Inside: Here is the real answer from a day trader and long term investor on how fast can you make money in stocks? Increase freedom by day or swing trading.
The answer depends.
It depends on what your particular objectives are for making money.
If you are a day trader, you obviously can make quick money during the day.
If you are a swing trader, you can make money over the course of typically two to five days. Most swing trades are closed within 30 days.
If you are a long-term investor, it takes longer to make money in the stock market since the rate of return is slower with index funds or mutual funds.
The biggest caveat for the average person to make money with stocks quickly is they buy at the wrong times and sell at the wrong times.
Everyone has heard the mantra of buy low, sell high. Right?
Sounds simple enough.
However, the amateur investor does not understand how the overall market moves, the momentum of the day, and their particular stock of choice.
Personally, I know I can make money with stocks quickly. For me, I average $300-500 in a day easily (and way more using options). But, I have moved from novice investor by taking this investing course. I have practiced with paper trading (simulated account) and I have worked hard to get the results that I see on a consistent basis.
My mantra is… I need to be consistent enough to achieve remarkable results in the stock market.
That is your answer to how fast can I make money in the stocks.
Even Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a philosopher, writer, and composer has a perfect quote when it comes to making money fast in stocks, “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
If you don’t understand what patience means, you are not prepared to make money fast in stocks.
You have to be disciplined enough to pull the trigger at the right time and exit before you get greedy or lose everything.
This post may contain affiliate links, which helps us to continue providing relevant content and we receive a small commission at no cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read the full disclosure here.
Trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. You should carefully consider whether trading is suitable for you in light of your circumstances, knowledge, and financial resources. You may lose all or more of your initial investment. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Your results will vary. Trade at your own risk.
How Fast Can you Make Money In Stocks?
You can make money quickly in a matter of seconds. You can also lose money in a matter of seconds.
The brutal truth… day trading is not made for everyone.
However, you can make consistent income to supplement your paycheck. And that right there is enticing for anyone.
As a day trader, you close out all of your trades on the same day. Thus, you will have a realized gain or loss at the end of the day. This is the fastest way to make money in the stock market.
As a swing trader, you will hold your trades until the stock moves to your desired price. Once you close your trades, that is when you have a realized gain or loss.
For long term investing, that is normally a buy and hold strategy of holding a stock, EFT, or index fund for longer than a year.
The best part is you can design what type of trading style works best for your personality and maximize the profits you are capable of.
In order to have the highest success rates of making money in the quickest time possible, I highly recommend that you take this course.
Trading has been a life-changing event for her, as well as her 1000s of students that have all made over $1,000 per day. That is a testament to the quality education that you would receive on how to trade.
So, if you were wondering can you make $1000 a month trading stocks? The answer is yes and you can make $1000 a day if you take the course I have taken.
Personally, I truly believe that spending the money on this online investing course is money better spent paying a financial advisor or paying for college.
Is Day trading worth It?
Can you make a living day trading?
Yes, it is very possible to make day trading a viable career path for you.
There are many benefits to being a day trader because you set your own hours. Since you are your own boss, you do not have to answer to anybody else. And in many cases, you could possibly work fewer hours than a regular salaried position.
On the flip side of being a day trader is you will have highs and lows. Until you fully grasp the concept that as a trader you will not win 100% of the time, you will struggle. In fact, most traders are probably executing trades with 50% wins and 50% are losses; that is what they call their batting average.
As an active trader, you must be careful to protect your account balance through the proper execution of risk management. (If you don’t understand this risk concept, then you must watch this video).
The goal for a day trader is to lose small amounts of money and reap a bigger reward of profit at the end of the day.
According to Glassdoor, the average day trader makes $71,260 a year. Thus, day trading is a very viable career because this is a higher potential than the average salaried $60000 per year that somebody else can provide for you.
Now, let’s break down how much does the average day trader make in days, weeks, and months.
The stock market is open for trading for about 252 days per year. This can fluctuate slightly based on holidays, Leap Year, or major events.
Average Trader Makes
Daily
$282.78
Weekly
$1,370.38
Monthly
$5,938.33
Yearly
$71,260.00
Your results will vary. Trade at your own risk.
Now, what if you love your job and just want to supplement your income with trading? That is completely possible and something many people do today.
Check out this person’s journey.
Serious About Learning How Fast You Can Earn Money In Stocks?
The stock market can be tricky. The stock market can be a beast to try to understand. That is why so many financial gurus are always making predictions and a very small handful actually pan out.
In the most simplistic form, a stock price is when a buyer and seller agree on a specific price. That price can move up and it can move down throughout the day. But at that particular moment in time, that is where the buyers and sellers agree on a price.
Once you move from a novice investor to a beginner investor to a good investor to an advanced investor, you are able to increase how fast you can potentially earn money.
The biggest mistake is to just jump into the market and start trading without any clue to what you are doing.
To have a greater probability of success, then you must take a top-notch investing course. The other option is to skip the cost of the course and lose even more in the stock market. Your choice.
I picked this top-notch investing course and am very happy with my decision. Thus, I highly recommend it to others who are serious about trading to supplement their income.
Check out my Trade and Travel Review – Join the $1000 in a Day Club!
If you don’t have cash for the full course upfront, just start with the basic Trade and Travel course. You can always upgrade to VIP once you begin profiting off the stock market and move to advanced trading strategies of shorting and options.
On top of that, you need to spend time practicing your trades in a simulated account; also known, as paper trading.
Practice everything you are learning from the course without losing money. You are trading with fake money until you can get the hang of day and swing trading.
Learn how the stocks move.
Learn how the market reacts.
Master your trading plan.
Refine your trading mindset.
Once you are comfortable and ready, then you can move on to a live trading account. That is where you actually start reaping what you have sown.
Day trading or swing trading is not a waste of time or a bad idea if you know how to execute properly and know your long term goal.
Plus it helps you find time freedom in your life.
Best Stocks to Invest in 2023
Are you trying to find the best stocks to invest in the current year? It may remind you of looking into an eight ball, taking your best guess, and then throwing a dart to hit a bullseye.
There are over 6000 stocks that trade on the NYSE & Nasdaq (source)!
That is a lot of companies to search through to find the best stocks for 2021. Typically, day traders look heavily on technology stocks and growth stocks.
So, how do you go along and pick the best stocks?
One option is to listen to the big financial gurus on TV or in the news telling you to buy this or that stock. They may have some good ideas, but they also may have a few misses. Plus those stocks may be at all time highs.
Another option is you copy what your friend has done. See the stocks they picked, and hopefully, you don’t get burned by a bad stock pick.
Look around your house and find products that you use and believe will continue to do better. (Buyer beware… your favorite products may not be the best stocks in their sector.)
If you truly want to be a savvy investor, then you need to find an easier way for you to pick stocks that fit within your financial portfolio. Even better to find stocks that align with your values and ethics.
More importantly, do this research without spending a ton of your own time!
If you are looking for the best stocks to invest in right now, you can use the Motley Fool’s services to help you pick the best stocks right now.
The other option is to do all of your due diligence and time picking your own company.
Personally, I use Motley Fool’s Stock Advisory. It is an easy way to start with a group of solid companies and less time for me to search out all other detailed information provided.
Is it possible to make a living trading stocks?
Most aspiring day traders will never become profitable. Even though this is the perfect early morning job.
Sad, but true.
That is because they do not have a system (aka trading plan) in place. They were not taught how to trade effectively, manage risk, and happily close a trade for a profit or a loss.
Unfortunately, trying to trade by the seat of your pants and whatever fits your fancy, will not work. The same goes for trading with you you hear on popular Reddit forums, Discord groups, or Twitter.
You have to know when to buy, how much to buy, what your risk tolerance is, when you plan to sell (win or lose), and your potential profit.
Just because you calculate a potential profit of $1,000 does not mean that it is a great trade since you may lose 3000 dollars to make that $1,000 profit happen. And in that case, that trade is not worth it.
There is a consensus out there that day trading is not worth it. Probably because those people lost a ton of money in the market because they were clueless on how to trade.
The question becomes are you willing to advance your knowledge more than the average person to make a living trading stocks.
To be successful at making money in stocks, you must understand how the market moves, be able to make solid decisions on buying or selling the stock or option.
If you struggle to make simple decisions on what you are going to have for dinner, then day trading might not be for you. So, stick with long-term investing with index funds.
If you have an inkling to add another type of income, then day trading or swing trading might be favorable for you. Or a desire of I don’t want to work anymore.
Day trading is a good idea if you are looking to change your personal finance situation and find freedom by increasing your net worth.
Think about how your life and how your stress level can be transformed by short term investing. What can you possibly accomplish by using the stock market as another stream of income?
I cannot stress enough that you must take a solid investing course.
Are you Ready to Make Money Fast in Stocks?
In conclusion, the real answer is yes, you can make money fast in the stock market. Even more when you have successful trade options (VIP level). The market comes with risk and you can also lose money fast in the stock market.
Yes, now is a good time to invest in stocks.
The determination will be decided by how much time you spend truly learning about how to make real money in the stock market.
If you’re following Twitter, discord, Reddit groups, or just following the trends, you may have some success, but it is not guaranteed for a long time.
If you have a proven reliable trading system, like I have taken I you can make the progress you need to start making real money in the stock market.
But remember, nothing is guaranteed.
Nothing that I have said in this post is a promise that you are guaranteed to make money in the stock market. All I’m saying is…it is possible.
You can learn how to make 300 dollars fast. Or even make 5000 fast.
You just have to put in the time, the dedication, and the desire to do it.
Just remember, do not start trading with real money until you have made significant progress in a simulated account and feel confident in your ability to make money in a live account.
You must be able to take money away from other people in the stock market and not have them steal your money.
LearnHow to Get Weekly Paychecks From The Stock Market
Trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. You should carefully consider whether trading is suitable for you in light of your circumstances, knowledge, and financial resources. You may lose all or more of your initial investment. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Your results will vary. Trade at your own risk.
Know someone else that needs this, too? Then, please share!!
Did the post resonate with you?
More importantly, did I answer the questions you have about this topic? Let me know in the comments if I can help in some other way!
Your comments are not just welcomed; they’re an integral part of our community. Let’s continue the conversation and explore how these ideas align with your journey towards Money Bliss.
Inside: Learn what 17 an hour is how much a year, month, and day. Plus tips to budget your money. Don’t miss the ways to increase your income.
You’re probably wondering if I made $17 a year, how much do I truly make? What will that add up to over the course of the year?
Is $17.00 a living wage?
Is this wage something that I can actually live on? Or do I need to find ways that I can increase my hourly wage?
In this post, we’re going to detail exactly what $17 an hour is how much a year. Also, we are going to break it down to know how much is made per month, bi-weekly, per week, and daily.
Then, you will know how much is 17 dollars an hour annually.
That will help you immensely with how you spend your money. Because too many times the hard-earned cash is brought home, but there is no actual plan for how to spend that money.
By taking a step ahead and making a plan for the money, you are better able to decide how you want to live, make sure that you put your money goals first, and not just living paycheck to paycheck struggling to survive.
The ultimate goal with money success is to be wise with how you spend your money.
If that is something you want to do, then keep reading. You are in the right place.
$17 an Hour is How Much a Year?
When we ran all of our numbers to figure out how much is $17 per hour is annually as a salary, we used the average working day of 40 hours a week.
40 hours x 52 weeks x $17 = $35,360
$35,360 is the gross annual salary with a $17 per hour wage.
As of June 2023, the average hourly wage is $33.58 (source).
Let’s breakdown how that number is calculated.
Typically, the average work week is 40 hours and you can work 52 weeks a year.
Take 40 hours times 52 weeks and that equals 2,080 working hours. Then, multiply the hourly salary of $17 times 2,080 working hours, and the result is $35,360.
Just between $35000 and $36000 is the salary for 17 dollars an hour is how much a year.
That number is the gross income before taxes, insurance, 401K or anything else is taken out. Net income is how much you deposit into your bank account.
Work Part Time?
But you may think, oh wait, I’m only working part time. So if you’re working part time, the assumption is working 20 hours a week at $17 an hour.
Only 20 hours per week?
Then, take 20 hours times 52 weeks and that equals 1,040 working hours. Then, multiply the hourly salary of $17 times 1,040 working hours, and the result is $17,680.
How Much is $17 Per Month?
On average, the monthly amount would average $2,947.
Annual Amount of $35,360 ÷ 12 months = $2,947 per month
Since some months have more days and fewer days like February, you can expect months with more days to have a bigger paycheck.
**Also, this can be heavily influenced by how often you are paid and on which days you get paid.
Work Part Time?
Only 20 hours per week. Then, the monthly amount would average $1,473.
How Much is $17 per Hour Per Week
This is a great number to know!
How much do I make each week? When I roll out of bed and do my job, what can I expect to make at the end of the week?
Once again, the assumption is 40 hours worked.
40 hours x $17 = $680 per week.
Work Part Time?
Only 20 hours per week. Then, the weekly amount would be $340.
Here are jobs that pay weekly.
How Much is $17 per Hour Bi-Weekly
For this calculation, take the average weekly pay of $680 and double it.
$680 per week x 2 = $1,360
Also, the other way to calculate this is:
40 hours x 2 weeks x $17 an hour = $1,360.
Work Part Time?
Only 20 hours per week. Then, the bi-weekly amount would be $680.
How Much is $17 Per Hour Per Day
This depends on how many hours you work in a day. For this example, we are going to use an eight-hour workday.
8 hours x $17 per hour = $136 per day.
If you work 10 hours a day for four days, then you would make $170 per day. (10 hours x $17 per hour)
Work Part Time?
Only 4 hours per day. Then, the daily amount would be $68.
This post may contain affiliate links, which helps us to continue providing relevant content and we receive a small commission at no cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read the full disclosure here.
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$17 Per Hour is…
$17 per Hour – Full Time
Total Income
Yearly (52 weeks)
$35,360
Yearly (50 weeks)
$34,000
Monthly (173 hours)
$2,947
Weekly (40 Hours)
$680
Bi-Weekly (80 Hours)
$1,360
Daily Wage (8 Hours)
$136
Net Estimated Monthly Income
$2,250
**These are assumptions based on simple scenarios.
Paid Time Off Earning 17 Dollars an Hour
Does your employer offer paid time off?
As an hourly employee, you may or may not get paid time off.
So, here are the scenarios for both cases.
For general purposes, we are going to assume you work 40 hours per week over the course of the year.
Case # 1 – With Paid Time Off
Most hourly employees get two weeks of paid time off which is equivalent to 2 weeks of paid time off.
In this case, you would make $35,360 per year.
This is the same as the example above for an annual salary making $17 per hour.
Case #2 – No Paid Time Off
Unfortunately, not all employers offer paid time off to their hourly employees. While that is unfortunate, it is best to plan for less income.
Life happens. There will be times you need to take time off for numerous reasons – sick time, handling an emergency, or even vacation.
So, let’s assume you take 2 weeks off without paid time off.
That means you would only work 50 weeks of the year instead of all 52 weeks.
Take 40 hours times 50 weeks and that equals 2,000 working hours. Then, multiply the hourly salary of $17 times 2,000 working hours, and the result is $34,000.
40 hours x 50 weeks x $17 = $34,000
You would average $136 per working day and nothing when you don’t work.
$17 an Hour is How Much a year After Taxes
Let’s be honest… Taxes can take up a big chunk of your paycheck. Thus, you need to know how taxes can affect your hourly wage.
Also, every single person’s tax situation is different.
On the basic level, let’s assume a 12% federal tax rate and a 4% state rate. Plus a percentage is taken out for Social Security and Medicare (FICA) of 7.65%.
Gross Annual Salary: $35,360
Federal Taxes of 12%: $4,243
State Taxes of 4%: $1,414
Social Security and Medicare of 7.65%: $2,705
$17 an Hour per Year after Taxes: $26,997
This would be your net annual salary after taxes.
To turn that back into an hourly wage, the assumption is working 2,080 hours.
$26,997 ÷ 2,080 hours = $12.98 per hour
After estimated taxes and FICA, you are netting $12.98 an hour. That is $4.02 an hour less than what you planned.
This is a very highlighted example and can vary greatly depending on your personal situation. Therefore, here is a great tool to help you figure out how much your net paycheck would be.
Plus budgeting on $12 an hour is much different.
$17 an Hour Salary
Now, you get to figure out how much you make based on your hours worked or if you make a wage between $17.01-17.99.
This is super helpful if you make $17.25 or $17.75.
You are probably wondering can I live on my own making 17 dollars an hour? How much rent can you afford at 17 an hour?
Using our Cents Plan Formula, this is the best-case scenario on how to budget your $17 per hour paycheck.
When using these percentages, it is best to use net income because taxes must be paid.
In this example, we calculated that $17 an hour was $12.98 after taxes. That would average $2,947 per month.
According to the Cents Plan Formula, here is the high-level view of a $17 per hour budget:
Basic Expenses of 50% = $1,124.89
Save Money of 20% = $449.96
Give Money of 10% = $224.98
Fun Spending of 20% = $449.96
Debt of 0% = $0
Obviously, that is not doable for everyone when living above the poverty line.
So, you have to be strategic in ways to decrease your basic expenses and debt. Then, it will allow you more money to save and fun spending.
Let’s further break down an example budget of $17 per hour using the ideal household percentages. This is extremely helpful and insightful for comparison.
recommended budget percentages based on $17 per hour wage:
Category
Ideal Percentages
Sample Monthly Budget
Giving
10%
$147
Savings
15-25%
$442
Housing
20-30%
$796
Utilities
4-7%
$147
Groceries
5-12%
$236
Clothing
1-4%
$29
Transportation
4-10%
$118
Medical
5-12%
$147
Life Insurance
1%
$15
Education
1-4%
$29
Personal
2-7%
$55
Recreation / Entertainment
3-8%
$88
Debts
0% – Goal
$0
Government Tax (including Income Taxes, Social Security & Medicare)
15-25%
$697
Total Gross Income
$2,947
**In this budget, prioritization was given to basic expenses. Thus, some categories like giving and saving were less.
A great way to lower your transportation costs is to buy a beater car.
Can I Live off $17 Per Hour?
Even living above the minimum wage by $5-6 can be a very difficult situation.
Is it doable? Absolutely.
You just have to be wiser (or frugal) with your money and how you spend the hard-earned cash you have been blessed with.
A lot of times when people are making under near the minimum wage mark or slightly above, they feel like they are in this constant cycle that they can never keep up.
They are not good enough to make more money.
Feel like they are constantly struggling to keep up with bills and expenses.
And things just keep adding on top.
You need to do is change your money mindset.
This is what you say to yourself… Okay, this is my season of life right now. I have aspirations and goals to change how much I make, but for now, I am going to make sure that I am able to live on my 17 dollars per hour. No going into debt for me.
In the next section, we will dig into ways to increase your income, but for now, is it possible to live on $17 an hour?
Yes, you can do it, and as you can see it is possible with the sample budget of $17 per hour.
Living in a higher cost of living area would be more difficult. So, you may have to get a little creative. For example, you might have to have a roommate. Move to a lower cost of living area where rent is cheaper.
Also, you must evaluate your “fun spending” items. Many of those expenses are not mandatory and will break your budget. You can find plenty of free things to do without spending money.
5 Ways to Increase Your Hourly Wage
This right here is the most important section of this post.
You need to figure out ways to increase your hourly income because I’m going to tell you…you deserve more. You do a good job and your value is higher than what your employers pay you.
Even an increase of 50 cents to $17.50 will add up over the year. An increase to $18 an hour is even better!
1. Ask for a Raise
The first thing to do is ask for a raise. Walk right in and ask for a raise because you never know what the answer will be until you ask.
If you want the best tips on how specifically to ask for a raise and what the average wage is for somebody doing your job, then check out this book.
In this book, the author gives you the exact way to increase your income. The purchase is worth it or go down to the library and check that book out.
2. Look for A New Job
Another way to increase your hourly wage is to look for a new job. Maybe a completely new industry.
It might be a total change for you, but many times, if you want to change your financial situation, then that starts with a career change. Maybe you’re stressed out at work.
Making $17 an hour is too much for you and you’re not able to enjoy life, maybe changing jobs and finding another job may increase your pay, but it will also increase your quality of life.
Maybe pick up an early morning job?
3. Find a New Career
Because of student loans, too many employees feel like they are stuck in the career field they chose. They feel sucked into the job that they don’t like or have the potential they thought it would.
For many years, I was in the same situation until I decided to do a complete career change. I am glad I did. I have the flexibility that I needed in my life to do what I wanted when I needed to do it. Plus I am able to enjoy my entrepreneurial spirit.
It is important to uncover what should I do for a living.
4. Find Alternative Ways to Make Money
In today’s society, you need to find ways to make more money. Period.
There is no way to get around it. You need to find additional income outside a traditional nine to five position or typical 40 hour a week job.
You will reach a point where you are maxed on what you can make in your current position or title. There may be some advancement to move forward, but in many cases, there just is not much room for growth.
So, you need to find a side hustle – another way to make money.
Do something that you enjoy, turn your hobby into a way to make money, turn something that you naturally do, and help others into a service business. In today’s society, the sky is the limit on how you can earn a freelancing income.
5. Earn Passive Income
The last way to increase your hourly wage is to start earning passive income.
This can be from a variety of ways including the stock market, real estate, online courses, book sales, etc. This is where the differentiation between struggling financially and being financially sound.
By earning money passively, you are able to do the things that you enjoy doing and not be loaded down, with having a job that you need to work, and a place that you have to go to. And you still make money doing nothing.
Here is an example:
You can start a brokerage account and start trading stocks for $50. You need to learn and take the one and only investing class I recommend. Learn how the market works, watch videos, and practice in a simulator before you start using your own money.
One gentleman started with $5,000 in his trading account and now has well over $36,000 in a year. Just from practice and being consistent, he has learned that passive income is the way for him to increase his income and also not be a slave to his job.
Tips to Live on 17 an Hour Salary
In this last section, grasp these tips on how to live on $17 an hour. On our site, you can find lots of money saving tips to help stretch your income further.
Here are the most important tips to live on $17 an hour. Highlight these!
1. Spend Less Than You Make
First, you must learn to spend less than you make.
If not you will be caught in the debt cycle and that is not where you want to be. You will be consistently living paycheck to paycheck.
In order to break that dreadful cycle, it means your expenses must be less than your income.
And when I say income, it’s not the $17 an hour.
As we talked about earlier in the post, there are taxes. The amount of taxes taken out of your paycheck is called your net income which is $17 an hour minus all the taxes, FICA, Social Security, and Medicare are taken out. That is your net income.
So, your net income has to be less than your gross income.
2. Living Below Your Means
You need to be happy. And living on less can actually make you happier. Studies prove that less is better.
Finding contentment in life is one thing that is a struggle for most.
We are driven to want the new shiny toy, the thing next door, the stuff your friend or family member got. Our society has trained you that you need these things as well.
Have you ever taken a step back and looked at what you really need?
Once you are able to find contentment with life, then you are going to be set for the long term with your finances.
Here is our story on owning less stuff. We have been happier since.
Learn how to live below your means.
3. Make Saving Money Fun
You need to make saving money fun. If you’re good, since you must keep your expenses low, you have to find ways to make your savings fun!
It could be participating in a no spend challenge for the month.
Participate in the 100 envelope challenge.
It could be challenging friends not to go to Target for a week.
Maybe changing your habits and not picking up takeout and planning meals.
Whatever it is challenge yourself.
Find new ways of saving money and have fun with it.
Even better, get your family and kids involved in the challenge to save money. Tell them the reason why you are saving money and this is what you are doing.
Here are things to do with no money. Free activities without costing you a dime. That is an amazing resource for you and you will never be bored.
And you will learn a lot of things in life you can do for free. Personally, some of the best ones are getting outside and enjoying some fresh air.
4. Make More Money
If you want if you do not settle for less, then find ways to make more money. If you want more out of life, then increase your income.
You need to be an advocate for yourself.
Find ways to make more money.
It could be a side hustle, a second job, asking for a raise, going to school to change careers, or picking up extra hours.
Whatever path you take, that’s fine. Just find ways to make more money. Period.
5. No State Taxes
Paying taxes is one option to increase what you take home in each paycheck.
These are the states that don’t pay state income taxes on wages:
Alaska
Florida
Nevada
New Hampshire
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Washington
Wyoming
It is very interesting if you take into account the amount of state taxes paid compared to a state with income taxes.
Also, if you live in one of the higher taxed states, then you may want to reconsider moving to a lower cost of living area.
The higher taxes income tax states include California, Hawaii, New Jersey, Oregon, Minnesota, the District of Columbia, New York, Vermont, Iowa, and Wisconsin. These states tax income somewhere between 7.65% – 13.3%.
6. Stick to a Budget
You need to learn how to start a budget. We have tons of budgeting resources for you.
While creating a budget is great, you need to learn how to use one.
You do not have to budget down to every last penny.
You need to make sure your expenses are less than your income and that you are creating sinking funds for those irregular expenses.
Budget Help:
7. Pay Off Debt Quickly
The amount that you pay interest on debt is absolutely absurd.
Unfortunately, that is how many of these companies make their money is from the interest you pay on debt.
If you are paying 5% to even 20-21% or higher, you need to find ways to lower that debt quickly.
Here’s a debt calculator to help you. Figure out your debt free date.
Make that paying off debt fast is your target and main focus. I can tell you from personal experience, that it was not until we paid off our debt that we finally rounded the corner financially. Once our debt was paid off, we could finally be able to save money. Set money aside in separate bank accounts and pay for cash for things.
It took us working hard to pay off debt. We needed persistence and patience while we had setbacks in our debt free journey.
Here are resources now for you to pay off your debt:
Jobs that Pay $17 an Hour
You can find jobs that pay $17 per hour. Polish up that resume, cover letter, and interview skills.
Job Search Hint: Always send a written follow-up thank you note for your interview. That will help you get noticed and remembered.
First, look at the cities that require a minimum wage in their cities. That is the best place to start to find jobs that are going to pay higher than the federal minimum wage rate. Many of the cities are moving towards this model so, target and look for jobs in those areas.
Possible Ideas:
Administrative assistant
Customer service representatives
Housecleaning specialist
Delivery drivers
Warehouse workers
Companies that pay more than $17 per hour: Charter Communications, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JP Morgan. (there are more in HCOL areas only)
$17 Per Hour Annual Salary
In this post, we detailed 17 an hour is how much a year. Plus all of the variables that can impact your net income.
17 dollars an hour is how much a year…
$35,360
This is just above $35,000 per year. In this post, we highlighted ways to increase your income as well as tips for living off your wage.
Use the sample budget as a starting point with your expenses.
You will have to be savvy and wise with your hard-earned income. But, with a plan, anything is possible!
Learn exactly how much do I make per year…
Know someone else that needs this, too? Then, please share!!
Did the post resonate with you?
More importantly, did I answer the questions you have about this topic? Let me know in the comments if I can help in some other way!
Your comments are not just welcomed; they’re an integral part of our community. Let’s continue the conversation and explore how these ideas align with your journey towards Money Bliss.
Inside: Learn $40000 a year is how much an hour. Plus find a 40k salary budget to live the lifestyle you want.
You want to know if a 40k salary is a solid hourly wage? At first glance, you may think so.
When you get your first job and you are making just above minimum wage making over $40,000 a year seems like it would provide amazing opportunities for you. Right?
The median household income was $70,084 in 2021 not much different from the previous year (source). Think of it as a bell curve with $70 at the top; the median means half of the population makes less than that and half makes more money.
The average income in the U.S. is $55,350 for a 40-hour workweek; that is an increase of 1.1% from the previous year (source). That means if you take everyone’s income and divide the money out evenly between all of the people.
But, the question remains can you truly live off 40,000 per year in today’s society since it is below both the average and median household incomes. The question you want to ask all of your friends is $40000 per year a good salary.
In this post, we are going to dive into everything that you need to know about a $40000 salary including hourly pay and a sample budget on how to spend and save your money.
These key facts will help you with money management and learn how much per hour $40k is as well as what you make per month, weekly, and biweekly.
Just like with any paycheck, it seems like money quickly goes out of your account to cover all of your bills and expenses, and you are left with a very small amount remaining. You may be disappointed that you were not able to reach your financial goals and you are left wondering…
Can I make a living on this salary?
$40000 a year is How Much an Hour?
When jumping from an hourly job to a salary for the first time, it is helpful to know how much is 40k a year hourly. That way you can decide whether or not the job is worthwhile for you.
For our calculations to figure out how much is 40K salary hourly, we used the average five working days of 40 hours a week.
40000 salary / 2080 hours = $19.23 per hour
$40000 a year is $19.23 per hour
Let’s breakdown how that 40000 salary to hourly number is calculated.
Typically, the average workweek is 40 hours and you can work 52 weeks a year. Take 40 hours times 52 weeks and that equals 2,080 working hours. Then, divide the yearly salary of $40000 by 2,080 working hours and the result is $19.23 per hour.
Just above $19 an hour.
That number is the gross hourly income before taxes, insurance, 401K, or anything else is taken out. Net income is how much you deposit into your bank account.
You must check with your employer on how they plan to pay you. For those on salary, typically companies pay on a monthly, semi-monthly, biweekly, or weekly basis.
What if I Increased my Salary?
Just an interesting note… if you were to increase your annual salary by $5K, it would increase your hourly wage to over $21 an hour – a difference of $2.40 per hour.
To break it down – 45k a year is how much an hour = $21.63
That difference will help you fund your savings account; just remember every dollar adds up.
This post may contain affiliate links, which helps us to continue providing relevant content and we receive a small commission at no cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read the full disclosure here.
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How Much is $40K salary Per Month?
On average, the monthly amount would be $3,333.
Annual Salary of $40,000 ÷ 12 months = $3,333 per month
This is how much you make a month if you get paid 40000 a year.
$40k a year is how much a week?
This is a great number to know! How much do I make each week? When I roll out of bed and do my job of $40k salary a year, how much can I expect to make at the end of the week for my effort?
Once again, the assumption is 40 hours worked.
Annual Salary of$40000/52 weeks = $769 per week.
Find jobs that pay weekly.
$40000 a year is how much biweekly?
For this calculation, take the average weekly pay of $769 and double it.
This depends on how many hours you work in a day. For this example, we are going to use an eight-hour workday.
8 hours x 52 weeks = 260 working days
Annual Salary of$40000 / 260 working days = $154 per day
If you work a 10 hour day on 208 days throughout the year, you make $192 per day.
$40000 Salary is…
$40000 – Full Time
Total Income
Yearly Salary(52 weeks)
$40,000
Monthly Wage
$3,333
Weekly Salary(40 Hours)
$769
Bi-Weekly Wage (80 Hours)
$1,538
Daily Wage (8 Hours)
$154
Daily Wage (10 Hours)
$192
Hourly Wage
$19.23
Net Estimated Monthly Income
$2545
Net Estimated Hourly Income
$14.68
**These are assumptions based on simple scenarios.
40k a year is how much an hour after taxes
Income taxes is one of the biggest culprits of reducing your take-home pay as well as FICA and Social Security. This is a true fact across the board with an all salary range up to $142,800.
When you make below the average household income, the amount of taxes taken out hurts your hourly wage.
Every single tax situation is different.
On the basic level, let’s assume a 12% federal tax rate and 4% state rate. Plus a percentage is taken out for Social Security and Medicare (FICA) of 7.65%.
So, how much an hour is 40000 a year after taxes?
Gross Annual Salary: $40,000
Federal Taxes of 12%: $4,800
State Taxes of 4%: $1,600
Social Security and Medicare of 7.65%: $3,060
$40k Per Year After Taxes is $30,540.
This would be your net annual salary after taxes.
Hourly Rate After Taxes
To turn that back into an hourly wage, the assumption is working 2,080 hours.
$30,540 ÷ 2,080 hours = $14.68 per hour
After estimated taxes and FICA, you are netting $30,540 per year, which is $9,460 per year less than what you expect.
***This is a very high-level example and can vary greatly depending on your personal situation and potential deductions. Therefore, here is a great tool to help you figure out how much your net paycheck would be.***
In addition, if you live in a heavily taxed state like California or New York, then you have to pay way more money than somebody who lives in a no-tax state like Texas or Florida. This is the debate of HCOL vs LCOL.
Thus, your yearly gross $40000 income can range from $27,840 to $32,140 depending on your state income taxes.
That is why it is important to realize the impact income taxes can have on your take home pay. It is one of those things that you should acknowledge and obviously, you need to pay taxes. But, it can also put a huge dent in your ability to live the lifestyle you want on a $40,000 income.
how much is 40k a year hourly Salary Calculator
More than likely, your salary is not a flat 40k, here is a tool to convert your salary to hourly calculator.
Many teachers start at this range, which may make you wonder do teachers get paid in the summer? And the best summer jobs for teachers!
Every person reading this post has a different upbringing and a different belief system about money. Therefore, what would be a lavish lifestyle to one person, maybe a frugal lifestyle to another person? And there’s no wrong or right, it is what works best for you.
One of the biggest factors to consider is your cost of living.
In another post, we detailed the differences between living in an HCOL vs LCOL vs MCOL area. When you live in big cities, trying to maintain your lifestyle of $40,000 a year is going to be much more difficult because your basic expenses, housing, transportation, food, and clothing are going to be much more expensive than you would find in a lower cost area.
To stretch your dollar further in the high cost of living area, you would have to probably live a very frugal lifestyle and prioritize where you want to spend money and where you do not. Whereas, if you live in a low cost of living area, you can live a much more lavish lifestyle because the cost of living is less. Thus, you have more fun spending left in your account each month.
As we noted earlier in the post, $40,000 a year is below the average income that you would find in the United States. Thus, you have to be wise with how you spend your money.
What a $40,000 lifestyle will buy you:
If you are debt free and utilize smart money management skills, then you are able to enjoy the lifestyle you want.
You are able to rent in a decent neighborhood in LCOL and maybe even MCOL city.
