How To Double Your Income Every Few Years

TWT Newsletter #6

If you're at the start or middle of your journey to wealth - increasing your earnings potential as an entrepreneur, solopreneur, or W2 worker should be your main focus. Reading this shows your commitment to that.

I graduated college in 2016 with a 6-figure salary job. A dream came true at the time; the income was more than I expected because the beginning salary for an engineer was $60k. I was already in the top 5% in terms of income, but I didn’t want to stay comfortable. I knew I wanted to be financially free and to do that I had to earn more. That’s why I challenged myself to double my income every few years – which allowed me to reach that goal.

Over the past years, I’ve developed principles and skills to catapult my earnings. Compounding my wealth by doubling my income every few years.

Here’s a breakdown of my earnings:

The principles and skills I’ve cultivated over the years are a combination of hard work, strategic planning, and taking risks that have worked for me. Be aware that you must apply these to your circumstances. Also, know that to earn 100k, will be drastically different than what it takes to make 250k, 500k, and 1 million. You can’t expect to do the same thing and make more money. So revisit this when you plateau. Because the principles here are more important than others depending on your income level.

To reach financial freedom and a wealthy life, you can’t get too comfortable. You have to be intentional with your thoughts and actions to attain it. It’s a long road that takes commitment, patience, and sacrifice.

Without further ado.

Acquire Skills

Acquiring new skills is essential to doubling your income. It helps you stay competitive in the market and positions you for growth and advancement in your career or specialization. To gain new skills, you need to continuously learn. A key factor in my success is that I am always trying to improve and learn new things. This requires you to make sacrifices and put in time outside your 9-5 job to create the wealth you want. That's the mindset and the level of commitment you need to double your income too.

Build the habit of constantly upgrading your skills, knowledge, and mindset to stay relevant in your industry. This means taking courses, attending conferences, paying for mentorship/coaching, reading books and industry publications, or working on new projects that challenge you.

When I started my first job as a software engineer, I learned how to be a top performer by watching the best at my company. I observed what they did and learned the exact skills they had. Allowing me to climb the ladder and be promoted quickly.

Do the same in your industry.

Who is the best of the best at what you want to do? What makes them the best? What can I learn from them? What do I need to learn to be like them? Align your actions to the answers, and you’ll start increasing your income and earning potential.

By staying ahead of the curve, you can position yourself for promotions, better opportunities, or higher rates as a business owner/freelancer.

Furthermore, acquire skills that will allow you to leverage more and scale faster. These skills are things like leadership, financial management, and networking. It helps you stay competitive, positions you for massive growth and advancement, and prepares you for better opportunities in the future. By acquiring skills and skill stacking, you will increase your income.

Take Risk And Have Multiple Income Streams

I take that quote to heart, and it always gives me a sense of urgency. Building skills is one part of the equation for your financial success. The other is investing in assets.

Combining skills and attaining assets, I learned how to trade stocks and options while working my 9-5. I became obsessed with the idea of looking at data and graphs to make an informed decision with a few presses of a button to make money. This obsession allowed me to build up the skills to make money online and double my income. As well as the confidence that I could make money out of my 9-5 job.

This was my second income stream that has helped me compound my wealth and double my earnings when I eventually became good at it. And to be honest, I lost a lot of money when I started. One of my biggest losses was over $150,000. The road to learning how to trade stocks was filled with pain and tears. Like every new venture, there will be risks and losses associated with it. Be ready for them, it’s a part of the process.

My tenacity and obsession kept me in the game and pushed me to devote time to this skill (this is needed with any new skill or venture). Every income stream starts small (relatively), I started by trying to make some lunch money. The goal was to make $10-15 a day so I could eat lunch. As I was committed to developing the skill, I kept at it and continued to build upon the daily number. Every few months, I would double it from $10-15. I would double it every so month. These small steps compounded into bigger ones. I’ve traded for over 10+ years now (started trading/investing in college), and make thousands a month trading stocks as a hobby!

My investments in stocks allowed me to get into my next big income stream - Real estate. Acquiring real estate with my other income streams allowed me to build a real estate portfolio that appreciated and generated cash flow every month. It is one of the sweetest feelings to get a monthly deposit into my bank account. That is why you want to invest in assets as early as possible. And how, every few years, I’ve been able to double my income

Have the goal of attaining multiple income streams, but make sure you don’t spread yourself too thin by pursuing too much at once. Build up one stream before trying to branch off to another too quickly. My job and trading stocks took a decade to develop, but they gave me the foundation I needed to aggressively branch into real estate. Remain patient and take time to master your craft in each income stream. The process takes time. Remember that.

Balance Strategic Planning v.s. More Action

I saved the best principle for last. Knowing when to strategize, plan, and act requires great wisdom. I believe when you're younger, you should be taking more action. The more action you take, the more you are able to create opportunities for yourself. Also, when you're younger, you don’t really know what you like and don’t like. That’s why I preach putting yourself out there, taking more action, and failing and learning as much as possible. But as you get older, you should have enough skills and knowledge to take a step back and “take less action.” You use your time more wisely to formulate plans and take strategic actions by identifying the optimal opportunities to pursue.

The analogy I make towards this concept is similar to chess. In the beginning of your life, you start off as a pawn. When you're a pawn, you have little to no opportunities and can only take small steps. But as you learn and upgrade your skills, knowledge, and mindset; you can take bigger steps as opportunities arise, such as becoming a knight or bishop. As you continue to improve. You start to focus on things that are working for you. This allows you to zip through opportunities like a rook. Then, with enough skills, knowledge, and opportunity, you are similar to the queen. You have the ability to move in any direction; playing the field and taking massive action each turn. You might think this is probably the pinnacle, but as you progress and get to the top, you’ve learned that taking more actions becomes more dangerous. You have to become more strategic and plan ahead like a grandmaster does.

You’ve become the king. Like a king, you can only make one move at a time. The reason for that is because each move has to be extremely strategic. You’ve gained enough experience, knowledge, and skills that you can do a lot of things, but you must be cautious and take each step carefully.

You have to plan every move methodically, but each move is extremely impactful. Once you reach this level, you have many opportunities, and have to take fewer actions and focus more on what’s optimal for you with the least amount of risk. Remember that; no matter how much wealth you have.

This concept took me a while to realize, and shows how things come full circle in life. The king moves one step at the time, just like the pawn does.

When I was trading stocks, I took massive action through a lot of trades to learn what worked and didn't work. Then, as I progressed, I learned I needed to take a more strategic approach and make each trade count with my capital. With these same learnings, I apply them to my business in real estate. I don’t take too much action and buy every deal I see. I take small actions that are impactful. These decisions will generate massive income in the future. I know one wrong move could take me many steps back, and that some plays I make take years to pay off. But with skills, knowledge, risk management, and patience, that’s how I am able to continue to double my income over time.

That’s a wrap for doubling your income every few years:

• Acquire Skills

• Take Risk And Have Multiple Income Streams

• Balance Strategic Planning v.s. More Action

Hope you learned and enjoyed my newsletter!

If you want to learn more about building a wealthier life for yourself through mindset and investing - subscribe here. Also, share with someone who might gain value from this newsletter. Remember you can make magic happen daily. Have an awesome day!