Are you happy with how much money you are making right now? Probably not. You’re not alone in feeling that way, as this is the case with many middle-class citizens around the globe.
Most people feel like they should be earning more. But relatively few take significant measures or the right path to grow their wealth.
If you want to embark on the path of growing wealth in 2020, here are four major roads you can take.
1. Climb the Career Ladder (Tried and True)
The difference between becoming a well-earning professional and a wealthy working individual is how high you can climb up the career ladder. If you aim for middle management, then you might have a comfortable working life, but not an amazingly high-paying one.
If you want to grow your wealth, you should aim for senior management. Especially if in your organization, top management buys into the company with an equity stake.
This is a tried and tested path to wealth, but it might not be for everyone. First of all, you have to be working at a successful organization where you have a decent chance of growth. Because if you are working for a company that isn’t going anywhere, then neither are you, no matter how high you are on the career ladder.
Similarly, if you are part of a company that doesn’t believe in internal promotions to senior management level, your competence, and hard work might not get you where you want to be.
Being with the right organization, working hard, developing all the relevant sets, and sticking with the organization for a very long time; these are the ingredients for growing your wealth through your career path.
According to Glassdoor, the average yearly income of most experienced senior managers is about $120,000. You won’t get extremely wealthy with this salary, but you will live a comfortable life.
2. Start a Business (High Risk, High Reward)
The second most common way to the accumulation of wealth is by starting a business. Having a business comes with the perks of being your own boss and getting the most substantial chunk of the profits your business is making.
But starting a business also comes with responsibility and stress, usually much more than with a job. It also comes with its risks. For every successful Mark Zuckerberg story, there are hundreds of failed startups that you never heard about. Opening a business has about a 50% failure rate after five years.
If you have a good business idea, and enough savings or a secondary revenue stream to sustain you and your family while you start your business, then you are good to go. In the beginning, you may have to work twice as hard and keep a full-time job while starting your business.
Once your business is successful enough to sustain you, you can leave your job and devote your full energy and attention to your business.
Depending upon the growth potential is in the business you chose, your competence, dedication, and market timing, your earning possibilities are limitless.
3. Save, Invest, and Wait (Slow and Steady)
Whether your primary source of income is your job or your business, savings, and investments combined with time can be your greatest allies in growing your wealth.
Saving requires strong personal finance knowledge and financial discipline. The more you can save, the more you can invest. The balance of savings and investment can help you achieve all your short-term and long-term financial goals.
When it comes to investing, a method that has taken America by storm is investing in exchange-traded funds (ETF). With its low fees, ease of transaction, and the ability to diversify into any market, it’s easy to see why over $4 trillion is invested in ETFs in America.
4. Become a Property Tycoon (Buy, Rent it out, then Buy More)
Owning property has been a proven path to wealth. If you have enough money stashed away to buy an apartment or a condo, or you are willing to take out a mortgage on a property to rent it out, you can get into the lucrative business of property.
There are two main ways that owning property can set you on the path to wealth:
1) Cash Flow
In the past, the primary way that you could receive cash flow was by renting out a residential or commercial property, usually for a long-term lease. If you had done the proper research and bought the right property, your cash flow could meet or exceed your monthly costs of owning the property.
You must include all expenses such as mortgage, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, and property management fees when doing your calculations.
With the rise of tech companies such as Airbnb, property owners have been given even more power and opportunities to earn money. If you own a residential property in a sought-after tourist destination, suddenly, the cash flow that you can make could jump up dramatically.
Some people have built six-figure businesses with multiple listings using Airbnb.
2) Price appreciation
Property prices usually rise over time, so price appreciation is a primary way for owners to make money. The median price of a San Francisco home has been increased from $420,000 in January 2000 to $1.38 million in January of 2019, a staggering 329% increase.
Not all markets will be as hot as San Francisco, and there is always a chance of your property losing value. But held over a long enough period, you can grow wealthy from the price appreciation of property alone.
Conclusion
You don’t need to stick to one path to grow wealthy. For example, you can focus on climbing up the career ladder while working on a small side business.
Hopefully, you have learned some new ideas on how to grow your wealth in 2020. Experiment to see what path works for you, and the sky is the limit for your wealth.
About the Author:
Christopher Liew is a CFA Charterholder who helps readers find the best ways to save and make money at Wealthawesome.com. Read about how he quit his 6-figure salary career to travel the world here.