Focus on becoming financially sound.
You should be able to meet your expenses each and every month.
Ability to make sure that saving money is a priority, and very possibly save $3000 in 52 weeks.
When A $40,000 Salary Will Hold you Back:
However, if you are riddled with debt or unable to break the paycheck to paycheck cycle, then living off of 40k a year is going to be pretty darn difficult.
There are two factors that will keep holding you back:
You must pay off debt and cut all fun spending and extra expenses.
Break the paycheck to paycheck cycle.
It is possible to get ahead with money!
It just comes with proper money management skills and a desire to have less stress around money. That is a winning combination regardless of your income level.
$40K a year Budget – Example
As always, here at Money Bliss, we focus on covering our basic expenses plus saving and giving first, and then our goal is to eliminate debt. The rest of the money is left for fun spending.
This is how zero based budgeting works.
If you want to know how to manage 40k salary the best, then this is a prime example for you to compare your spending.
You can compare your budget to the ideal household budget percentages.
recommended budget percentages based on $40000 a year salary:
Category
Ideal Percentages
Sample Monthly Budget
Giving
10%
$200
Savings
15-25%
$600
Housing
20-30%
$800
Utilities
4-7%
$133
Groceries
5-12%
$233
Clothing
1-4%
$33
Transportation
4-10%
$167
Medical
5-12%
$167
Life Insurance
1%
$17
Education
1-4%
$33
Personal
2-7%
$62
Recreation / Entertainment
3-8%
$100
Debts
0% – Goal
$0
Government Tax (including Income Taxes, Social Security & Medicare)
15-25%
$788
Total Gross Monthly Income
$3,333
**In this budget, prioritization was given to basic expenses and no debt.
Is $40,000 a year a Good Salary?
As we stated earlier if you are able to make $40,000 a year, that is a decent salary. You are making more money than the minimum wage and close to double in many cities.
While 40000 is a good salary starting out in your working years. It is a salary that you want to increase before your expenses go up or the people you provide for increase.
However, too many times people get stuck in the lifestyle trap of trying to keep up with the Joneses, and their lifestyle desires get out of hand compared to their salary. And what they thought used to be a great salary actually is not making ends meet at this time.
This $40k salary would be considered a lower middle class salary. This salary is something that you can live on if you are wise with money.
Check: Are you in the middle class?
In fact, this income level in the United States has enough buying power to put you in the top 95 percentile globally for per person income (source).
The question you need to ask yourself with your 40k salary is:
Am I maxed at the top of my career?
Is there more income potential?
What obstacles do I face if I want to try to increase my income?
In the future years and with possible inflation, in many modest cities, 40000 a year will not be a good salary because the cost of living is so high, whereas these are some of the cities where you can make a comfortable living at 40,000 per year.
If you are looking for a career change, you want to find jobs paying at least $55000 a year.
Is 40k a good salary for a Single Person?
Simply put, yes.
You can stretch your salary much further because you are only worried about your own expenses. A single person will spend much less than if you need to provide for someone else.
Your living expenses and ideal budget are much less. Thus, you can live extremely comfortably on $40000 per year.
And… most of us probably regret how much money wasted when we were single. Oh well, lesson learned.
Is 40k a good salary for a family?
Many of the same principles apply above on whether $40000 is a good salary. The main difference with a family, you have more people to provide for than when you are single or have just one other person in your household.
The costs of raising children are high and will steeply cut into your income. As you can tell this is a huge dent in your income, specifically $12,980 annually per child.
That means that amount of money is coming out of the income that you earned.
So, the question really remains… Can you provide a good life for your family making $50,000 a year? This is the hardest part because each family has different choices, priorities, and values.
More or less, it comes down to two things:
The location where you live in.
Your lifestyle choices.
You can live comfortably as a family on this salary, but you will not be able to afford everything.
Many times when raising a family, it is helpful to have a dual-income household. That way you are able to provide the necessary expenses if both parties were making 40,000 per year, then the combined income for the household would be $80,000. Thus making your combined salary a very good income.
Learn how much money a family of 4 needs in each state.
Can you Live on $40000 Per Year?
As we outlined earlier in the post, $40,000 a year:
$19.23 Per Hour
$154-192 Per Day (depending on the length of day worked)
$769 Per Week
$1,538 Per Biweekly
$3,333 Per Month
Next up is making $43000 a year.
Like anything else in life, you get to decide how to spend, save and give your money.
That is the difference for each person on whether or not you can live a middle-class lifestyle depends on many potential factors. If you live in California or New Jersey you are gonna have a tougher time than Oklahoma or even Texas.
In addition, if you are early in your career, starting out around 39,000 a year, that is a great place to be getting your career. However, if you have been in your career for over 20 years and still making $40K, then you probably need to look at asking for pay increases, picking up a second job, or finding a different career path.
Regardless of the wage that you make, if you are not able to live the lifestyle that you want, then you have to find ways to make it work for you. Everybody has choices to make.
But one of the things that can help you the most is to stick to learning to budget by paycheckto make sure you stay on track.
Learn exactly how much do I make per year…
One of the best ways to improve your personal finance situation is to increase your income. Here are a variety of side hustles that are very lucrative. With time and effort, you can start enjoying the lifestyle you want.
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
This is the perfect side hustle if you don’t have much time, experience, or money.
Many earn over $10,000 in a year selling printables on Etsy. Learn how to get started by watching this free workshop.
Are you passionate about words and reading?
If so, proofreading could be a perfect fit for you, just like it’s been for countless of readers! Learn how you can create a freelance business as a proofreader.
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Bookkeeping is the most stable, reliable & simple business to own. This is how to make a realistic income -either part-time or full-time.
Find out TODAY if this is THE business you’ve been looking for.
You can make money as a freelance writer. Learn techniques to find those jobs and earn the kind of money you deserve! Plus get tips to land your first freelance writing gig!
Learn how to buy and resell items from flea markets, thrift stores and yard sales. They will teach you how to create a profitable reselling business quickly
…no matter how much or how little experience you have.
Learn how to supplement your daily, weekly, or monthly income with trading so that you can live your best life! This is a lifestyle trading style you need to learn.
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Know someone else that needs this, too? Then, please share!!
Did the post resonate with you?
More importantly, did I answer the questions you have about this topic? Let me know in the comments if I can help in some other way!
Your comments are not just welcomed; they’re an integral part of our community. Let’s continue the conversation and explore how these ideas align with your journey towards Money Bliss.
Inside: Learn what 50 an hour is how much a year, month, and day. Plus tips to budget your money. Don’t miss the ways to increase your income.
You’re probably wondering if I made $50 a year, how much do I truly make? What will that add up to over the course of the year when working?
Is my $50 an hour take home pay comparable to others in my industry? Is $50 an hour paycheck a good salary?
First of all, this is a wage you can actually live on and should be able to thrive and reach your financial goals. Annually $50 an hour should help you to breathe easier with your finances. You might wonder how can I start to increase my hourly wage to $55, $60, or $65 per hour?
Most of the hourly jobs that pay over $50 an hour do not require a degree, which is great news! Those paid on a salary basis tend to have a college degree and do not even calculate their hourly wage.
In this post, we’re going to detail exactly what $50 an hour is how much a year. Also, we are going to break it down to know how much is made per month, bi-weekly, per week, and daily.
That will help you immensely with how you spend your money. Because too many times the hard-earned cash is brought home, but there is no actual plan for how to spend that money.
By taking a step ahead and making a plan for the money, you are better able to decide how you want to live, make sure that you put your money goals first, and not just living paycheck to paycheck struggling to survive.
The ultimate goal with money success is to be wise with how you spend your money.
If that is something you want too, then keep reading. You are in the right place.
$50 an Hour is How Much a Year?
When we ran all of our numbers to figure out how much is $50 per hour is as an annual salary, we used the average working day of 40 hours a week.
40 hours x 52 weeks x $50 = $104,000
$104,000 is the gross annual salary with a $50 per hour wage.
As of June 2023, the average hourly wage is $33.58 (source).
Let’s Break Down Of 50 Dollars An Hour Is How Much A Year
Typically, the average workweek is 40 hours and you can work 52 weeks a year. Take 40 hours times 52 weeks and that equals 2,080 working hours. Then, multiply the hourly salary of $50 times 2,080 working hours, and the result is $104,000.
That number is the gross income before taxes, insurance, 401K, or anything else is taken out. Net income is how much you deposit into your bank account.
You cross the 6 figure salary, which is a huge step with your income! That is way higher than the average $60000 salary threshold, which is desired to become middle-income worker.
Work Part Time?
But you may think, oh wait, I’m only working part-time. So if you’re working part-time, the assumption is working 20 hours a week at $50 an hour.
Only 20 hours per week. Then, take 20 hours times 52 weeks and that equals 1,040 working hours. Then, multiply the hourly salary of $50 times 1,040 working hours and the result is $52,000.
How Much is $50 Per Month?
On average, the monthly amount would average $8,667.
Annual Amount of $104,000 ÷ 12 months = $8,667 per month
Since some months have more days and fewer days like February, you can expect months with more days to have a bigger paycheck. Also, this can be heavily influenced by how often you are paid and on which days you get paid.
This helps a financially stable person manage their finances without a bunch of stress. And if you are making $100k a year and still stressing about money, then you need to learn to drastically cut your expenses.
Work Part Time?
Only 20 hours per week. Then, the monthly amount would average $4,333.
How Much is $50 per Hour Per Week
This is a great number to know! How much do I make each week? When I roll out of bed and do my job, what can I expect to make at the end of the week?
Once again, the assumption is 40 hours worked.
40 hours x $50 = $2,000 per week.
Work Part Time?
Only 20 hours per week. Then, the weekly amount would be $1000.
How Much is $50 per Hour Bi-Weekly
For this calculation, take the average weekly pay of $2,000 and double it.
$2,000 per week x 2 = $4,000
Also, the other way to calculate this is:
40 hours x 2 weeks x $50 an hour = $4,000
Work Part Time?
Only 20 hours per week. Then, the bi-weekly amount would be $2,000.
How Much is $50 Per Hour Per Day
This depends on how many hours you work in a day. For this example, we are going to use an eight-hour workday.
8 hours x $50 per hour = $400 per day.
If you work 10 hours a day for four days, then you would make $500 per day. (10 hours x $50 per hour)
Work Part Time?
Only 4 hours per day. Then, the daily amount would be $200.
This post may contain affiliate links, which helps us to continue providing relevant content and we receive a small commission at no cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read the full disclosure here.
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It’s been done over and over again, and the 30,000 students that Teri has helped to be financially independent and fulfill their financial dreams are my witnesses…
$50 Per Hour is…
$50 per Hour – Full Time
Total Income
Yearly Salary (52 weeks)
$104,000
Yearly Wage (50 weeks)
$100,000
Monthly Salary (173 hours)
$8,667
Weekly Wage (40 Hours)
$2,000
Bi-Weekly Wage (80 Hours)
$4,000
Daily Wage (8 Hours)
$400
Net Estimated Monthly Income
$6,617
**These are assumptions based on simple scenarios.
Paid Time Off Earning 50 Dollars an Hour
Does your employer offer paid time off?
As an hourly employee, you may or may not get paid time off.
So, here are the scenarios for both cases.
For general purposes, we are going to assume you work 40 hours per week over the course of the year.
Case # 1 – With Paid Time Off
Most hourly employees get two weeks of paid time off which is equivalent to 2 weeks of paid time off.
In this case, you would make $104,000 per year.
This is the same as the example above for an annual salary making $50 per hour.
Case #2 – No Paid Time Off
Unfortunately, not all employers offer paid time off to their hourly employees. While that is unfortunate, it is best to plan for less income.
Life happens. There will be times you need to take time off for numerous reasons – sick time, handling a family emergency, or even vacation.
So, let’s assume you take 2 weeks off without paid time off.
That means you would only work 50 weeks of the year instead of all 52 weeks. Take 40 hours times 50 weeks and that equals 2,000 working hours. Then, multiply the hourly salary of $50 times 2,000 working hours, and the result is $100,000.
40 hours x 50 weeks x $50 = $100,000
You would average $400 per working day and nothing when you don’t work.
$50 an Hour is How Much a year After Taxes
Let’s be honest… Taxes can take up a big chunk of your paycheck. Thus, you need to know how taxes can affect your hourly wage.
Also, every single person’s tax situation is different.
On the basic level, let’s assume a 12% federal tax rate and a 4% state rate. Plus a percentage is taken out for Social Security and Medicare (FICA) of 7.65%.
Gross Annual Salary: $104,000
Federal Taxes of 12%: $12,480
State Taxes of 4%: $4,160
Social Security and Medicare of 7.65%: $7,956
$50 an Hour per Year after Taxes: $79,404
This would be your net annual salary after taxes.
To turn that back into an hourly wage, the assumption is working 2,080 hours.
$79,404 ÷ 2,080 hours = $38.18 per hour
After estimated taxes and FICA, you are netting $38.18 an hour. That is $11.83 an hour less than what you thought you were paid.
This is a very highlighted example and can vary greatly depending on your personal situation. Therefore, here is a great tool to help you figure out how much your net paycheck would be.
Plus budgeting for under $38 an hour wage is much different.
$50 An Hour Salary Calculator
Now, you get to figure out how much you make based on your hours worked or if you make a wage between $50.01-50.99.
This is super helpful if you make $50.15, $50.45, or $55.90.
Plus many of the best paying jobs in real estate investment trusts pay in this range.
You are probably wondering can I live on my own making 50 dollars an hour? How much rent or mortgage payment can you afford on 50 an hour?
Using our Cents Plan Formula, this is the best-case scenario on how to budget your $50 per hour paycheck.
When using these percentages, it is best to use net income because taxes must be paid.
In this example, we calculated $50 an hour was $38.18 after taxes. That would average $6,617 per month.
According to the Cents Plan Formula, here is the high-level view of a $50 per hour budget:
Basic Expenses of 50% = $3308.50
Save Money of 20% = $1323.40
Give Money of 10% = $661.70
Fun Spending of 20% = $1323.40
Debt of 0% = $0
Can You Make These Percentages?
For someone making over $100K gross annually, this is completely doable assuming there is no debt involved. The risk most people find themselves in is lifestyle creep and keeping up with the Joneses.
You can be strategic with your saving and investing to quickly become the millionaire next door. Then, that will allow a level of time freedom you have never experienced.
To further break down an example budget of $50 per hour, then using the ideal household percentages is extremely helpful.
recommended budget percentages based on $50 per hour wage:
Category
Ideal Percentages
Sample Monthly Budget
Giving
10%
$693
Savings
15-25%
$1733
Housing
20-30%
$1820
Utilities
4-7%
$347
Groceries
5-12%
$607
Clothing
1-4%
$65
Transportation
4-10%
$347
Medical
5-12%
$443
Life Insurance
1%
$43
Education
1-4%
$87
Personal
2-7%
$160
Recreation / Entertainment
3-8%
$282
Debts
0% – Goal
$0
Government Tax (including Income Taxes, Social Security & Medicare)
15-25%
$2050
Total Gross Income
$8,667
**This is a sample budget. You can adjust your categories based on your personal situation.
Learn how much house can I afford with 100k salary.
Can I Live off $50 Per Hour?
At this $50 hourly wage, you are making more than $100K per year. So yes, you should thrive on this annual salary.
This is well over the median income of $60,000 salary. That means you should be able to increase your savings percentage each year and live better than 80% of the world.
The question is, are you? Or are you straddled in debt? Struggling and living paycheck to paycheck?
Unfortunately, too many people are still struggling even though they are making nearly 4x the minimum wage.
Should living on $100K be doable? Absolutely.
Don’t be caught in a tough situation. You need to live below your means. If not, you are wasting too much of your hard-earned cash.
Can you truly live off $50 an hour annually?
Just like any wage… you must spend less than your income. Plus consistently save.
If you are constantly struggling to keep up with bills and expenses, then you need to break that constant cycle. It is possible to be smart with money.
Your mindset is everything.
This is what you say to yourself… Okay, I am blessed to make more than the average worker. So, I must live on that paycheck or find ways to start diversifying my income into multiple streams and start investing. Then, I am going to give back to what helped me to get where I am today.
In the next section, we will dig into ways to increase and diversify your income, but for now, is it possible to thrive on $50 an hour?
Yes, you can do it, and as you can see it is possible with the sample budget of $50 per hour.
Living in a higher cost of living area would be more difficult. So, you may have to get a little creative. For example, you might have to have a roommate. Move to a lower cost of living area where rent is cheaper.
Also, you must evaluate your “fun spending” items. Many of those expenses are not mandatory and will break your budget. You can find plenty of free things to do without spending money.
5 Ways to Increase Your Annual Salary
This right here is the most important section of this post.
Even though, you are making good money. You might have reached a maximum ceiling of income in your field. You may need to change companies.
More often than not, you need to find ways to diversify your income. One type of income will get you far in your personal finance journey, but to truly see faster progress you need multiple streams of income.
Finding ways to increase your monthly pay by $500 or $1000 will add up over the year.
