made $33,277.57 on the side in 12 months both cover different ideas to help you make more.

8. Investing

Another way to double your income eventually is to be smart about investing.

Make your money work harder for you instead of trading your time for money.

We only have so many hours in a day which means for most people we either need to find a way to make great money in those hours or we need to find ways to make more money in different ways.

There are numerous ways you can invest, what you do depends on your goals and risk tolerance.

Our risk tolerance is quite high, so we have invested in various things including business, real estate and shares/indexed funds etc.

Learn everything you can about investing and get some professional advice to ensure you are making the most of the money you make and making it work harder for you.

There is a lot of free information available. Check out The Simple Path to Wealth and Quit Like a Millionaire.

Google the FIRE Movement or ChooseFI to find more people who are investing and doing what they can to retire younger or achieve financial independence sooner.

Rather than thinking you have to work until you’re 70 and then retire, find ways to make your money make money, live within your means and have a plan to enjoy your life.

How to Find the Time

Finding time to have a side hustle, update your profiles or anything else listed above might feel hard.

You are probably running on empty right now, overwhelmed with how much you have to do and don’t want to add another thing to your list.

The good news is there are ways to make all of it easier.

When it comes to your resume, cover letters and updating LinkedIn or other profiles, you can outsource this to someone else.

Either hire a professional to do them or you can contact recruitment agencies to do the job search part for you.

To find the time, read 18 time-saving tips and 13 ways to make life easier by streamlining it.

We tracked how we were spending our time and looked at ways we could combine tasks, streamline things and maximise our return.

Personally, we have a few side hustles each but try to focus on ones that will continue to generate income such as ebooks, courses, websites etc.

By reviewing how we spent our time, we found quite a few small pockets of time we could maximise and by focusing on our long term passive income goals, it was easy to know what to do and when to increase our income.

How to Increase Your Confidence

Asking for a raise, updating your LinkedIn profile, and starting a business or side hustle might all sound great but it takes confidence.

Confidence does not always come easy to me and doesn’t in every area but we constantly work on it because we see the value it adds to my life.

Check out 20 ways to build self-confidence for tips we used to overcome our confidence issues and make more money.

We see the direct connection between confidence and money in our team.

The more confident, happy and focused we are, the more money flows.

We see opportunities and have the headspace to act on them.

When we are stressed, scared or struggling, we seem to struggle more.

This is easier said than done because many circumstances in life can cause trauma and stress.

Therapy can help a lot as can learning about trauma.

How We Doubled Our Income

Our team has had a variety of careers and businesses.

The main things that enabled us to double our incomes were:
Learning more both through courses and doing tutorials.
Networking to connect with the right people.
Public speaking, running workshops and being thought leaders within our areas of interest.

Those 3 things have continually enabled us to progress, make more and take time off when needed to be with our kids.

As a business owner, there are multiple ways we can double our income and that is what we have focused on over the years.

We wrote about it a little in one article about doubling our income a few years ago.

Now, our focus is on investing and increasing our net worth as well as cash flow for the long term.

We have some big projects happening and now, after years of work, it is all coming together.