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7 Ways to Grow Your Income Faster in 2024

Baptiste Wicht | Updated: |

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links)

You want to grow your income! A higher income means more savings, more money to invest, and a better ability to spend. There are many advantages to having a higher income. Over the years, I have greatly improved my income. And I do not want to stop there.

There are two main ways to reach your financial goals faster. Either you reduce your expenses or you grow your income. You should probably do both if you want to reach your financial goals. Most people are quickly reaching some limits when trying to reduce their expenses. But, on the other hand, your ability to grow your income is virtually limitless.

A lot of people do not focus enough on increasing their income. Even in the personal finance community, many people are focusing on reducing small expenses, whereas it is sometimes easier to get more money!

In this article, I detail The 7 Best Ways that you can use to grow your income. And, of course, you are not limited to one of these ways. To increase your income as much as possible, you need to work on several fronts. There are other ways, as well. If you know an excellent way to increase your income, please let me know!

Why grow your income?

A lot of people only focus on spending less. And spending less is excellent! We are always trying to spend less money. But there quickly comes a time at which you cannot spend less.

This point is when you want to grow your income instead of focusing on your expenses. Indeed, at some point, you cannot spend less. But you can always earn more. Growing your income is not easy. But when you have already optimized your expenses, it is much easier to earn more than to spend less!

But be careful not to fall into the trap of lifestyle creep! Most people spend more when they grow their income. And it is a double trap because not only will they spend more, but their taxes will also increase. And in the end, with a higher income, they will save less! Increasing your income is great, but only if you keep your expenses constant.

There is nothing wrong with celebrating a higher income. But make sure it goes towards saving more, not towards spending more.

So, here are the best ways to grow your income!

Grow your main career income

The most used way to grow your income is to increase your primary career income.

Many people do not try to increase their salary as much as possible. It may not be as difficult as you think to grow your career income.

We have already discussed many ways to grow your main career income. For example, you could ask for a raise or get extra education to increase your value to your company. Sometimes, you can also get a significant increase in income by changing to a new company or moving to a new country!

Of course, do not change for a job that makes your life miserable. I believe that a good job is essential. I prefer to become financially independent while still having a good life.

For me, this is the primary way to grow our income. I am planning to increase my salary and not increase my expenses. I will do this by doing a great job and fighting for promotions. Of course, I will continue learning new knowledge to improve my value for my company. Doing this should make me reach financial independence faster. And this is what I would advise most people.

Start Side Hustles

Another way to grow your income is to start a side hustle.

A side hustle is some small paid work that you do aside from your main career. There are many side hustles that you could do. Side hustles are a trendy way of getting some extra income.

Here are some ideas for side hustles:

The options are limitless. Some people have one side hustle. But some people can have more than ten side hustles.

As you see, there are many possible side hustles. Some of them can bring you a nice amount of money, and some of them are more modest. When you choose a side hustle, you need to consider the return per hour. You must decide how much free time you will trade for money.

Many side hustles will take much of your time for some side money. I do think it is worth it to spend all your free time on side hustles. However, that is what some people and they can come financially independent faster because of it. In the end, it only depends on your goals and the way you want your journey to achieve these goals.

For me, this blog is my side hustle. It does not generate much income for now. But it still helps. I am not focusing too much on the monetization of this blog. Indeed, I believe it is more efficient to focus on growing career income. Moreover, I do not want to use all my spare time to earn more money. Nevertheless, it can be good, especially if you can turn one of your passions or hobbies into a side hustle.

In the end, many people turn side hustles into proper businesses. And with that, they can pivot and earn more money than their main job.

Regardless of your side hustle, you must make sure to side hustle legally.

Invest in Real Estate

Another good way to grow your income is to invest in real estate. I have already discussed the different ways to invest in real estate. You can invest either in physical property directly. You could also invest through crowd-investing real estate or a Real Estate Investment Fund (REIT) on the stock market.

All these forms of investment will generally bring back a lot of money. And it is usually some regular income. But you may need significant original investment. For example, if you invest in physical property, this will not be passive income. Indeed, it may give you a lot of work to manage the properties. On the other hand, it will be mostly passive income if you invest through REIT or crowd-estate investing.

This strategy is used by many people in the personal finance community. If you have a large amount of money to invest, Real Estate can be an excellent investment. Nevertheless, you have to remember that this is an investment.

And therefore, it is not without risk. You may end up losing some money with real estate investment. Real estate could crash in your region or even in your country. You may also have issues finding a tenant. So it is something that you need to consider.

