Benjamin Franklin once said, “There are two ways to become wealthy. One is to make more money and the other is to spend less. But the quickest way to build wealth is to do both at the same time.”
When people think about gaining control of their finances, most of the time they are only focused on one area — reducing expenses. Much of the time they view this activity as decidedly negative because it creates a picture of belt-tightening and doing without many of the things in life that they currently enjoy — or at least allow themselves to indulge in.
But what about the other factor mentioned by Franklin? While cutting expenses is an important part of the financial freedom equation, there are also often lots of fun things that you can do to increase your income. Stop and think about it. What possibilities might be a available for you?
- Can you work a bit of overtime at your current job?
- Can you take on an interesting part time job?
- What about starting your own small business — one with low start-up costs and the ability to generate a substantial passive income over time?
- Can you turn some of your favorite hobbies into ways to earn extra income?
I can give you tons of examples of each of these areas — and interestingly, when I worked with individuals to discover them, they were extremely surprised at how fun and profitable some of these opportunities could become.
In 2022, get creative about increasing your income. When combined with reducing expenses, it can accelerate your financial progress in amazing ways.