1. Find Alternative Ways to Make Money
In today’s society, you need to find ways to make more money. Period.
There is no way to get around it. You need to find additional income outside a traditional nine-to-five position or typical 40 hour a week job. You will reach a point where you are maxed on what you can make in your current position or title. There may be some advancement to move forward, but in many cases, there just is not much room for growth.
So, you need to find a side hustle – another way to make money.
Do something that you enjoy, turn your hobby into a way to make money, turn something that you naturally do, and help others into a service business. In today’s society, the sky is the limit on how you can earn a freelancing income.
Must Read: 20 Genius Ways on How to Make Money Fast
2. Earn Passive Income
This can be from a variety of ways including the stock market, real estate, online courses, book sales, etc. This is where the differentiation between struggling financially and becoming financially stable.
By earning money passively, you are able to do the things that you enjoy doing and not be loaded down, with having a job that you need to work, and a place that you have to go to. And you still make money doing nothing.
Here is an example:
You can start a brokerage account and start trading stocks for $50. You need to learn and take the one and only investing class I recommend. Learn how the market works, watch videos, and practice in a simulator before you start using your own money.
One gentleman started with $5,000 in his trading account and now has well over $36,000 in less than a year. Just from practice and being consistent, he has learned that passive income is the way for him to increase his income and also not be a slave to his job.
Related Reading: How Fast Can you Make Money in Stocks? The Real Answer
3. Become a Freelancer
When you make $50 an hour, you are good at your job. You know what you are doing and people are willing to pay you for it.
Pick up side jobs and spend your free time as a freelancer.
This is one of the best ways to make extra money without a lot of upfront effort or costs.
I know plenty of people who make a living as freelance writers.
The options are endless if you are willing to think outside of the box.
4. Ask for a Raise
The first thing to do is ask for a raise. Walk right in and ask for a raise because you never know what the answer will be until you ask.
If you want the best tips on how specifically to ask for a raise and what the average wage is for somebody doing your job, then check out this book. In this book, the author gives you the exact way to increase your income. The purchase is worth it or go down to the library and check that book out.
If that does not pan out, then look for a new job. Maybe a completely new industry.
It might be a total change for you, but many times, if you want to change your financial situation, then that starts with a career change. Maybe you’re stressed out at work. Making $50 an hour isn’t worth it for you if you’re not able to enjoy life; maybe changing jobs and finding another job may increase your pay, but it will also increase your quality of life.
5. Find a New Career
Because of student loans, too many employees feel like they are stuck in the career field they chose. They feel sucked into the job that they don’t like or have the potential they thought it would.
I was in the same situation for many years until I decided to make a complete career change. I am glad I did. I have the flexibility that I needed in my life to do what I wanted when I needed to do it. Plus I am able to enjoy my entrepreneurial spirit.
Tips to Live on $50 an Hour
In this last section, grasp these tips on how to live on $50 an hour. On our site, you can find lots of money saving tips to help stretch your income further.
Here are the most important tips to live on $50 an hour. More importantly stretch how much you make, in case you are in the “I don’t want to work anymore” mindset. Highlight these!
1. Spend Less Than you Make
First, you must learn to spend less than you make.
If not you will be caught in the debt cycle and that is not where you want to be. You will be consistently living paycheck to paycheck.
In order to break that dreadful cycle, it means your expenses must be less than your income.
And when I say income, it’s not the $50 an hour. As we talked about earlier in the post, there are taxes. The amount of taxes taken out of your paycheck is called your net income which is $50 an hour minus all the taxes, FICA, social security, and Medicare is taken out. That is your net income.
So, your net income has to be less than your net income. Learn the difference between gross pay vs net pay.
2. Living Below Your Means
You need to be happy. And living on less can make you happier. Studies prove that less is better.
Finding contentment in life is one thing that is a struggle for most.
We are driven to want the new shiny toy, the thing next door, the stuff your friend or family member got. Our society has trained you that you need these things as well.
Have you ever taken a step back and looked at what you really need?
Once you can find contentment with life, then you are going to be set for the long term with your finances.
Here is our story on owning less stuff. We have been happier since.
3. Make More Money
If you want if you do not settle for less, then find ways to make more money. If you want more out of life, then increase your income.
You need to be an advocate for yourself.
Find ways to make more money.
It could be a side hustle, a second job, asking for a raise, going to school to change careers, or picking up extra hours.
Whatever path you take, that’s fine. Just find ways to make more money. Period.
4. Make Saving Money Fun
You need to make saving money fun. If you’re good, since you must keep your expenses low, you have to find ways to make your savings fun!
Find new ways of saving money and have fun with it.
Even better, get your family and kids involved in the challenge to save money. Tell them the reason why you are saving money and this is what you are doing.
Here are plenty of things to do with no money. Free activities without costing you a dime. That is a fantastic resource for you and you will never be bored.
And you will learn a lot of things in life you can do for free. Personally, some of the best ones are getting outside and enjoying some fresh air.
5. No State Taxes
Paying taxes is one option to increase what you take home in each paycheck.
These are the states that don’t pay state income taxes on wages:
Alaska
Florida
Nevada
New Hampshire
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Washington
Wyoming
It is very interesting if you take into account the amount of state taxes paid compared to a state with income taxes.
Also, if you live in one of the higher taxed states, then you may want to reconsider moving to a lower cost of living area. The higher taxes income tax states include California, Hawaii, New Jersey, Oregon, Minnesota, the District of Columbia, New York, Vermont, Iowa, and Wisconsin. These states tax income somewhere between 7.65% – 13.3%.
6. Stick to a Budget
You need to learn how to start a budget. We have tons of budgeting resources for you.
While creating a budget is great, you need to learn how to use one.
You do not have to budget down to every last penny.
You need to make sure your expenses are less than your income and that you are creating sinking funds for those irregular expenses.
Budget Help:
7. Pay Off Debt Quickly
The amount that you pay interest on debt is absolutely absurd.
Unfortunately, that is how many of these companies make their money from the interest you pay on debt.
If you are paying 5% to even 20-21% or higher, you need to find ways to lower that debt quickly.
Here’s a debt calculator to help you. Figure out your debt-free date.
Make that paying off debt fast is your target and main focus. I can tell you from personal experience, that it was not until we paid off our debt that we finally rounded the corner financially. Once our debt was paid off, we could finally be able to save money and set money aside in separate bank accounts and pay for cash for things.
It took us working hard to pay off debt. We needed persistence and patience while we had setbacks in our debt-free journey.
Jobs that Pay $50 an Hour
You can find plenty of jobs that pay $50 per hour. Polish up that resume, cover letter, and interview skills.
Job Search Hint: Always send a written follow-up thank you note for your interview. That will help you get noticed and remembered.
First, look at the cities that require a minimum wage in their cities. That is the best place to start to find jobs that are going to pay higher than the federal minimum wage rate. Many of the cities are moving towards this model so, target and look for jobs in those areas.
Possible Ideas:
$50 Per Hour Annual Salary
In this post, we detailed 50 an hour is how much a year. Plus all of the variables that can impact your net income. This is something that you can live off.
$104,000
That is making over $100000 a year.
In this post, we highlighted ways to increase your income as well as tips for living off your wage.
Use the sample budget as a starting point with your expenses.
Now, think back to when you were making $11 an hour… a lot has changed since then, right?
You will have to be savvy and wise with your hard-earned income. But, with a plan, anything is possible!
Still thinking I don’t want to work anymore, you aren’t alone and need to start to plan for your early retirement.
Learn exactly how much do I make per year…
Know someone else that needs this, too? Then, please share!!
Did the post resonate with you?
More importantly, did I answer the questions you have about this topic? Let me know in the comments if I can help in some other way!
Your comments are not just welcomed; they’re an integral part of our community. Let’s continue the conversation and explore how these ideas align with your journey towards Money Bliss.
Are you excited to find the best version of yourself possible?
If you are, then you were in the absolutely correct place right now.
When trying to form a new habit or break a bad habit, many times we get lost in the overwhelming feeling that we are just not capable of making any changes. That is why these 30 day challenge ideas will help you become the person that you desire to be.
We cover a bunch of different thirty day challenge ideas across many contrasting areas in your life.
In this post, you are bound to find something that you will want to do.
For me personally, I have jumped on the 30 day challenge concept because I know that just a couple of days of trying a new habit isn’t going to last. I need to do something over a longer period of time to actually have it become ingrained as a habit or part of my life.
So, let’s dig into the best 30 day challenge ideas to get you started.
And don’t worry, we cover what are some fun 30 day challenges!
What is a 30 day challenge?
Simply put, a 30 day challenge is thirty days in a row that you challenge yourself to do something specific.
There are many things that you can do within these 30 days.
But, the goal is to use a thirty day challenge tracker and cross it off each and every day.
If you are not sure what can be achieved in 30 days, then you have never tried one of these challenges. You are able to accomplish more than you thought possible by sticking to the challenge.
This post may contain affiliate links, which helps us to continue providing relevant content and we receive a small commission at no cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read the full disclosure here.
Does the 30 day challenge really work?
Yes, you will be transformed at the end of the month if you cross off a majority of your thirty days.
If you have not read Atomic Habits by James Clear, then I highly recommend getting this book ASAP.
This book will help you realize some of the things that you were doing without even realizing it, and causing you to have good or bad habits. Plus, it will help drive the desire to build good habits in your life.
For me personally, this book has helped me to build better habits and make progress. And I wished I read it when it first came out in 2018!
You need to get rid of bad habits that make your life a struggle. Thus, a 30 Day Challenge will help.
This is only true if you are committed to putting in the effort in time.
While you may skip a day and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. As long as you jump back on the bandwagon and continue the next day.
Types of Fun 30 Day Challenges:
Well, let’s be honest if you’re not going to make it fun, then you shouldn’t do it at all! Because it is much easier to complete a fun 30 Day Challenge rather than something that you’re forced to be doing.
So, in order to keep it fun, you can always have a reward tied to the end.
Once you complete your 30 day challenge, then this is your reward for completion.
Too many times we look at thirty day challenges as “what should I give up for a month,” when in reality, you are not really depriving yourself for a month, you are trying to build a better you and better habits.
Here are the fun categories for all of our thirty day challenges:
How to Do a 30 Day Challenge?
As you will see shortly, there are lot of ways that you can intertwine these 30 day challenges together in your life and your schedule.
You may do one of these challenges while you’re sitting in the car waiting to pick up children from their activities. You may carve out time, specifically to work on a new skill, how and when you accomplish these challenges is up to you.
At the end of 30 days though, you are going to find a new level of happiness, enjoyment and fulfillment by sticking to these challenges.
The best way for success is to track your progress! There are resources at the bottom to help you out.
If you fall off the bandwagon for a day or two, that’s okay. Shake it off, and jump right on.
Don’t skip, more than a day. You got to get back on and complete your challenge.
30 Day Challenge Health & Fitness
First of all, I don’t like the sound of a 30 day wealth loss challenge because managing your health and fitness is a lifelong skill.
While thirty day challenge will give you a kickstart, you need to continue focusing on your overall health and fitness level.
Here are quick things to improve your health and fitness in the next month with one of these 30 day health challenge.
1. Do Workouts at Home
There is no reason you must go to the gym, so find a workout that you can do at home. There are plenty on YouTube, as well as subscription services to get you started.
Are 30 day workout challenges good? Personally, I have found that they keep my motivation going and accountable.
2. Daily Yoga
This is a challenge that I completed in the month of September is every day to do yoga. Some days it may be just 10 minutes, other days I may do an hour, but it is just a simple challenge to keep improving my flexibility and movement. Here is my favorite yoga instructor.
3. Drink Only Water, Tea & Coffee
Without realizing it, it is really easy to add a lot of liquid into your body that may not be the best. So, a quick and easy health challenge is to only drink water, tea, and coffee.
Eliminate all extra drinks, especially mixed cocktails, sodas, or energy drinks.
4. Stop Snacking
In today’s society, we are bombarded with eating small meals, and snacking is good for us. However, with the constant influx of food, we are more in a habit of snacking, rather than out of hunger for food.
To stop snacking, focus on your main meals for 30 days. Evaluate how you feel afterward a month.
5. Walk Before Lunch or Dinner
Walk before you sit down to eat a meal. Get outside, stretch your legs and take a walk around the block. It does not have to be for long; it can be 10 minutes or 30 minutes.
But, by taking that time to walk beforehand, you are burning calories and at an opportune time before you eat your main meals.
6. Focus on Core Strength
A quick 10 minute abs / core strength exercise helps us in everyday life. Yet, we tend to forget about building up the strength in our core.
Head to YouTube and do a 10 minute ab workout. It is very quick and easy.
You can easily fit in, when you go to take a break, instead of jumping on Facebook or Instagram. Do a quick 10 minute ab workout, and that will improve your health and fitness level by the end of 30 days.
7. Check out Fasting
Fasting is not for everyone. However, this statement intrigued me… the word breakfast means breaking your fast.
We are bombarded with food options 24/7, but maybe our bodies need a break from eating consistently. Check out this book for more info and talk to your doctor first.
8. Fit Bride-to-be Workout
If you are an upcoming bride, you probably want to be at the best possible fitness level that you are capable of doing. So here is a 30 day workout challenge, just for brides.
30 Day Challange Happiness & Gratitude
We all need a little bit more happiness in our life, and we all could express more gratitude. It does not have to be difficult.
These are simple concepts, but we get too focused on everything that is going wrong in our life. Thus, we do not look around and see the beauty and all of the good that is happening.
9. Walk Outside for Fresh Air
Did you know that fresh air is beneficial for your health? Also, it instantly improves your happiness level. So, all you have to do is step outside and take a fresh breath.
10. Start a Gratitude Journal
This helps you focus on three things. Each day wrote down three positive moments in your life. After you do this over the course of 30 days, your happiness level will improve, as well as your gratefulness.
11. Take Control of Your Phone
There is a great book written by two previous Google employees on how to use your technology appropriately and not have your technology take over your life. Check it out. You need to use your phone for the purposes of your phone, and not as a distraction tool.
12. Take a Social Media Break
Every day you are overwhelmed with the picture-perfect life of everybody else on Instagram and Facebook. Studies prove that will leave you discouraged and unhappy with your real life.
Take a thirty-day break from social media and stop focusing on everybody’s highlight reel. During those 30 days, connect with real people and have real conversations, and let your mind focus on the reality around you.
13. Buy a Bouquet of Flowers
Every once in a while, I splurge and buy a bouquet of flowers to put on the table – just because it brings a smile to my face every time I walk through that room. It is something very easy. Plus for my frugal side, I always buy flowers under $10.
14. What Brings Joy in Your Life?
For a quick minute, think about what just brings that extra joy in my life. Focus on those things. Plan to dedicate extra time to what you want out of life and not what others want for your life.
15. Take a Day for You
This is true for everyone, but right now I am going to speak directly to the mamas out there first. As a mom, we put our family and our kids first. We always make sure that we are available and ready to help them in every possible way. This will leave us drained over the course of a day, week, month and year.
Plan a day for yourself. Take a mental break from being in that role of a mom.
This applies to everyone; take a day to recharge your batteries. Then, you will be able to come back for another day with a fresh gusto!
16. Say Yes to that Hobby
We always have a reason or excuse why we are not going to start that hobby that we have thought about for many years. So, what better time to be happy, and give it a try? Try your new hobby for thirty days and see how it works out.
Resources for More Happiness & Gratitude Ideas:
30 day Financial Challenge
One of the hardest parts of managing money is it takes time to make progress. In a couple of days, you are not going to notice a significant change in one direction or another with your money.
At the end of 30 days, you can actually start to see progress with your money and your habits.
Here are the best financial challenges that you can do within a 30 day time period.
17. No Spend Challenge
If you have never participated in no spend challenge this 30 Day financial challenge is just for you. Learn how you spend money, and why you spend money.
That will help you evaluate whether spending money is worth it or not. Check out how to participate in a no spend month.
18. Have a 24 Hour Buy Period
Oh, retailers love to make a spend, spend, spend. This is your “conscious” way to pause your spending. Wait 24 hours before you could buy anything.
While this may not be convenient, it is a good way to see if you actually truly wanted that item, or if you are buying it for no specific need.
19. Envelope Challenge
With this super popular 100 envelope challenge, there is absolutely no reason that you cannot just do 30 days. Your results will vary on how much you end up saving. But, something is more than nothing!
If you decide to just do the numbers one through thirty, you will end up saving $465 at the end of the challenge. If you keep all the numbers 1-100 and randomly pick thirty envelopes, then your results are going to be different based on what envelopes you pick.
But either way, it is a good way to start saving money.
20. Financially Stable Habits
Regardless of where you are on your money journey, you can pick one of the financially stable habits and focus on those for the month. Pick a few habits to focus on for 30 days. If you want to be successful with money long term, you need to learn how to be financially stable.
21. Pick a Habit of a Thrifty Person
Being thrifty is a great quality to have! You are not cheap with your money, you know when to spend on quality, but a lot of times people look frown upon those who are thrifty.
By being thrifty, you will actually end up saving money in the long term. And that will impact your finances, so learn a quality of a thrifty person.