I do not plan to invest in real estate any time soon. I think it is just too much trouble for us. We have bought our own house. But the house in which we live is not an investment. It will not bring any income.

Invest in Bonds

If you invest in stocks, you will not grow your income.

We will see dividends in the next section. With stocks, you will only get the money once you sell. Before that, your gains are not realized and, therefore, not guaranteed. But there are other forms of investments that bring some guaranteed income: Bonds. A bond is a loan that generates some fixed income.

You can purchase a bond from a government or a company. There are also Certificates of Deposit which are a form of bonds that you can get from a bank. All these bonds will have a duration before maturity. During the bond duration, you will receive some fixed income year after year.

After the duration, you will receive the principal back to you. If you do not sell it before, you cannot lose money with a bond (unless it defaults). However, if you sell before maturity, you may lose or get some money. It will depend on current interest rates.

However, even if they generate a fixed income, bonds are not without risk. Big governments are not likely to default. Nevertheless, if you invest in shadier, smaller countries, they may default on you. It is still rare. On the other hand, corporate bonds are riskier. And generally, the higher the yield, the riskier the bond. That is up to you to decide how much risk you will take.

And one more thing to consider, there are also bond funds. However, these will fluctuate in value much more than single bonds. These fluctuations are because the fund managers will sell and buy more funds. And because the fund’s value represents the current value of the bonds, not the bonds at maturity time. And the current value depends on the current interest rate, not only the interest rate of the bonds inside the fund. So bond funds are much more complicated than people think.

I do not own any bond. And I do not plan to add one soon. Bonds are a great tool to grow your income once you are closer to retirement. But I am quite far from it. So, once I get closer to retirement, I will consider bonds and bonds funds again. Hopefully, by this time, Swiss bonds will have gotten better.

If you want to invest in bonds, you need a good broker account.

Invest in Peer-To-Peer Lending

Another thing that some people do is use a peer-to-peer lending platform.

On these platforms, you can lend money to other people using the platforms. They are generally offering high yields compared to banks or bonds. So, it is an excellent way to grow your income. Some people reported some very nice income from these platforms. There is an entire online community of people using these platforms.

I hesitated a bit before mentioning this option to grow your income because I am unsure whether it is safe. Peer-To-Peer lending is the riskiest method in this article. The loan’s originator could default, and you would not get your money back. And some of these platforms could go bankrupt. And there were a few cases where some of these platforms were a Ponzi scheme.

I have invested very little money in P2P Lending, mainly to try it out. But I never invested a large amount of my portfolio into it. And I only tried the platforms that seemed the safest.

But I am not yet sure about this. P2P lending has advantages. But I am not sure it can hold its promises in the long term. Most of these online portals are advertising very high yields. I am very skeptical about returns of 20% when you can borrow money from the bank at a fraction of the cost.

Nevertheless, this could be legit. And I could be losing some opportunities. I do not know. Only time will tell.

Invest in Dividends Stocks

Another way to grow your income is by investing in dividends stocks.

I have already talked about Dividends in detail for stock investing. If you invest in the stock market through index funds, you will have some dividends. Not all companies pay a dividend, but many of them do.

Some people choose to invest only in companies that are paying dividends. That means that they do not focus on building capital gains. But they focus on increasing their dividends. And dividends are generally reinvested into the companies that distributed them.

The advantage of this kind of income is that it is entirely passive. Your money is invested, and it brings back some extra money. There are two ways to invest here. Either you pick the stocks or you invest through indexing. Unfortunately, most people in the dividend investing community are picking stocks themselves. But both options are perfectly viable.

In our case, we do not plan to invest in dividend-paying companies. The reason is that dividends are taxed as income in Switzerland. Therefore, capital gains are more tax-efficient than dividends. It is not the case in many countries where dividends are not taxed.

And there are other issues with dividends.

Sell Some of Your Stuff

The final way to grow your income is to sell some things you own but do not use anymore. Most people have a lot of stuff in their house that they do not use.

Sometimes you can find some valuables. Of course, it will take time to go through your things. But it is an excellent thing to do. Not only will this bring you some extra cash, but it will also declutter your home. If you tidy your house in the process, it can have many advantages for your life!

Now, your mileage will vary will this way of increasing income. Some people do not have much clutter in the first place. And not all clutter is valuable, far from it. However, everybody should value a tidy home and some cash rather than some clutter they do not use. And of course, this tip is limited because there is only so much stuff you can sell!

I prefer selling things online. But there are other ways, such as a yard sale. If you do not know how to get started, I have an article on how to sell things online in Switzerland.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many ways to grow your income.

However, not all these ways are equal. Some of them are just investments of money that will grant you some extra income. Some are investments of your time. For example, side hustles can bring back much money but may take away a lot of your time. And we already have so little free time.

My favorite way to earn extra income is to push a career to the maximum. Improving your career is the best way because it will not take all of your free time to do it. And I believe the return on investment can be significant. But, not all careers indeed have a large potential for income. Side hustles are not a bad thing at all. And investments in real estate can make a lot of sense as well.

Do not forget that every situation is different. What works for one person will not necessarily work for another one. Therefore, it is essential to know the various available tools. But then, it is up to you to decide what to do with these tools! And remember not to push yourself too hard!

So, I will try to increase my primary career income as much as possible. I will have to make it one of my goals for next year. I do not plan on starting any side hustle any time soon.

There is one very important thing about growing your income: you should not spend your entire new income. If you spend too much extra income, you will be left in a worse situation than before. You should use the extra income to improve your situation.

To learn more about increasing your income, learn The Ways to Grow your Main Career Income.

But enough about me, what about you? Do you have any tips for growing your income? What do you do to grow your income?

Recommended reading

Photo of Baptiste Wicht
Baptiste Wicht started The Poor Swiss in 2017. He realized that he was falling into the trap of lifestyle inflation. He decided to cut his expenses and increase his income. Since 2019, he has been saving more than 50% of his income every year. He made it a goal to reach Financial Independence and help Swiss people with their finances.
Discover Swiss Financial Secrets That Maximize Your Money!

Learn easy ways to optimize your finances and save thousands in Switzerland with our exclusive e-book. Learn about the most cost-effective financial services tailored for savvy residents and expats!

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12 thoughts on “7 Ways to Grow Your Income Faster in 2024”

  1. There’s another interesting way to grow your income in Switzerland, particularly if you are not a homeowner (that is, still renting your place), if your income is somewhat higher than average, if you don’t have kids (or if they are not yet going to school), if you work from home, and/or if you are independent: moving to a commune (Gemeinde) with lower tax rates. For example: Rüschlikon (ZH), Baar (ZG), and others. The difference can be huge, even considering the differential transportation costs and rental prices. Of course, it might not be an option for everyone, but I thought I’d mention it.

      1. ROTFL, no problem :) ah, so you speak about income in the sense of “EBIDTA”, then yes of course. This is just a bonus technique at the end of all deductions. Thanks a lot for the great website and the incredible insight!

  2. I appreciate all your posts but man how can you put “Develop websites for other people” on the same list as “Walk dogs for your neighbors” and “Babysitting”? Web development is a complex topic and requires that you study it a lot before you can make a half decent let alone marketable product. Yet all other examples on the list require basic human skills. It is about as out of touch as writing “draw architecture blueprints” or “fix people’s cars” for more income. The rest of the article is great, sorry for nitpicking. I looked into filling out surveys to pass some time.

    1. These are just ideas. Many people are capable of developing simple websites and it does not need advanced capabilities, especially with something like WordPress. I have developed multiple sites as a side hustle in the past. People have different skills and can use them for their side hustles. For instance, I would not be capable of repairing furniture but many people would.

  3. Thanks a lot for this post. I help me a lot to understand how to start with my small business.

    However, I have a small question. Maybe you have an idea about it or at least you could tell me where I can find this information.

    I want to open a small online store. My idea is to sell only in Switzerland for the first few months.

    Do you know if there are special rules or laws to start selling outside of Switzerland?

    Thanks in advance!

    1. Hi Tiago,

      I just heard of them and look a little into them.
      I would have preferred being able to invest with less than 25’000 at a time and not having to sign a procuration for them. But as far as Swiss platforms go, it seems normal.
      And a 3% fee on a real estate loan seems too high for me. And again, this seems “normal” as far as Swiss platforms go.

      Thanks for stopping by!

  4. Interesting take there! I personally don’t consider stocks, bonds, p2p, and real estate as income generators, rather investments.

    I do however spend a lot of energy on increasing my professional value and thus moving up in salary every year. Next to that, I’m just starting a side hustle that will bring in some money hopefully.

    1. Hi B :)

      Yes, they can be considered as both in my opinion. Stocks for capital gains is a pure investment, but dividends and real estate can be both I think.

      Good luck with your side hustle! I have no profitable side hustle personally. But I spend energy as well on increasing my professional value as well! I am going to try to improve my salary significantly over the next few years!

      Thanks for stopping by :)

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