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I have a 8-6 day job in which I trade most of my time in a day just for a mere wage of about 30k a year. I've found accumulating wealth through monthly wages too slow and works against me because I have a limited amount of hours and energy I can use to trade for the wages.

Earning interests from the banks doesn't work for it doesn't even cover enough of the inflation rate.

For someone in his late 20s, nearing 30, now and has little financial knowledge, what else can he do, aside from asking for a pay raise (which could possibly mean expanding of job scope which in turn means trade in even more of my hours) and taking up another job (I've limited energy), to increase his wealth?

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Great question. There are two ways to increase the amount of money you have:

  1. Increase your income
  2. Decrease your expenses

It's difficult to decrease your expenses past a certain point, and your question is focused on the first aspect anyway. But it's worth noting that controlling spending is a significant part of accumulating wealth.

You need to make more money, and there's no trick to it. Ask for a raise, sure, that can't hurt. But also think about what you need to do to get a higher-paying job. There's a lot to think about:

Does you current job have growth potential? Are you doing everything you can do to maximize that potential? If you're just phoning it in and collecting your paycheck, that's not going to make you much more money. But if you're working hard, learning new skills, and have an opportunity to grow into more responsibilities and more money, that's a good start.

In my experience, the biggest paycheck increases have come from looking for new opportunities and switching jobs. (BTW, I'm not suggesting quitting your job. You need to always have the new job locked up before quitting the old job!)

The wealthiest people I know are self-employed, and they worked hard to build up their companies. Do you work in an industry where you can build your skills to a point where you can go out on your own? Does entrepreneurship interest you?

Either way, focus on your job, skills, and maximizing your income potential. Be your own advocate. Make sure your boss knows what a good job you're doing. If you need to start looking for other options, take your time and start looking. The often-quoted line, "the harder I work, the luckier I get" is appropriate.

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    Great answer. It is always a good idea to talk to people doing work you'd like to do and making money you'd like to make about how they got to their position. – rhaskett Feb 5 '15 at 19:58
  • No one ever got rich by working. The truley rich get there by building up businesses and investing, not by being self employed. – user9822 Feb 6 '15 at 2:25
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    @MarkDoony That's basically the reason for making this question. I don't understand the part you said "not by being self employed." Wouldn't setting up your own business getting yourself employed by you? – xenon Feb 6 '15 at 17:32
  • Yeah, I think Mark may have misunderstood my response or didn't read the whole sentence. I specifically said to"build up a business" is a path toward wealth. – Rocky Feb 6 '15 at 17:48
  • @Rocky, there is a difference in being self employed and building and owning a business. In being self employed you are are the main player in the day to day workings of the business, without you the business will not operate, you may have others helping you, but you are the main player, and you exchange your time for money just as if employed by others. When you are a business owner, you employ others to operate and run the day to day workings of the business, you concentrate on growing the business and you don't have to be there every day for the business to run properly. – user9822 Feb 6 '15 at 20:41
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In addition to Rocky's answer, and IF you have already saved an adequate emergency fund, then best way to increase your wealth (not your income) is to invest your extra money.

If you have no extra money then you need to lower your expenses or work towards getting better income.

They aren't really any tricks to this, but there are some tips that may help:

  • avoid buying on credit, that will only decrease your wealth over time.
  • Prioritize saving money over entertainment or fine dining. It is important to figure out the proper balance for yourself, after all wealth might not make you happy if you can't have fun.
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  • By invest, do you mean buying stocks? What are some forms of investments that starters should begin with to increase their wealth, even if that's only a little bit? – xenon Feb 6 '15 at 17:28
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    @xenon he means investing as in long term such as buying into a lifecycle fund in something like a Roth IRA with any extra money you have every month. If you aren't sure what that means exactly I didn't either a couple of years ago. A couple of good books that I've read have been "I Will Teach You To Be Rich" by Ramit Sethi and "Get A Financial Life" by Beth Kobliner – Adam Johns Feb 12 '15 at 16:08

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