22. 30 Day Money Saving Challenge – Save $465
Our money saving challenges, here at Money Bliss, are extremely popular, and for good reason, it sets you up for financial success.
There are plenty of options to save money in thirty days. You can save $5 a day over the course of 30 days, and end up saving $350. Or find ways to stop spending money and save $20 a day, then you accumulate $600 in just one month.
30 Day Journaling Challenge
In this section, some people either love or absolutely hate it because journaling can be overwhelming (mostly thanks to Pinterest). We always feel like our journaling is not as good as others, or our handwriting is not as pretty. Or that you do not have the time to dedicate to journaling.
So when it comes to this 30 Day journaling challenge, I challenge you to do what you can do and not compare yourself to others.
Personally, my handwriting and the beauty of my journals are not great either. I do bullet points mostly and that works for me. I just find ways to clear my head and write down my thoughts.
23. Set a Time to Journal
You must dedicate time to journaling. Block out time to journal. If not, It is not gonna happen. You need to set a time for you to journal, whether it is five minutes, ten minutes, thirty minutes, or an hour!
Take time for whatever you need to journal what is on your heart.
24. Find Journaling Prompts
Do not go into your journaling time without an idea of what you should journal about. In advance, look for journaling prompts that work for you where every day you focus on a different part of your life.
For example… Day one is work. Day two is your family. The third day is your friends, and keep going from there.
Or start with these money affirmations to guide you.
25. Create a Bucket List
We all have goals, aspirations, and dreams. Nevertheless, have you ever written them out on a list? This is your time to create a bucket list. Start thinking about what you want to do, where you want to go, and how it is going to happen.
26. Write a Letter
Letters are a great way to share your thoughts with others. You may find finishing a letter may take a little bit longer than one day (and that is completely okay).
These letters could be written for future events like once a person graduates from college, gets married, finds their first job, or has a baby – whatever it may be, the letters share your heart now to be opened later down for a future.
27. Journal about your Pet Peeves
If you have certain pet peeves that drive you crazy, then why not journal about them? Then, you can notice signals to stop them before they start or get worse. Consequently, you can also find happiness at the same time.
28. Learning Opportunities
Write a list of all the things that you want to learn. Next, journal about the action steps you need to take in order to start learning and doing.
29. Describe your Life in 5 Words
Sometimes we do not want to write at all, sometimes we want to write a ton, and that is completely okay. If somebody asked you today, describe your life in five words, what would you say? Journal about that.
30 day Self-Care Challenge
It is okay to participate in self care. This is extremely important for your mental health.
Don’t keep putting this off until tomorrow. Wellness at home is extremely important!
This is your chance at self care if not all the other people in your household will be begging for your attention.
30. Extra Time for You
We go through the day focused on everything that needs to be done and a lot of times we do not take a breath. Blocking out time for you is extremely important for self care. Right now, set a timer in your phone for 5-30 minutes of just extra time, just for you, and spend it how you choose.
31. Be Still
Plan the time to take an extra 10 minutes to get away and have time for yourself. Just to be still. It could be when you get ready in the morning, be early to a meeting, or while waiting for kids to be picked up. Give yourself an extra 10 minutes to get ready.
32. Get a Massage
Work out all those kinks in your neck and your back plus all that tension. Get a massage for yourself. If you cannot afford regular massages, then look at the handheld massager to use at home.
33. Take a Detox Bath
Soaking in a bathtub is a great way to help with self care. Even soaking your feet is an indulgent experience. By doing a detox bath, you are able to draw out the impurities in your skin. Here are good detox sea salts to evaluate your soaking time.
34. Get Enough Sleep
If you are not sleeping well, then you need to get to the core of the problem. Everybody needs around eight hours of quality sleep. So, pull the drapes, cool the room, and get the rest you truly need.
35. No Phone for a Day
This one is probably going to be a challenge for most of us, but by having a phone-free day you will realize how different you react to things and how different your life actually feels. Sundays are a great day to do this!
36. Get your Hands Dirty
For some people, this may be gardening in the dirt. For others, it may be kneading dough in the kitchen. Whatever it is, getting your hands dirty and activating your hand muscles is therapeutic.
37. Listen to your Favorite Music
Indulge in your favorite tunes. Take time to fill your mind with music that you enjoy! Even better, upgrade the subscription so you have ad-free listening time. Did you know with Amazon Prime, you have access to over 2 million songs for free.
38. Get Dressed Up – Just Because
Dressing nicely brings out confidence. You do not need a reason to dress up. Pick out your favorite dress or dazzle an outfit with fun heels or jewelry. Just because.
Resources for More Self Care Ideas:
30 day Self-Improvement Challenge
You cannot just say you want to improve. You have to put action behind those plans.
Self-improvement is one of the hardest areas to overcome.
We feel like there is too much self-improvement to be done. So, go into this section on simple habits you can start doing today that will make a difference in the long run.
39. Write a List of Areas to Improve
You may have grand goals for everything you can do for self-improvement. But, in reality, we cannot accomplish all those things overnight. So, write a list of areas that you can improve in. Then, focus on certain aspects over the next 30 days. Stick with only three to five of those items on your list.
40. Say Yes
There are many times that we are too afraid to do something new that we will not even give it a try. If you want to improve something in your life, then take the initiative and go ahead and say yes to trying something.
41. Read a Book
Spend at least 10 minutes reading a book. Ultimately, you should spend at least thirty minutes or more a day of reading. Pick a nonfiction book in an area you improve in your life. Make sure it is a topic you enjoy.
Great Self-Improvement Books:
42. Improve your Habits
As said in the book Atomic Habits, you are unable to make progress in life if you don’t start building solid habits. There is no faster way to improve than my daily progression of your habits. Grab a habit tracker and commit to the best 30 days.
43. Write Down Future Goals
If you’re not sure where you want to go in life. If you want to improve in areas you don’t even know where to start. So create a list of goals of what you want to do.
Find: 100 Self Care Ideas For A 30-Day Self-Improvement Challenge
30 Day Productivity Challenge
By being productive, you can get more done. Just because you are getting more done, it doesn’t mean that you need more time.
It means that you are more effective with the time you have in what you can get done.
44. Use a Timer
This is the best way to get focused quickly. Use a timer, set it for 30 minutes, and get to the task at hand. Get it done and move on. By focusing on one thing at a time, you are more likely to be extremely productive during that time.
This is the timer I use.
45. Limit Distractions
If the distractions are notifications on your phone or on your laptop, remove those while you are trying to be productive in whatever you are currently working on. Do not be tempted to do something else. Move the distractions to a different area (hint: your phone)!
46. Habit Tracker
If you really want to be productive, then use a habit tracker! You can cross off all the habits you are specifically focusing on each and every day. By doing this, you are able to be consistent and focus on building those good habits.
47. Plan your Day in Advance
Don’t let life plan you. You must be planning your day in advance. Make a list of the things that you want to accomplish. That is how you become productive.
48. Track Your Time
Use a tool like Toggl or a written plan to track your time. This is different than planning your time in your calendar. This is how you actually spend your time. Also, this helps you to realize where your infinity pools of wasted time happen and you can dedicate time towards self car.
Don’t just guess how you spend your day; actually, figure out how you spend every single hour of your day.
49. Understand Time Freedom
If you have never heard of time freedom, then you are missing out on the best self improvement tool available. If you’re wasting a good portion of your day doing things that are not going to make a difference at the end of the day, then what is the point?
Your time is important. Make sure you experience all life has to offer!
30 Day Creativity Challenge
Just for those of us who feel not creative enough, this is for you!
You do not have to worry about being super creative; just by using that other side of your brain, you are able to create new neuropathways and lower many aging conditions.
50. Color Daily
You can pick up a great coloring book for adults that are beautiful and you can spend time coloring yourself. Start with coloring for ten minutes a day and see how you feel.
51. Sidewalk Art
Let your creativity escape onto the sidewalks and driveways. Every day write an inspirational message for others to read. You may start a trend of people stopping daily on their walks.
52. Dance Like Nobody’s Watching
Let your mind and your body move just because you are enjoying the song. Move to how you feel your body needs to move. Let that creativity come out in ways that you have not experienced since you were a child.
53. Drawing Challenge
Drawing is not my strength. However, over the past year, I have been working with my daughter on drawing challenges for kids. It has helped to overcome my fears, actually improve, and given me more confidence to draw. Here is a great drawing channel to help you start.
54. Play Music
Find ways to be creative and just play music. Just play to play. Do not play to practice. Play for pure enjoyment.
55. Try a New Craft
Head to the craft store and find something that you want to do. There are plenty of crafts to suit your personality. Plus some are a great way to decompress and destress.
One of my friends started knitting hats as a way to pass the time while she was waiting for kids at sports activities.
30 Day Organization Challenge
By far, the most popular 30 day challenges are for organizing your home, your life, your stuff, your clothing, etc. More than likely, it is probably what you first associate with any 30 day challenge ideas.
Organize, declutter, spring clean … Get rid of the extra stuff in your house.
Take time to clean those areas that you have been neglecting. All great ideas, so let’s dig in!
56. Spring Clean
There is a great feeling of getting rid of stuff and the process of spring cleaning. You can feel this freshness in the area. Honestly, this is something we all should be doing each year. Here is a great spring cleaning checklist to help you get started.
57. Sell Your Stuff
Get rid of extra stuff in your house. If you have not used it for the last month, then you more than likely probably do not need it in your house. Start selling your stuff and here is a great resource to help you.
58. Declutter. Declutter Declutter.
There are lots of resources on decluttering. Just remember, decluttering is extremely important because every single day we have more and more stuff coming into our life, but we are not getting rid of more and more stuff.
Take time and declutter by doing a 30 day challenge. You are only focusing on a small area every single day and by the end of thirty days, you have made great progress.
Decluttering Resources for You:
59. Big 30 Day Decluttering Projects
Let’s face it, not every place in our house, we can organize in a day and sometimes they take a month. Perfect examples are the basement or garage. So on those bigger areas, you can still break them down and every day check one thing off the list.
During the overall decluttering challenge, focus on one area or one shelf per day in that space that needs help. Also, give yourself the grace to actually accomplish what you need to get done.
60. Keep a Clean House
Guilty of not being the best housekeeper? Don’t worry most of us are not great. Thankfully, you can easily check off tasks with this clean house checklist!
61. Take in Less
This is something that you can do on a daily basis. Your goal is to nothing or very little into your house, and have zero impact on the trash and waste. Your home slowly producing a minimalistic vibe. This is known as frugal green.
62. Minimalism
One of the best ways to live life with less and spend less money on a regular basis is to be a minimalist. You can choose your level of minimalism. This means that your cupboards are not allowed to overflow with extra stuff; those shelves must fit only what you need and what you use. Check out this minimalism challenge.
30 Day Challenge For Kids
Let’s not forget why we are trying to build good habits for ourselves, we can also instill good habits into our kids!
These are the 30 day challenge specifically designed for kids. All of them are fabulous 30 day challenge for students!
63. Teach Kids to be Grateful
Most children in America are extremely privileged and have access to things, and resources than most of the world and more than their own parents. They have become accustomed to the little things in life and take everything for granted.
So, we must teach our kids to be grateful. Here is a great gratitude challenge for kids.
64. Kindness Challenge
We all know the trouble that happens at our schools. Also, we know kids are choosing mean words, without realizing it, or maybe doing it on purpose. Either way, we need to instill kindness into our children. Here’s a great kindness challenge for kids to get you started.
65. Money Challenge for Kids
Kids need to be taught to save money. There is no way around it. If they are not taught at home, they will not have those lessons as adults. So, teach them to save their age, every single year growing up.
If they start this at age three, by the time they graduate, they will have over $2,000, not including interest in their accounts. Here is the Save Age challenge for kids.
66. Drawing Challenge for Kids
Every kid wants to learn to draw. Let them use their creative side and have fun. It is a simple project to complete each day. Plus when someone joins them, it becomes a fun experience to share. Use this drawing challenge to get the creative juices flowing!
67. Back to School Decluttering
Get the kid’s help on back-to-school decluttering! They need to learn to be responsible for their things too! Make it fun with a scavenger hunt with this back to school calendar decluttering list.
Success happens when you are able to track your progress!
Are you Ready for your Thirty Day Challenge?
The goal of this post is to get you motivated to find fun 30 day challenges for 2021!
It is not overwhelming with all of the possibilities that you could do in order to become fitter more healthy, improve your self care, improve your productivity, or clean out your house.
The goal of these challenges is to provide opportunities for you to choose what you want to do. You can find plenty of 30 day challenges on Instagram, TikTok, or Pinterest. But, don’t get caught up in trying to find all of these challenges.
Pick the thirty day challenge that is on your heart and you want to do. The best 30 day challenge is one that you deep down you need to accomplish.
No one else can write that, or find the challenge for you – only you can do that.
Right now, set a timer for five minutes and think about what areas would you like to do a 30 day challenge.
We have given you plenty of 30 day challenge ideas, but now you need to decide what works for you.
One of the great things about many of these challenges is they overlap.
Above you will find all of the their day challenge examples. Which one is your favorite challenge idea?
Know someone else that needs this, too? Then, please share!!
Did the post resonate with you?
More importantly, did I answer the questions you have about this topic? Let me know in the comments if I can help in some other way!
Your comments are not just welcomed; they’re an integral part of our community. Let’s continue the conversation and explore how these ideas align with your journey towards Money Bliss.
Inside: Learn what 16 an hour is how much a year, month, and day. Plus tips to budget your money. Don’t miss the ways to increase your income.
You’re probably wondering if I made $16 a year, how much do I truly make? What will that add up to over the course of the year?
Is $16 a living wage?
Is this wage something that I can actually live on? Or do I need to find ways that I can increase my hourly wage?
In this post, we’re going to detail exactly what $16 an hour is how much a year. Also, we are going to break it down to know how much is made per month, bi-weekly, per week, and daily.
That will help you immensely with how you spend your money. Because too many times the hard-earned cash is brought home, but there is no actual plan for how to spend that money.
By taking a step ahead and making a plan for the money, you are better able to decide how you want to live, make sure that you put your money goals first, and not just living paycheck to paycheck struggling to survive.
The ultimate goal with money success is to be wise with how you spend your money.
Knowing 16 dollars an hour is how much a year will help you manage money wisely.
If that is something you want too, then keep reading. You are in the right place.
$16 an Hour is How Much a Year?
When we ran all of our numbers to figure out how much is $16 per hour is as an annual salary, we used the average working day of 40 hours a week.
40 hours x 52 weeks x $16 = $33,280
$33,280 is the gross annual salary with a $16 per hour wage.
As of June 2023, the average hourly wage is $33.58 (source).
Let’s breakdown how that number is calculated.
Typically, the average work week is 40 hours and you can work 52 weeks a year. Take 40 hours times 52 weeks and that equals 2,080 working hours. Then, multiple the hourly salary of $16 times 2,080 working hours, and the result is $33,280.
That number is the gross income before taxes, insurance, 401K, or anything else is taken out. Net income is how much you deposit into your bank account.
That is just above the $32000 salary, which is a lower starter salary, but well below where you want to start about a $43000 salary.
Work Part Time?
But you may think, oh wait, I’m only working part time. So if you’re working part time, the assumption is working 20 hours a week at $16 an hour.
Only 20 hours per week. Then, take 20 hours times 52 weeks and that equals 1,040 working hours. Then, multiple the hourly salary of $16 times 1,040 working hours, and the result is $16,650.
How Much is $16 Per Month?
On average, the monthly amount would average $2,773.
Annual Amount of $33,280 ÷ 12 months = $2,773 per month
Since some months have more days and fewer days like February, you can expect months with more days to have a bigger paycheck. Also, this can be heavily influenced by how often you are paid and on which days you get paid.
Work Part Time?
Only 20 hours per week. Then, the monthly amount would average $1,387.
How Much is $16 per Hour Per Week
This is a great number to know! How much do I make each week? When I roll out of bed and do my job, what can I expect to make at the end of the week?
Once again, the assumption is 40 hours worked.
40 hours x $16 = $640 per week.
Work Part Time?
Only 20 hours per week. Then, the weekly amount would be $320.
Here are jobs that pay weekly.
How Much is $16 per Hour Bi-Weekly
For this calculation, take the average weekly pay of $640 and double it.
$640 per week x 2 = $1,280
Also, the other way to calculate this is:
40 hours x 2 weeks x $16 an hour = $1,280.
Work Part Time?
Only 20 hours per week. Then, the bi-weekly amount would be $640.
How Much is $16 Per Hour Per Day
This depends on how many hours you work in a day. For this example, we are going to use an eight-hour workday.
8 hours x $16 per hour = $128 per day.
If you work 10 hours a day for four days, then you would make $160 per day. (10 hours x $16 per hour)
Work Part Time?
Only 4 hours per day. Then, the daily amount would be $64.
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$16 Per Hour is…
$16 per Hour – Full Time
Total Income
Yearly Salary (52 weeks)
$33,280
Yearly Wage (50 weeks)
$32,000
Monthly Salary (173 hours)
$2,773
Weekly Wage (40 Hours)
$640
Bi-Weekly Wage (80 Hours)
$1,280
Daily Wage (8 Hours)
$128
Net Estimated Monthly Income
$2,117
**These are assumptions based on simple scenarios.
Do you know how many work days in a year you work? This answer may surprise you.
Paid Time Off Earning 16 Dollars an Hour
Does your employer offer paid time off?
As an hourly employee, you may or may not get paid time off.
So, here are the scenarios for both cases.
For general purposes, we are going to assume you work 40 hours per week over the course of the year.
Case # 1 – With Paid Time Off
Most hourly employees, get two weeks of paid time off which is equivalent to 2 weeks of paid time off.
In this case, you would make $33,280 per year.
This is the same as the example above for an annual salary making $16 per hour.
Case #2 – No Paid Time Off
Unfortunately, not all employers offer paid time off to their hourly employees. While that is unfortunate, it is best to plan for less income.
Life happens. There will be times you need to take time off for numerous reasons – sick time, handling an emergency, or even vacation.
So, let’s assume you take 2 weeks off without paid time off.
That means you would only work 50 weeks of the year instead of all 52 weeks. Take 40 hours times 50 weeks and that equals 2,000 working hours. Then, multiply the hourly salary of $16 times 2,000 working hours, and the result is $32,000.
40 hours x 50 weeks x $16 = $33,000
You would average $128 per working day and nothing when you don’t work.
$16 an Hour is How Much a year After Taxes
Let’s be honest… Taxes can take up a big chunk of your paycheck. Thus, you need to know how taxes can affect your hourly wage.
Also, every single person’s tax situation is different.
On the basic level, let’s assume a 12% federal tax rate and a 4% state rate. Plus a percentage is taken out for Social Security and Medicare (FICA) of 7.65%.
Gross Annual Salary: $33,280
Federal Taxes of 12%: $2,994
State Taxes of 4%: $1,331
Social Security and Medicare of 7.65%: $2,546
$16 an Hour per Year after Taxes: $25,409
This would be your net annual salary after taxes.
To turn that back into an hourly wage, the assumption is working 2,080 hours.
$25,409 ÷ 2,080 hours = $12.22 per hour
After estimated taxes and FICA, you are netting $12.22 an hour. That is $3.78 an hour less than what you planned. A very significant amount when managing your money.
This is a very highlighted example and can vary greatly depending on your personal situation. Therefore, here is a great tool to help you figure out how much your net paycheck would be.
Plus budgeting on a just over $12 an hour wage is much different.
$16 an Hour Salary
Now, you get to figure out how much you make based on your hours worked or if you make a wage between $16.01-16.99.
This is super helpful if you make $16.25 or $16.35.
You are probably wondering can I live on my own making 16 dollars an hour? How much rent can you afford on 16 an hour?
Using our Cents Plan Formula, this is the best case scenario on how to budget your $16 per hour paycheck.
When using these percentages, it is best to use net income because taxes must be paid.
In this example, above we calculated $16 an hour was $12.22 after taxes. That would average $2,117 per month.
According to the Cents Plan Formula, here is the high level view of a $16 per hour budget:
Basic Expenses of 50% = $1,058.72
Save Money of 20% = $423.49
Give Money of 10% = $211.74
Fun Spending of 20% = $423.49
Debt of 0% = $0
Obviously, that is not doable for everyone living above the poverty line. So, you have to be strategic in ways to decrease your basic expenses and debt. Then, it will allow you more money to save and fun money.
To further break down an example budget of $16 per hour, then using the ideal household percentages is extremely helpful.
recommended budget percentages based on $16 per hour wage:
Category
Ideal Percentages
Sample Monthly Budget
Giving
10%
$139
Savings
15-25%
$416
Housing
20-30%
$777
Utilities
4-7%
$139
Groceries
5-12%
$211
Clothing
1-4%
$14
Transportation
4-10%
$111
Medical
5-12%
$139
Life Insurance
1%
$14
Education
1-4%
$21
Personal
2-7%
$55
Recreation / Entertainment
3-8%
$83
Debts
0% – Goal
$0
Government Tax (including Income Taxes, Social Security & Medicare)
15-25%
$656
Total Gross Income
$2,773
**In this budget, prioritization was given to basic expenses. Thus, some categories like giving and saving were less.
A great way to lower your transportation costs is to buy a beater car.
Can I Live off $16 Per Hour?
Even living above the minimum wage by $3-4 can be a very difficult situation.
Is it doable? Absolutely.
You just have to be wiser (or frugal) with your money and how you spend the hard-earned cash you have been blessed with.
A lot of times when people are making under near the minimum wage mark or slightly above, they feel like they are in this constant cycle that they can never keep up. They are not good enough to make more money. Feel like they are constantly struggling to keep up with bills and expenses. And things just keep adding on top.
You need to do is change your money mindset.
This is what you say to yourself… Okay, this is my season of life right now. I have aspirations and goals to change how much I make, but for now, I am going to make sure that I am able to live on my 16 dollars per hour. No going into debt for me.
In the next section, we will dig into ways to increase your income, but for now, is it possible to live on $16 an hour?
Yes, you can do it, and as you can see it is possible with the sample budget of $16 per hour.
Living in a higher cost of living area would be more difficult. So, you may have to get a little creative. For example, you might have to have a roommate. Move to a lower cost of living area where rent is cheaper.
Also, you must evaluate your “fun spending” items. Many of those expenses are not mandatory and will break your budget. You can find plenty of free things to do without spending money.
5 Ways to Increase Your Hourly Wage
This right here is the most crucial section of this post.
You need to figure out ways to increase your hourly income because I’m going to tell you…you deserve more. You do a good job and your value is higher than what your employers pay you.
Even an increase of 50 cents to $16.50 will add up over the year. An increase to $17 an hour is even better!
1. Ask for a Raise
The first thing to do is ask for a raise. Walk right in and ask for a raise because you never know what the answer will be until you ask.
If you want the best tips on how specifically to ask for a raise and what the average wage is for somebody doing your job, then check out this book. In this book, the author gives you the exact way to increase your income. The purchase is worth it or go down to the library and check that book out.
2. Look for A New Job
Another way to increase your hourly wage is to look for a new job. Maybe a completely new industry.
It might be a total change for you, but many times, if you want to change your financial situation, then that starts with a career change. Maybe you’re stressed out at work. Making $16 an hour is too much for you and you’re not able to enjoy life, maybe changing jobs and finding another job may increase your pay, but it will also increase your quality of life.
Many low stress jobs after retirement pay in this range.
3. Find a New Career
Because of student loans, too many employees feel like they are stuck in the career field they chose. They feel sucked into the job that they don’t like or have the potential they thought it would.
For many years, I was in the same situation until I decided to do a complete career change. I am glad I did. I have the flexibility that I needed in my life to do what I wanted when I needed to do it. Plus I am able to enjoy my entrepreneurial spirit.
4. Find Alternative Ways to Make Money
In today’s society, you need to find ways to make more money. Period.
There is no way to get around it. You need to find additional income outside a traditional nine to five position or typical 40 hour a week job. You will reach a point where you are maxed on what you can make in your current position or title. There may be some advancement to move forward, but in many cases, there just is not much room for growth.
So, you need to find a side hustle – another way to make money.
Do something that you enjoy, turn your hobby into a way to make money, turn something that you naturally do, and help others into a service business. In today’s society, the sky is the limit on how you can earn a freelancing income.
5. Earn Passive Income
The last way to increase your hourly wage is to start earning passive income.
This can be from a variety of ways including the stock market, real estate, online courses, book sales, etc. This is where the differentiation between struggling financially and being financially sound.
By earning money passively, you are able to do the things that you enjoy doing and not be loaded down, with having a job that you need to work, and a place that you have to go to. And you still make money doing nothing.
Here is an example:
You can start a brokerage account and start trading stocks for $50. You need to learn and take the one and only investing class I recommend. Learn how the market works, watch videos, and practice in a simulator before you start using your own money.
One gentleman started with $5,000 in his trading account and now has well over $36,000 in a year. Just from practice and being consistent, he has learned that passive income is the way for him to increase his income and also not be a slave to his job.
Tips to Live on $16 an Hour
In this last section, grasp these tips on how to live on $16 an hour. On our site, you can find lots of money saving tips to help stretch your income further.
Here are the most important tips to live on $16 an hour. Highlight these!
1. Spend Less Than You Make
First, you must learn to spend less than you make.
If not you will be caught in the debt cycle and that is not where you want to be. You will be consistently living paycheck to paycheck.
In order to break that dreadful cycle, it means your expenses must be less than your income.
And when I say income, it’s not the $16 an hour. As we talked about earlier in the post, there are taxes. The amount of taxes taken out of your paycheck is called your net income which is $16 an hour minus all the taxes, FICA, Social Security, and Medicare are taken out. That is your net income.
So, your net income has to be less than your net income.
2. Living Below Your Means
You need to be happy. And living on less can actually make you happier. Studies prove that less is better.
Finding contentment in life is one thing that is a struggle for most.
We are driven to want the new shiny toy, the thing next door, the stuff your friend or family member got. Our society has trained you that you need these things as well.
Have you ever taken a step back and looked at what you really need?
Once you are able to find contentment with life, then you are going to be set for the long term with your finances.
Here is our story on owning less stuff. We have been happier since.
Learn how to live below your means.
3. Make Saving Money Fun
You need to make saving money fun. If you’re good, since you must keep your expenses low, you have to find ways to make your savings fun!
Find new ways of saving money and have fun with it.
Even better, get your family and kids involved in the challenge to save money. Tell them the reason why you are saving money and this is what you are doing.
Here are things to do with no money. Free activities without costing you a dime. That is an amazing resource for you and you will never be bored.
And you will learn a lot of things in life you can do for free. Personally, some of the best ones are getting outside and enjoying some fresh air.
4. Make More Money
If you want if you do not settle for less, then find ways to make more money. If you want more out of life, then increase your income.
You need to be an advocate for yourself.
Find ways to make more money.
It could be a side hustle, a second job, asking for a raise, going to school to change careers, or picking up extra hours.
Whatever path you take, that’s fine. Just find ways to make more money. Period.
Here are the best ways to make money online for beginners!
5. No State Taxes
Paying taxes is one option to increase what you take home in each paycheck.
These are the states that don’t pay state income taxes on wages:
Alaska
Florida
Nevada
New Hampshire
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Washington
Wyoming
It is very interesting if you take into account the amount of state taxes paid compared to a state with income taxes.
Also, if you live in one of the higher taxed states, then you may want to reconsider moving to a lower cost of living area. The higher taxes income tax states include California, Hawaii, New Jersey, Oregon, Minnesota, the District of Columbia, New York, Vermont, Iowa, and Wisconsin. These states tax income somewhere between 7.65% – 13.3%.
6. Stick to a Budget
You need to learn how to start a budget. We have tons of budgeting resources for you.
While creating a budget is great, you need to learn how to use one.
You do not have to budget down to every last penny.
You need to make sure your expenses are less than your income and you are creating sinking funds for those irregular expenses.
Budget Help:
7. Pay Off Debt Quickly
The amount that you pay interest on debt is absolutely absurd.
Unfortunately, that is how many of these companies make their money from the interest you pay on debt.
If you are paying 5% to even 20-21% or higher, you need to find ways to lower that debt quickly.
Here’s a debt calculator to help you. Figure out your debt free date.
Make that paying off debt fast is your target and main focus. I can tell you from personal experience, that it was not until we paid off our debt that we finally rounded the corner financially. Once our debt was paid off, we could finally be able to save money. Set money aside in separate bank accounts and pay for cash for things.
It took us working hard to pay off debt. We needed persistence and patience while we had setbacks in our debt free journey.
Jobs that Pay $16 an Hour
You can find jobs that pay $16 per hour. Polish up that resume, cover letter, and interview skills.
Job Search Hint: Always send a written follow-up thank you note for your interview. That will help you get noticed and remembered.
First, look at the cities that require a minimum wage in their cities. That is the best place to start to find jobs that are going to pay higher than the federal minimum wage rate. Many of the cities are moving towards this model so, target and look for jobs in those areas.
Possible Ideas:
Administrative assistant
Customer service representatives
Housecleaning specialist
Delivery drivers
Bus drivers
School Paraeducators
Warehouse workers
Companies that pay more than $16 per hour:
Target
In-N-Out Burger
Whole Foods
McDonald’s
Macy’s
Advance Auto Parts
Whataburger
Most local grocery chains
Many hotels
Charter Communications
Wells Fargo
Bank of America
JP Morgan
most local schools
Plus many more in HCOL areas only!
$16 Per Hour Annual Salary
In this post, we detailed 16 an hour is how much a year. Plus all of the variables that can impact your net income. This is something that you can live off.
How much is 16 dollars an hour annually…
$33,280
This is slightly over $33,000 per year. Consequently, we highlighted ways to increase your income as well as tips for living off your wage.
Use the sample budget as a starting point with your expenses.
You will have to be savvy and wise with your hard-earned income. But, with a plan, anything is possible!
Learn exactly how much do I make per year…
Know someone else that needs this, too? Then, please share!!
Did the post resonate with you?
More importantly, did I answer the questions you have about this topic? Let me know in the comments if I can help in some other way!
Your comments are not just welcomed; they’re an integral part of our community. Let’s continue the conversation and explore how these ideas align with your journey towards Money Bliss.
Hello! Today, I have a great debt payoff story to share from Davina (from the blog Davinas Finance Corner). Here’s how Davina went from being in payday loan debt for 1.5 years to being debt-free, saving over $50,000 and building a five-figure investment portfolio. Enjoy! In this post, I will share how being stuck in…
Hello! Today, I have a great debt payoff story to share from Davina (from the blog Davinas Finance Corner). Here’s how Davina went from being in payday loan debt for 1.5 years to being debt-free, saving over $50,000 and building a five-figure investment portfolio. Enjoy!
In this post, I will share how being stuck in payday loan debt for 1.5 years completely changed my relationship with money. I will detail how I saved over $50,000, became debt free and built a five-figure investment portfolio.
I’ll talk about the mistakes I made, the lessons I learned, and the crucial changes that helped me turn my financial life around.
I understand that many people struggle with their finances and I want to share my story to inspire you.
I want to show you that no matter how bad your situation may seem, you can make changes and achieve your goals. You don’t have to deprive yourself, it’s possible to create a plan that works for you and still enjoy life.
Related:
My Story
I grew up in a single-parent household with my mum and older brother and we did ok. We had everything we needed but I was aware that we were a low-income household.
My friends had the latest name-brand shoes and clothes, but my mum couldn’t afford to buy those things for us. FOMO is real when you’re in school so I felt it.
I remember thinking when I get older I want to create a life for myself where I don’t have financial restrictions.
When I was younger I was actually good at managing my money. My mum drilled the importance of saving into my head, so when I got my first job that is what I did.
I had a part-time retail job while I was a college student and we were paid weekly. Each week I would calculate my hours to work out how much I would be paid and plan my spending.
You would think that I was destined to have a good relationship with money but somewhere along the way, my good money habits got lost.
How I got into debt
I got my first credit card when I was 18, I didn’t need it for any particular reason I just signed up because the bank offered it to me. When I received it in the mail I didn’t use it, it was just sitting there.
Then a few months later I was made redundant from my job so I activated the credit card and used it to maintain my lifestyle. This was my first mistake.
I was unemployed so I had no money to repay the balance, but I wasn’t thinking about that. All I cared about was maintaining my lifestyle which consisted of socialising with friends.
Eventually, I got another job and was back on my feet but I didn’t pay off the credit card I just ignored it. For a very long time!
A few years later I turned 21 and wanted to buy a car but instead of saving up for it, I decided to get a loan. So I took out the loan, bought a second-hand car and less than a year later I was made redundant again!
I didn’t have any savings (clearly I didn’t learn from the past) so I was back to square one. I was unemployed, but this time I had $6,200 debt ($2,000 credit card, $1,200 overdraft and $3,000 loan). The banks were chasing me for payment but I told them I wasn’t working and ignored the payment demands.
The final debt I incurred was the worst. It was a few years later and I had a good job. I was making decent money for someone in their 20s who still lived at home and my expenses were low.
I was living life and having fun, but that fun was expensive. Every weekend I was out with friends. We were going out to clubs, dinners, concerts, festivals and going on holidays.
I was living paycheck to paycheck and still didn’t have any savings so if I ran out of money I had to borrow it from family or friends. Some months were ok and I could get by, but it was tight. Then one month I made a terrible mistake.
It was the week between Christmas and New Year’s and I was broke. We were paid a week early and I had spent all my money on Christmas presents and festivities.
My cousin asked me to go out, I had no money so I should have said no. But instead, I said yes and I took out a payday loan. I received the money instantly so I got ready and went out.
The next month the company took the loan repayment plus a lot of interest from my account so I was broke again. But it was my birthday month so I got another payday loan so I could fund my celebrations.
The next month, the same thing happens. The loan repayment was taken so I took out another loan to get by and this cycle continued for the next 1.5 years!
