Work: The Real Path to Wealth

Welcome to The Shift, a weekly newsletter where I provide thought-provoking ideas to help you think differently about your career and money.

Last Week + This Week = It’s All Connected

Last week I talked about the 5 reasons career reinvention is here to stay. Read here if you missed it. This week I explore why our careers are at the center of our ability to build wealth.

Quick note: I love receiving articles, charts, images, memes, jokes, random thoughts that you think will help inform this newsletter. You are my inspiration and I’ll always give you a shout out if I use something you share - (at the bottom this week)!

As always, thank you for reading. ❤️ 

Earnings > Investing

What’s the best tool for becoming wealthy?

Your paycheck.

Making money and maximizing our income is the 1^st step to building wealth. Meaning our career paths are the single most important driver of wealth.

No one talks about this. We’re taught to start with step 2 - saving and managing expenses.

Then we are told to really achieve wealth you need to focus on things like:

• Investing

• Stocks

• Side hustles

• Online courses

• The town you grew up in

• The school you went to

• Your family lineage

I’m here to tell you it is far easier to build wealth by focusing on your career.

(Btw, I see my financial advisor friends who are changing the building wealth convo. I appreciate you!)

Saving, Spending & Earning?

Traditional thinking is that wealth is achieved through the right mix of saving and spending.

Which is true, but that focuses on what you do with money once you have it.

It doesn’t teach us to maximize the amount of money we bring in (or earn).

Here’s why.

Issue #1: Broken career thinking

We are taught that once we pick a career path, we gotta mostly stay on that career path. This thinking gets more solidified over time.

Which is to say we lock in what we can make over the long-term. We know this going in (see free gov’t data below), but we rarely revisit it.

We think as long as we get the promotions and annual pay raises we will be fine. We accept our pay has a ceiling.

If we want to get wealthier than that, we defer to the list above.

Issue #2: Micromanaging expenses

We are fixated on managing expenses to get wealthy.

Nickeling and diming will not make you wealthy. Though there are some extreme cases that prove me wrong.  

The reality is, the more you make the greater the gap becomes between the cost of living and what’s left over. The more you have left over the more you save and invest. The more you save and invest, and the earlier you do it, the greater shot you have at wealth.

This is why instead of focusing on spending, we should focus on earning.

Investing is Spending

Don’t get me wrong, I believe investing is a critical component to building wealth and reaching financial freedom.

But it is a form of spending. You can only spend as much as you make. To maximize your investments, you must maximize your income.

Let’s put the idea of Uber driving, Etsy shops and eBay selling on the back burner.

Two of the best ways to do that include fast tracking your career and pivoting when necessary.  

Fast Track Your Career

Climb the ladder as fast as you can. Annual raises won’t make you rich.

The faster you move up, the more earnings potential you reach earlier in your career. The sooner your money starts working for you the better.

Hit me up if you want my best tips for fast tracking your career.

Make a Pivot

Industries evolve and so do humans.

Knowing when it’s time to call an audible is one of the most valuable skill for protecting your earnings potential.

Many jobs are disappearing. Being honest with yourself about the future of your career can help you see writing on the wall.

Often when raises stop or teams reach extreme leanness, it’s a sign of less commitment to the job function you are in.

When we hang on to jobs that don’t serve us, we cap our earnings potential.

Btw, I wrote some tips on career changes here.

Bottom Line

Your salary becomes more than just numbers in your bank account. It transforms into a resource for:

Opportunities and growth.

It gives you the power of control.

The secret to making more money is… Investing in your career.

(Thanks to my reader Rob L. who reminded me, wealth comes in different forms – like time, health, calendar control, etc.)

Let’s make The Shift!

Lindsey

P.S. I’d love it if you’d share this with 1 other person who you think would enjoy it. Thanks a million! 🙏

Sources:

1. Table is from Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2022 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates.