Know How To Grow & Stretch Your Paycheck?

Is there is a gap between what you make and what you need? Curious how to stretch and grow your paycheck?

If so, learning how to earn more and stretch what you already make so it buys more can help close that gap.

Right now, if you are having trouble paying your bills or do not have enough left over to put into finding your dream job -- you are not alone. Millions of people all over the world struggle with this problem.

So what can you do right now to start growing your paycheck? We think the answer for many people lies in doing five simple things ...

learn what people are willing to pay you more to do and start doing it
work on overcoming the obstacles that are keeping you stuck in a low paying job so you can earn more
starting looking for opportunities to earn more or create your own
invest more of what you earn in yourself

We know that these sound like simple things. They sound simple because they are. Increasing the size of your paycheck is not rocket science. You don't need a PhD to figure it out. Its common sense applied to the world of work, where bosses and companies rarely spell out how to earn a bonus or get a promotion. Most expect you to figure that stuff out on your own. But who has time for that? Which is why we created this part of our site -- to help you figure out how to succeed at work. So you already have figured out the first part - how to be hired or start your own business -- because you are getting a paycheck you want to grow.

So now it is time to work on the second part -- increasing the size of your paycheck and making it go farther.

Learn What People Are Willing To Pay You More To Do & Start Doing It

To earn a bigger paycheck, the idea is simple. You need to consistently deliver more of what your boss, company or customers value. The word consistent is the most important part of this. Why? Because ...

Being great once gets you a pat on the back or a mention in the staff meeting.
Being great at something the company really cares about and affects the bottom line (saves the company a lot of money or makes a huge profit) gets you a bonus that can range from dinner out or a weekend getaway to a cash bonus.
Being constantly great at what both your boss and company value means you are performing so high above their expectations (and will continue to do so) that they need to give you a bump in salary or hourly wages.

The trick is to figure out what the company rally values and pays for. Everyone thinks it is doing their job description perfectly -- but that is often not the case. Job descriptions tell you what to do all day -- but not what earns bonuses and promotions. Driving to catch the Fed Ex truck so a customer will get a critical shipment on time does not usually show up in a job description -- but it is what earns recognition and bonuses. Going the extra mile, literally, to solve problems and avoid costly mistakes is what pays off.

Simply put -- doing your job description earns you your base salary. Everything else (perks, growth assignments, extra benefits, bonuses, raises and promotions) come from excelling at the things on your performance review and delighting your boss, company and customers. For example, there is a big difference in something as basic as cleaning a floor. You can clean it or make it shine and sparkle. Guess what? People pay more to have their floors shine and sparkle. And this idea of being excellent at what you do applies to any job, from being a janitor to a heart surgeon.

But it is not just a matter of being excellent at what you do. You have to be excellent at what your boss, company and customers value. For some bosses that is being loyal, making them look good, and helping them earn the next promotion. For others it is coming up with creative ideas, winning new accounts and delighting the customers so much they call the President to share their appreciation. Quite honestly, if you do not excel at what the boss and company want -- you may need to find a different boss who values the things you offer.

So how to do you discover what these values are? Check out the stories that are told about company heroes see what your boss comments on and rewards, listen carefully to what is said (and not said) in your performance review, and do a litmus test on your boss offering two alternatives to how to do a task and see which one he or she prefers and how strongly that preference is. Do the same for your boss' boss too. Often their actions speak louder than words, because many times they can't tell you what will earn a bonus or raise -- they only know it once they have seen it.

If you want to read more about this, we cover the four things you get paid for -- performance, passion, expertise and resources -- in our articles

If you want to find out what you excel at, read about

Once you know what you excel at and what the boss or company values it is time to see if anything else is holding you back from earning more.

Work On Overcoming The Obstacles That Are Keeping You Stuck In A Low Paying Job

It is easy to get stuck in a holding pattern in a low paying job or pulled into a downward spiral by the circumstances in our life. Getting unstuck can feel like an overwhelming task, especially if you do not have a clue where to start. It can feel like you are a fly trying to walk through molasses, and every step you take only makes you sink deeper into the muck and the mire that has become your life. If it sounds like we have been there, you are right. The only good thing about having been there is that we have a few ideas of how to get out of this jam.