Every month once I repaid the loan I was left with no money. I had no savings to fall back on and I had debts that I had ignored for years so I was stuck.
At this point, I started to feel the weight of the mistakes I had made (finally). Every month I was worried about how I would get by. I felt embarrassed and stressed. I also felt disappointed with myself because I was making decent money and I knew better.
So I finally decided to do something about it. I needed to figure out a way to get out of the hole I had been digging myself over the past few years.
I Got Help
I did a Google search to try and find some resources. I found a debt charity that could help so I called them up and explained my situation.
We went through all of my debts explored my options and agreed the best option would be to go on a debt management plan.
The way this worked is I would make a monthly payment of what I could afford to the charity and they would distribute it among all of my creditors.
This wasn’t going to pay off my debt fast, in fact, it barely made a dent in the balance. But it was a step in the right direction and it would stop the creditors from chasing me and ease my stress.
A Lucky Break
Side note: Have you read The Alchemist? If you haven’t I highly recommend you do. In the book, there is a quote that says “When you want something the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.” That is what this lucky break felt like.
The following year I found out I was being made redundant again! (Clearly, I have bad luck with jobs lol) But this time I was going to receive a payout. Initially, I was excited and thought yes big payout I can use the money to buy a new car.
But the whole process took about three months and during that period I had time to think. And I decided to use the money to pay off some of my debt and save the rest.
At this point, I didn’t want to make the same mistakes and I knew that I needed to build up my savings and change my spending habits.
Once I received the redundancy payment I stuck to my plan and repaid the payday loans and the overdraft and I put the rest in my savings account.
Debt recap:
Credit card – $2,000
Loan for the car – $3,000
Overdraft $1,200
Payday loans – $3,600
Total debt = $9,800
Redundancy payment = $7,000 – $4,800 towards debt and – $2,000 in savings – $200 to spend on myself.
Remaining debt = $5,000
I wasn’t completely debt-free at this point, but I reduced my debts and finally had some money in savings. I got a new job shortly after and every month I made sure I contributed to my savings.
I was determined to change my relationship with money so I tried to learn as much as I could about personal finance. Once I applied my learnings I was able to pay off all my debt, completely change my relationship with money and save over $50,000.
How I paid off my debt and saved over $50k
To put things in perspective, I work in Finance and make decent money but I’m not well off. I did get a lucky break with the redundancy payout which I am very grateful for. But it wasn’t enough to pay off all my debts. And it took me about 3 years to save this money.
The most important thing I did to help me was to educate myself about money, change my money mindset and create a plan that worked for me.
Below, I will share the steps I took to get there.
Changed My Mindset
Before I received the redundancy payment I had a reality check. I had to admit to myself that I was living above my means and I had to take responsibility. No one was going to save me I had to make changes to get out of this mess.
I looked at the facts and thought to myself I make decent money so there is no reason I can’t build up my savings and spend money on things I enjoy. But I needed to learn how to manage my money and stop letting my money manage me.
This meant making changes to my lifestyle and sometimes saying no to social invitations. I didn’t like the way I felt when I was stuck in the payday loan cycle so I was committed to this new journey.
If you’re in a similar situation the first step is to understand what got you to where you are. Once you understand this you can put things in place to help you improve.
I Educated Myself About Money
Now that I was committed to making changes I started to research how money really works. I wanted to understand how people manage their money, learn healthy money habits and implement them into my life.
I started to listen to podcasts and watch finance YouTube videos and came across a lot of people who were once in debt but managed to create financial freedom.
This was super helpful for me because they were regular people who managed to change their circumstances and they were sharing the blueprint.
I also started reading books about money. I read the classic personal finance book Rich Dad Poor Dad I also read The Psychology of Money and The Millionaire Next Door. Here is what I learned from all of the information I consumed.
To create financial stability or financial freedom you need to do the following.
Stick to a budget
Live below your means
Avoid spending money on liabilities
Find ways to grow your money
Invest in yourself
One thing I did and I recommend others do the same is I took the information I learned and adjusted it to fit my lifestyle. I didn’t take everything I heard and copy it. Instead, I used it as inspiration. Personal finance is personal so always do what works best for you.
For example, investing in the stock market was highly recommended, but I wasn’t ready at the time. So I focused on saving instead but I made sure I used a high-yield savings account. This way I could earn interest so money was still growing.
Here are the YouTube channels that I learned the most from:
Nischa
Jennifer Thompson
Earn Your Leisure
I Got My Priorities In Order
My number one priority on this journey was to build up my savings. I understood that aside from my poor spending habits not having money set aside led me to get into debt. So that is what I focused on.
I didn’t have a specific amount I wanted to save, I just wanted to have a cushion to fall back on. So every month when I got paid I made sure I contributed to my savings. I started off small but once I changed my spending habits and cleared all my debt I was saving about 50% of my income.
Looked at My Spending Habits
My spending habits were the biggest factor for me so once I committed to repaying my debt through the charity I knew that I needed to make some changes and get my spending under control.
I got my bank statements, looked at my spending over the last few months and used an Excel spreadsheet to categorise everything.
Most of my money was being spent on eating out, takeaways, shopping and socialising. The most shocking part for me was the amount of money I was spending on food.
I was spending over $300 a month on eating out with friends and takeaways! I knew I was spending too much, but seeing the actual number was the wake-up call I needed.
This was something I could change so I started planning my meals and doing weekly grocery shopping. Having my meals planned saved me so much money because at meal times I didn’t have to overthink about what to eat. And it helped me reduce the amount of takeaways I was eating. I also cut back on going to dinner with friends.
I didn’t change everything at once, I focused on the areas that made the biggest difference and over time I made more changes. It can be overwhelming to change everything at once so you can start small and build up over time.
Once I started to see improvements like having money left over in my account before payday and seeing my savings build up I was hooked and wanted to keep going.
Created a budget
I knew that I needed to create a budget to help me manage my spending. But it had to be the right budget for me.
I didn’t want to be rigid and stop doing the things I enjoy. I believe in balance and knew that if I restricted myself I wouldn’t stick to it.
So I thought about the things that I valued and found a way to include them in my budget. For me, those things were travelling, going to the theatre and having dinner with friends.
I sat down at my laptop and put all of my numbers in an Excel sheet. It looked a bit tight but I knew if I made some changes I could make it work.
I Made Some Changes
I looked at my monthly direct debits and subscriptions and got rid of what I didn’t need. I was paying $90 for a gym membership that I was hardly using so I cancelled it.
I had cable for over a decade but I found a cheaper TV alternative so I made the switch.
Once my phone contract expired I switched to a SIM-only contract and saved $50 a month.
To optimise my budget, I paid any bills I could upfront instead of on a monthly basis. This included bills like car tax and insurance and Amazon Prime. By doing so I was able to take advantage of discounts offered by providers as an incentive for full payment. And it meant I had fewer expenses every month.
Doing weekly grocery shopping was working well for me, but I was spending about $250 a month which is a lot for one person. So I fined-tuned my grocery items and switched to a cheaper grocery store which saved me over $100 a month.
I also signed up for a loyalty card at the grocery store so I would get discounts and collect points when I was shopping.
I gave myself a monthly personal allowance to spend on fun so I was still able to do the things I enjoyed, I just did it within a budget. And once that allowance was finished so was my fun for that month lol I used a separate bank card for this allowance to help me stay accountable.
I created a sinking fund for my holidays and I made sure I saved a portion of my paycheck every month no matter what. I treated it like a bill.
Another change I made was I started working as an independent contractor which increased my income by about $20,000 a year. I was doing the same job, I just figured out a way to work smarter.
Even though I was making more money, I didn’t increase my spending, instead, I increased my savings. This is one of the best tips I can give to avoid lifestyle creep.
Once I started seeing the impact of these changes I became obsessed. I turned into a savvy spender and was always looking for ways to spend smarter and save money.
At this point, I was managing my money well and my spending habits were under control. So I finally called up the debt collectors and agreed to repay the rest of my debt in equal payments over 6 months. I was so happy and relieved when I made the final payment!
I put my money in places to grow
Once I paid off the rest of my debt and had saved up about $20,000 I knew the next step was to invest my money. So I did more research and decided the best option for me was to invest in index funds.
I am risk averse so I took a long-term approach and committed to investing an amount I could afford consistently every month. I also put my savings in a high-yield account so I was earning interest on my savings.
I was able to do this because I finally had some room to breathe in my budget. I wasn’t living paycheck to paycheck. Also, my mindset and my priorities had changed.
It Worked
By the middle of 2023, I was completely debt-free, had $54,000 in savings and had built a five-figure investment portfolio. It wasn’t easy, but I am proud of myself because I came a long way.
Upon reflection, I am grateful for the lessons I learned because they completely changed my relationship with money. It also helped me learn to prioritise spending money on things I value instead of material things.
I love to travel and now I can afford to travel at least twice a year. I have been on some amazing trips and I am looking forward to many more.
This money journey also taught me that sometimes less is more. Now I buy less stuff because I am content with what I have. I only buy what I need and I feel lighter and more free.
Here is a picture of me in Thailand. I felt so happy on this trip because I could afford to do the things I enjoy and wasn’t stressing about money.
Future Plans
I plan to use some of the money I have saved to buy an investment property because I understand the importance of buying assets. And I will continue to invest in the stock market. I am also working on my blog davinasfinancecorner and hope to monetise it this year.
Having financial stability is priceless and it has given me more options. I am intrigued by digital nomads at the moment so we’ll see where the future takes me 🙂
Do you have debt? Do you have a plan to pay it off?
Author Bio: Hey there! I’m Davina. I have worked in accounting and finance for over a decade and have learned the best ways to budget, save and make more money. Now I have created Davinas Finance Corner to help you do the same. I have experienced first-hand the struggle of being in debt, living paycheck to paycheck and not having enough money to do the things I enjoy.
I didn’t like that feeling so I was determined to break free from that cycle and change my circumstances. Once I applied the principles I learned from my career in accounting and personal finance I was able to pay off my debt, save my first $50,000 and build an investment portfolio.
Through my blog, I aim to empower women to take control of their finances, build wealth and work on their personal growth. Whether it is finding ways to save more, make extra money or improve yourself I am here to provide information to help you on your journey.
Inside: Learn how much your 50k salary is hourly. Plus find tips to make more money and live the lifestyle you want.
You are thinking that 50k salary is a solid hourly wage, but you want to know the true answer.
When you get your first job and you are making just above minimum wage making over $50,000 a year seems like it would provide amazing opportunities for you. Right?
The median household income was $70,084 in 2021 not much different from the previous year (source). Think of it as a bell curve with $70 at the top; the median means half of the population makes less than that and half makes more money.
The average income in the U.S. is $55,350 for a 40-hour workweek; that is an increase of 1.1% from the previous year (source). That means if you take everyone’s income and divide the money out evenly between all of the people.
But, the question remains…can you truly live off 50,000 per year in today’s society since it is barely above the average income and yet still below household incomes? The question you want to ask all of your friends is $50000 per year a good salary.
In this post, we are going to dive into everything that you need to know about a $50000 salary including hourly pay and a sample budget on how to spend and save your money.
These key facts will help you with money management and learn how much per hour $50k is as well as what you make per month, weekly, and biweekly.
Just like with any paycheck, it seems like money quickly goes out of your account to cover all of your bills and expenses, and you are left with a very small amount remaining. You may be disappointed that you were not able to reach your financial goals and you are left wondering…
Can I make a living on this salary?
$50000 a year is How Much an Hour?
When jumping from an hourly job to a salary for the first time, it is helpful to know how much is 50k a year hourly. That way you can decide whether or not the job is worthwhile for you.
For our calculations to figure out how much is 50K salary hourly, we used the average five working days of 40 hours a week.
50000 salary / 2080 hours = $24.04 per hour
$50000 a year is $24.04 per hour
Let’s breakdown how that 50000 salary to hourly number is calculated.
Typically, the average workweek is 40 hours and you can work 52 weeks a year. Take 40 hours times 52 weeks and that equals 2,080 working hours. Then, divide the yearly salary of $50000 by 2,080 working hours and the result is $24.04 per hour.
Just above $24 an hour.
That number is the gross hourly income before taxes, insurance, 401K, or anything else is taken out. Net income is how much you deposit into your bank account.
You must check with your employer on how they plan to pay you. For those on salary, typically companies pay on a monthly, semi-monthly, biweekly, or weekly basis.
What If I Increased My Salary?
Just an interesting note… if you were to increase your annual salary by $5K, it would increase your hourly wage to over $26 an hour – a difference of $2.40 per hour.
To break it down – 55k a year is how much an hour = $26.44
That difference will help you fund your savings account; just remember every dollar adds up.
How Much is $50K salary Per Month?
On average, the monthly amount would be $4,167.
Annual Salary of $50,000 ÷ 12 months = $4,166.67 per month
This is how much you make a month if you get paid 50000 a year.
$50k a year is how much a week?
This is a great number to know! How much do I make each week? When I roll out of bed and do my job of $50k salary a year, how much can I expect to make at the end of the week for my effort?
Once again, the assumption is 40 hours worked.
Annual Salary of$50000/52 weeks = $961.54 per week.
$50000 a year is how much biweekly?
For this calculation, take the average weekly pay of $961.54 and double it.
This depends on how many hours you work in a day. For this example, we are going to use an eight-hour workday.
8 hours x 52 weeks = 260 working days
Annual Salary of$50000 / 260 working days = $192 per day
If you work a 10 hour day on 208 days throughout the year, you make $240 per day.
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$50000 Salary is…
$50000 – Full Time
Total Income
Yearly Salary (52 weeks)
$50,000
Monthly Wage
$4,167
Weekly Salary(40 Hours)
$961
Bi-Weekly Wage (80 Hours)
$1,923
Daily Wage (8 Hours)
$192
Daily Wage (10 Hours)
$204
Hourly Wage
$24.04
Net Estimated Monthly Income
$3,181
Net Estimated Hourly Income
$18.35
**These are assumptions based on simple scenarios.
50k a year is how much an hour after taxes
Income taxes is one of the biggest culprits of reducing your take-home pay as well as FICA and Social Security. This is a true fact across the board with a salary range of up to $160,200.
When you make below the average household income, the amount of taxes taken out hurts your hourly wage.
Every single tax situation is different.
On the basic level, let’s assume a 12% federal tax rate and a 4% state rate. Plus a percentage is taken out for Social Security and Medicare (FICA) of 7.65%.
So, how much an hour is 50000 a year after taxes?
Gross Annual Salary: $50,000
Federal Taxes of 12%: $6,000
State Taxes of 4%: $2,000
Social Security and Medicare of 7.65%: $3,825
$50k Per Year After Taxes is $38,175.
This would be your net annual salary after taxes.
To turn that back into an hourly wage, the assumption is working 2,080 hours.
$38,175 ÷ 2,080 hours = $18.35 per hour
After estimated taxes and FICA, you are netting $38,175 per year, which is $11,825 per year less than what you expect.
***This is a very high-level example and can vary greatly depending on your personal situation and potential deductions. Therefore, here is a great tool to help you figure out how much your net paycheck would be.***
Taxes Based on Your State
In addition, if you live in a heavily taxed state like California or New York, then you have to pay way more money than somebody who lives in a no tax state like Texas or Florida. This is the debate of HCOL vs LCOL.
Thus, your yearly gross $50000 income can range from $34,175 to $40,175 depending on your state income taxes.
That is why it is important to realize the impact income taxes can have on your take-home pay. It is one of those things that you should acknowledge and obviously, you need to pay taxes. But, it can also put a huge dent in your ability to live the lifestyle you want on a $50,000 income.
My 50k Salary Hourly Calculator
More than likely, your salary is not a flat 50k, here is a tool to convert your salary to hourly calculator.
Many of the starting freight broker salaries are in this range (and before commission)!
Many teachers are hovering in this range, which may make you wonder do teachers get paid in the summer?
Every person reading this post has a different upbringing and a different belief system about money. Therefore, what would be a lavish lifestyle to one person, maybe a frugal lifestyle to another person?
And there’s no wrong or right, it is what works best for you.
One of the biggest factors to consider is your cost of living.
In another post, we detailed the differences between living in an HCOL vs LCOL vs MCOL area. When you live in big cities, trying to maintain your lifestyle of $50,000 a year is going to be much more difficult because your basic expenses, housing, transportation, food, and clothing are going to be much more expensive than you would find in a lower-cost area.
To stretch your dollar further in the high cost of living area, you would have to probably live a very frugal lifestyle and prioritize where you want to spend money and where you do not. Whereas, if you live in a low cost of living area, you can live a much more lavish lifestyle because the cost of living is less. Thus, you have more fun spending left in your account each month.
For many, this is when they are looking at upgrading their car to something nicer, but you must be aware of is a car an asset or liability.
As we noted earlier in the post, $50,000 a year is slightly below the average income that you would find in the United States. Thus, you still have to be wise with how you spend your money.
What a $50,000 lifestyle will buy you:
If you are debt-free and utilize smart money management skills, then you are able to enjoy the lifestyle you want.
You are able to rent in a decent neighborhood in LCOL and even MCOL city.
