5 Proven Ways to Increase Your Income Over the Next 3 Years

Do you feel like you’re in a financial rut? Has your income remained relatively stable over the past few years? Do you want to grow your income in a proven and sustainable way? Well, this article is for you.

Try These 5 Income-Increasing Principles

So much of increasing your income has to do with being in the right place at the right time. And while there is an element of luck/chance involved, most successful people get to where they are by doing the little things right. 

Here are some tried and true principles you can use to increase your income in both the short-term and long-term:

• Gain Experience

There’s always going to be an element of time involved. Experience is arguably the number one asset you can have on your side. Not because of the time involved, but because of what repeated immersion in your area of expertise yields.

As you gain experience in your profession, you see the good, the bad, and the ugly. You experience success and failure. You learn what works and what doesn’t. You become a trusted voice. 

Rather than constantly shift jobs until you find your “dream job,” stick with a job that has potential and gain the experience needed to command a higher salary.

• Niches Get Riches

Most people assume that the best strategy is to cast a wide net. They assume that a general degree, a general job, or a general profession will give them the best chance of being successful. But nothing could be further from the truth.

If you study the most successful people in the world, you’ll find that most of them are in very specific niches. In fact, there’s a popular saying in the business world that there are riches in niches – or niches get riches. 

The more you drill down into a specific area, the more potential you have to become an expert. And people don’t pay top dollar for general products or services. They pay premiums to people who are experts. Prove yourself to be an expert in a niche and watch your demand skyrocket.

• Never Stop Learning

If you’re standing still, you’re falling behind. It doesn’t matter where you are in your career, you must constantly be learning. A failure to do so gives others the chance to surpass you. (You might not feel like you’re getting passed in the moment, but you’ll suddenly look up in three years and all of your peers will have moved on to bigger and better things.)

You don’t have to go back to college to continue learning. You can take online courses, read books, and listen to podcasts. Surround yourself with knowledge and you’ll find yourself improving with time.

• Find a Mentor

There’s something very valuable about having one-on-one time with someone who is older and more experienced than you. This is called having a mentor – and you need one!

A mentor is someone who helps you grow, isn’t afraid to call you out, and offers encouragement when it’s needed. A mentor could be someone in your industry, or it could simply be someone you trust. 

• Add a Side Hustle

While it’s true that you should niche down to gain more experience and increase your value to others, there’s also something to be said for layering skills. And one of the best ways to add new skills into your repertoire is to launch a side hustle. 

There’s something about being a business owner or entrepreneur that forces you to do things you otherwise wouldn’t as an employee. Through these challenges, risks, and constant movement, you’ll discover growth. 

What’s Your Goal?

It’s not enough to say you want to increase your income over the next three years. You need to get specific and granular with your goal. How much do you want to increase your income by? And how will you track your progress?

It’s helpful to view your goal in stages. An example would be:

I want to increase my income by:

• 10 percent over the next 12 months

• 15 percent the next year
• 20 percent the following year

Do you notice how specific that is? (And feel free to enter specific target dollar amounts for your own goal)

Increasing your income is hard work, but through a combination of calculated goal setting and strategic action, you can see your annual income grow on a yearly basis. Now go to work!

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