We think your earning potential might be held back because you lack the ...

passion to focus and work hard on achieving your goals
confidence to keep working on your goals, overcome setbacks and look for creative solutions
ability to make enough money to both meet your current bills AnD invest in your dreams
expertise to know how to turn your dreams into reality
self knowledge to know which dreams are worth pursuing
skills to take the right action at the right time
courage to take action and seek your dream work

To get out of this jam, you need to know that there is a way out if you know the order of the steps to take ...

Gaining self knowledge helps you find your passion.
Finding your passion ignites your courage.
Having courage helps you acquiring skills and expertise.
Having the right skills and knowledge creates confidence.
Skills and expertise, along with the passion and confidence to use them, leads to earning more money.

If you want to learn more, many of our pages deal with how to learn more about yourself and find your passion. We have laid out our site like a book, so you can start with our Welcome and learn about our ten step journey of self discovery and your potential. If you are ready to find your passion, you can start with Step 1. Here we provide lots of information online that you can use to discover what you love to do.

Start Looking For Better Opportunities To Earn More or Create Your Own

Even if you are excellent at what you do, and have the passion, courage, confidence, skills, and expertise you need -- you may not be in the right place to be rewarded for it. Like a potted plant, you can outgrow jobs, companies and even opportunities. So it may be time to take a close look at where we are working and the job you are being paid to do. You want to ask yourself honestly ...

Does my current job, boss and company offer me the opportunity to earn more if I start using more of my gifts, talents, passion, and know how?
If not, do I need to find another job? Or do I need to take on additional work to help me fund my dreams and find a better job in the near future?
Where can I earn the most money doing what I love?

Questions like these will help you start to see what the opportunities are like where you already work and start looking around if you need to find better ones. And if none are there, you might start to think about how to create your own by starting your own business.

Investing More In Yourself

Once you start earning more, you want to keep on the path of earning more each year. The best way we know to do that is to spend a part of the extra money you earn on finding a long term answer to how to earn a handsome living doing what you love. Too often, the extra pay is spent instead of invested. The difference between the two is important to understand.

Investing in yourself means that you are increasing your ability to earn money for the rest of your life.
Spending means you are raising your standard of living and increasing the amount you need to earn for the rest of your life.

So how do you invest more in yourself and still pay the bills? By changing what you spend your money on. You want to not only increase how much comes in, but the value of what it buys. That means ...

Looking at how much you spend on managing your work related stress. Daily desserts, shopping to feel better, and annual tickets to amusement parks are expensive ways to feel better about your average Monday morning. A better choice might be a massage or buying a book about how to find a better job.
Shifting what you spend on temporary mental and emotional escapes into investing in permanent solutions. Playing a video game, watching a favorite movie or escaping into a book temporarily feels good, but you are still left with your life when you emerge. And you have less cash, and quite frankly, less pain to motivate you to get mad enough to do something to improve your life. A bad job can feel like a thorn in your side. You can either keep numbing the pain or decide it hurts enough to do something about it. Instead of buying another DVD or escape vehicle in the form of a bag of potato chips, why not spend the money instead on taking a class or learning a skill so you can do what you love?
Seeing if you can be paid to do during the work week the things you pay to do on your weekends and vacations. Many people end up spending the money they earn at a job they dislike to pay for the privilege of doing what they love. For them, getting a job doing what they love would mean they would save a ton of money they used to blow on the weekend. And, since they already do it, they have the skills, knowledge and contacts to know who is hiring and who they would want to work for.

So, take a good look at how you use the money you have. Are you spending it on temporarily raising your spirits or are you investing it in improving your life and permanently increasing the size of your paycheck?

The Next Step

What you do with all the information and insights we have shared is up to you. You might want to think about these ideas. If they get you all riled up, great! Sometimes the greatest gift you can give some one is the ability to take a good hard look at their life. Many times, they see things in a new light, and one that is not always pleasant. But it is your friends, not your enemies, who tell you that you are trailing toilet paper on your shoe.

We hope that this page, and our site, can help you find your passion, reconnect with your dreams, and decide to get better at playing the game of life.

At this point, you might be interested in reading about ...

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