You should be able to meet your expenses each and every month.
Ability to make sure that saving money is a priority, and very possibly save $5000 in 52 weeks.
Learn how much money should I have saved by 30 since the average salary is $50k.
When A $50,000 Salary Will Hold you Back:
However, if you are riddled with debt or unable to break the paycheck to paycheck cycle, then living off of 50k a year is going to be pretty darn difficult.
There are two factors that will keep holding you back:
You must pay off debt and cut all fun spending and extra expenses.
Break the paycheck to paycheck cycle.
Not using one of the millionaire quotes for motivation.
It is possible to get ahead with money!
It just comes with proper money management skills and a desire to have less stress around money. That is a winning combination regardless of your income level.
$50K a year Budget – Example
As always, here at Money Bliss, we focus on covering our basic expenses plus saving and giving first, and then our goal is to eliminate debt. The rest of the money left is for fun spending.
This is how zero based budgeting works.
If you want to know how to manage 50k salary the best, then this is a prime example for you to compare your spending.
You can compare your budget to the ideal household budget percentages.
recommended budget percentages based on $50000 a year salary:
Category
Ideal Percentages
Sample Monthly Budget
Giving
10%
$250
Savings
15-25%
$750
Housing
20-30%
$1,000
Utilities
4-7%
$167
Groceries
5-12%
$375
Clothing
1-4%
$52
Transportation
4-10%
$146
Medical
5-12%
$188
Life Insurance
1%
$21
Education
1-4%
$42
Personal
2-7%
$77
Recreation / Entertainment
3-8%
$125
Debts
0% – Goal
$0
Government Tax (including Income Taxes, Social Security & Medicare)
15-25%
$985
Total Gross Monthly Income
$4,167
**In this budget, prioritization was given to basic expenses and no debt.
Is $50k a year a Good Salary?
As we stated earlier if you are able to make $50,000 a year, that is a decent salary. You are making more money than the minimum wage and almost double in many cities.
While 50000 is a good salary starting out in your working years. It is a salary that you want to increase before your expenses go up or the people you provide for increase.
However, too many times people get stuck in the lifestyle trap of trying to keep up with the Joneses, and their lifestyle desires get out of hand compared to their salary. And what they thought used to be a great salary actually is not making ends meet at this time.
This $50k salary would be considered a lower middle class salary. This salary is something that you can live on if you are wise with money.
Check: Are you in the middle class?
In fact, this income level in the United States has enough buying power to put you in the top 95 percentile globally for per person income (source).
The question you need to ask yourself with your 50k salary is:
Am I maxed at the top of my career?
Is there more income potential?
What obstacles do I face if I want to try to increase my income?
In the future years and with possible inflation, in many modest cities, 50,000 a year will not be a good salary because the cost of living is so high, whereas these are some of the cities where you can make a comfortable living at 50,000 per year.
If you are looking for a career change, you want to find jobs paying at least $60000 a year.
Is 50k a good salary for a Single Person?
Simply put, yes.
You can stretch your salary much further because you are only worried about your own expenses. A single person will spend much less than if you need to provide for someone else.
Your living expenses and ideal budget are much less. Thus, you can live extremely comfortably on $50000 per year.
And… most of us probably regret how much money wasted when we were single. Oh well, lesson learned.
Deep Dive: What Is A Good Salary For A Single Person in Today’s Society?
Is 50k a good salary for a family?
Many of the same principles apply above on whether $50000 is a good salary. The main difference with a family, you have more people to provide for than when you are single or have just one other person in your household.
The costs of raising children are high and will steeply cut into your income. As you can tell this is a huge dent in your income, specifically $12,980 annually per child.
That means that amount of money is coming out of the income that you earned.
So, the question really remains can you provide a good life for your family making $50,000 a year? This is the hardest part because each family has different choices, priorities, and values.
More or less, it comes down to two things:
The location where you live in.
Your lifestyle choices.
You can live comfortably as a family on this salary, but you will not be able to afford everything.
Many times when raising a family, it is helpful to have a dual-income household. That way you are able to provide the necessary expenses if both parties were making 50,000 per year, then the combined income for the household would be $100,000. Thus making your combined salary a very good income.
Learn how much money a family of 4 needs in each state.
Can you Live on $50000 Per Year?
As we outlined earlier in the post, $50,000 a year:
$24.04 Per Hour
$192-240 Per Day (depending on length of day worked)
$961 Per Week
$1,923 Per Biweekly
$4,167 Per Month
Next up is making $52000 a year.
Like anything else in life, you get to decide how to spend, save and give your money.
That is the difference for each person on whether or not you can live a middle-class lifestyle depends on many potential factors. If you live in California or New Jersey you are gonna have a tougher time than Oklahoma or even Texas.
In addition, if you are early in your career, starting out around 43,000 a year, that is a great place to be getting your career. However, if you have been in your career for over 20 years and still making under $45K, then you probably need to look at asking for pay increases, picking up a second job, or finding a different career path.
In fact, this might be a good time to learn how to trade stocks with the best Travel and Travel course.
Regardless of the wage that you make, if you are not able to live the lifestyle that you want, then you have to find ways to make it work for you. Everybody has choices to make.
But one of the things that can help you the most is to stick to our ideal household budget percentages to make sure you stay on track.
Learn exactly how much do I make per year…
One of the best ways to improve your personal finance situation is to increase your income. Here are a variety of side hustles that are very lucrative. With time and effort, you can start enjoying the lifestyle you want.
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
This is the perfect side hustle if you don’t have much time, experience, or money.
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Time freedom is absolutely liberating!
If you are not aware of the concept of what time freedom is, then you are completely missing out.
This is something that you absolutely need to have in your life.
You need to learn how to design your life around this concept of time and freedom.
In our society, it is looked upon favorably that you are constantly busy; we are supposed to be busier than we were before. It is an accolade, it is a reward; you are given a pat on the back for being busy.
You’re doing a “great job” of living a busy life. But, those are also the same people that are busy hating life and completely stressed out. Is that really how you want to live life?
Today, I am going to challenge you to jump on the time freedom bandwagon.
This past year, I underwent major surgery; one that took months to recover from. As a result, I had a lot of time to think (flat on my back) without a whole lot to do. No to-do list, no driving children, no cooking dinner, no lifting, no nothing. Since I was recovering from the surgery and unable to do a lot of things, I had a lot of time to think.
One thing stuck out clearly… I do not live my life how I desire.
The way I actually spent my time pre-surgery did not align with my values, ethics, or my long-term vision for my life. I was wasting my life away by living the life that others believe that I am supposed to live.
Then, I began designing the life that I want to live. And that starts with time freedom.
Intrigued? Well, you should be… This will be a game-changer for you.
What Does Time Freedom mean?
Time freedom is exactly what you think it would be… have the freedom and the time to live life like you want to live.
You get to call the shots.
You get to do things that you want to do.
You don’t have to do things you don’t want to do.
You control your time.
By choosing time freedom, it gives you the flexibility to enjoy the life that you want to live.
Possibilities include spending time with your family, working on projects that you have passions about, spending time on hobbies that you are passionate about, or volunteering with causes you believe in.
So many opportunities present themselves once you carve out what time freedom means to you.
Think about these questions to help you define time and freedom for you:
If I was given an extra hour each day, how would I spend it?
If I was given an extra day in the week, how would I spend that time?
What is holding me back from living the life of my dreams?
Am I strong enough and have the conviction to say time freedom is more important than how others say I should dictate my time?
If I die today, what would I regret about how I spent my time?
Once you answer some of these questions, you will have a greater chance of figuring out what tiny meant freedom means to you.
While the overall definition of time freedom is the same for all of us; each person will have their individualized approach and personalization to what time freedom means to them.
How to Achieve Time Freedom?
This is something critical for you to dedicate time to think about.
As I said earlier in this post, this is something that I pondered on for a while. And it wasn’t until a couple of months later, once the hard part of my recovery was behind me and I could actually start doing things again that time freedom became even more important to me.
I am stingy. I am choosy with how I am going to spend my time and with who I am going to spend my time.
Time here on Earth is short; it is a speck on the horizon.
So choose to live life passionately and enjoy the journey.
This process of how to achieve time freedom will be fine-tuned as you go through the process. You can spend 10 minutes and think about it, but you really have to dig deep and make really tough choices. More than likely involve your family and close friends in your decision.
You need to define what time freedom means to you and how you are going to achieve it and more specifically why it is important.
1. Evaluate Your Real Life
You need to figure out what you were currently doing and how you are actually spending your time. This means for at least one week, you need to write down every single thing that you do.
For example, if you have to go pick up the kids, even though you know it is a seven minute drive to and from your house and school. It does not actually take you seven minutes; build in bluffer blocks to chat with your friends, talk to their teachers after school, and the whole event of picking up your kids. It is going to be longer than seven minutes.
So, you need to time block every single thing out. That will give you an idea of exactly how long it takes you to get stuff done.
While I am a believer in 30 Minute Meals and I love meals that are quick. I’ll be honest, I may be able to cook a meal in 30 minutes, but there is no way that I am able to cook a meal and clean up in 30 minutes (at least I am honest)! As a result, I need to make time for an hour to cook and clean up dinner.
How does this relate to time freedom? You need to see how you ACTUALLY spend your time.
Once you see how you spend your time, you can evaluate your true life, not the life that you believe is happening in your head.
You get to evaluate how you actually spend your time.
You may notice things like, wow, I spent 45 minutes or 90 minutes scrolling on Facebook and Instagram, and only 10 minutes talking to my children after school.
That could be an eye-opener for you to evaluate your life, and figure out what time freedom means for you.
2. Design the Life That You Want
This is the fun part!
As you are going through the week tracking down every single thing that you do and how you spend your time, you get to start thinking and dreaming about how you would spend your time differently.
Figure out how would you live your life differently.
Now that you know that time freedom is a possibility in your life. You get to start designing the life that you choose.
In order to do this, you need to evaluate what are the things that matter to you most.
If you died today, what would you regret most? Just writing that brings tears to my eyes, but you never know what the future holds.
That is why time and freedom are so liberating. You get to make sure that you get to tell those around you that you love them. They are important, and their life is worthwhile.
This step of designing the life that you want to live will probably take the longest because, over time, you will refine things that were important to you and realized others actually were not that important as you thought.
Refining what type of life you want to live will take time; so, please do not limit this soul-searching process.
Focus on time freedom and what it will mean to you.
3. Take Control of Your Time
Take control of your time and enough of the “busy life.”
That is something of “busy” generations before. Going forward, you want to have space, flexibility, and freedom to live the life that you choose to live.
And that starts by taking control of your time.
Don’t let others dictate your life plan.
In advance, decide how and where you are going to spend your precious time. Block out times for rest, recuperation, reading, hanging out with the kids, working out, etc. Do not let whatever get into your blocked out time.
Do the same for your work time – the amount you get paid to work. I cannot stress this enough. If you are sick and tired of working 60 to 80 hours a week, yet you still do it, week after week, even though you were paid on a 40 hour a week salary that needs to stop today.
Enough is enough.
Stop being there for your employer and crumbling in your personal life.
You need to take control of your time and work is the number one thing that is a most for us (until you reach your money freedom) that we need to do, but it takes the most time out of your life.
If you are paid for 40 hours, then focus on getting your job done just as well in 40 hours, and not spend that extra 20 to 40 hours working overtime. You are not getting paid for overtime. And that doesn’t equate to your time freedom.
Enough is enough.
I know so many people that are tired and don’t want to work anymore because time freedom is more important to them than their paycheck and their sanity.
Start putting barriers in place – block your schedule. Define your working hours and stick to it. No logging in early and no checking emails before bed. You are in charge of your time.
You need to be more respectful of your wishes and your desires.
4. Drop the Things You Don’t Want
This one is hard for a lot of us because we feel like there is a mandatory checklist as we go through the life of things that we are supposed to do. And especially if you’re a mom, you know that you’re supposed to do “mommy activities” like you get a badge of honor.
By participating in something, even though it is not something that you want to do, you are wasting your time freedom
Instead, you need to drop the things that you don’t want to do, and choose the things that you do want to do.
It is not rocket science, but it is hard.
It is hard the first time that you say no to a commitment.
Declare to yourself… I am not going to do this presented opportunity because it gives me the freedom of time to choose something else.
That, my friends, is why you were reading this post! You need the okay that you deserve more in life than being stressed out and running from place to place.
You need to find this time freedom!
5. Focus on Your Time & Desires
This is the step that you need to find clarity and personalization on what time freedom works for means for you.
This is something that is going to become a part of your nature.
It will take time to grow into your new self. It is not a process that is going to happen overnight.
However, I can tell you after going through this process of finding time freedom in my life, I am the happiest person now. What I have in my life is because I am choosing that. And I’m very picky about what I will do and what I won’t do.
Focus on the areas of life that fill your bucket, that energizes you, that makes you just want to keep going. And drop the things that demoralize you, exhaust you, and make you feel worthless.
While you may not be able to flip this overnight to drop everything draining you and add everything that you want. It will be a process, and it will slowly happen over time.
Say no to that friend that every time you leave after lunch, you feel down and depressed because there isn’t much you can offer. She sucks the living daylights out of you.
Block the person on Facebook, who was causing all the controversies. It is not worth it.
You get to choose what is worth it.
That is what time meant freedom is all about.
Time Freedom vs. Financial Freedom
First, let’s look at what financial freedom means.
Ultimately, financial freedom means that you have the money and the resources to do what you please to do and do not have to worry about making a consistent income and how you will pay your bills.
Most people believe that they will never reach financial freedom because they do not have enough money saved. In reality, all it takes is just start saving and begin investing, and eventually, make progress to financial freedom.
If you are not saving at least 20% of your paycheck today, then financial independence is going to take that much longer.
Now, the question remains… how do time freedom and financial freedom correlate?
You are trading time for money.
Time > Money
You value your time over money.
And the good news is you can have both! You just have to figure out your priorities first.
The closer you are to reaching financial independence means you are closer to stop working for a paycheck. Then, you have the flexibility to do what you want to do when you want to do it. That means you aren’t working a nine to five job.
Not everybody reading this post right now can quit their job, walk away, and enjoy time freedom and financial freedom.
It sounds enticing, right? So, what are you going to do about that?
Make a plan.
Figure out what needs to happen financially, so you can find more time freedom in your life.
Sleep takes up one-third of our day, and studies have proven we should not sleep less than the recommended amount.
It’s work. Trading money for a paycheck.
The next thing that has to change is how much time you spend working.
You need to find ways to make more money fast or spend less than you make.
If you are determined to find more time freedom in your life, you will make it happen.
Do everything you possibly can to make as much money in that short season, so you have time flexibility going forward. You dedicate three years of your life to be able to years of time freedom. I believe that’s a good trade-off, and that’s what you need to think about and focus on.
You can still have time freedom without reaching financial independence. You just have to be careful about how you choose to spend your time outside of work.
What is Location Freedom?
Location freedom means the ability to live where ever you want because you want to.
There is nothing holding you down to a particular city, state, or country.
You have the freedom to choose where you reside – simple as that.
Unfortunately, for most of us to find that independence to have location freedom is very difficult because we feel the constraints that we have to stay working in our particular city, we need to stay close to family. There is a list of excuses not to become location independent.
Whereas, my friends over at Tuppennys Fireplace decided that they were willing to move to have the location freedom that they desired. They put in the time and effort to choose the location that they chose to live in.
While this may not be appealing to everybody, there is something appealing about being able to travel the world.
Being location independent, whether you are working or not working, may feel like a dream. But, you can actually make it a reality.
Are you Ready for Time Freedom in Your Life?
Well, we have reiterated that time freedom is the most amazing experience to have.
You may be terrified, and possibly even bored when you learn how time freedom changes your life.
With time freedom, you will have more time to spend on the things that you are passionate about, and less time on the things that suck you dry.
Day after day, you have the choice of how you choose to spend your time. That freedom is up to you to determine; as I have said, this is not an overnight process. This isn’t going to happen on a weekend.
It will take time to design the life that you want to live.
If you want to make drastic changes, then sit down over a weekend and really spend deep, quality time, thinking through this concept of time freedom. You will walk away a new person.
Most people will be jealous. Some people will hate you.
While true friends will stand beside you, and jump on the bandwagon to learn more about freedom of time.
Don’t care what other people think.
This is your life! You have one life to live. Live the best life that you can!
With time freedom in mind, you can design your life and truly understand what freedom of time will change you from the inside out.
If you are intrigued about time freedom, then here are the best time freedom books.
These books will help you build habits to find time in your life. Then, you can begin designing the life you want.
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Know someone else that needs this, too? Then, please share!!
Did the post resonate with you?
More importantly, did I answer the questions you have about this topic? Let me know in the comments if I can help in some other way!
Your comments are not just welcomed; they’re an integral part of our community. Let’s continue the conversation and explore how these ideas align with your journey towards Money Bliss.
This post may contain affiliate links, which helps us to continue providing relevant content and we receive a small commission at no cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read the full disclosure here.
Do you really do need to know how much you make in a year?
When you are an hourly employee, you understand what your hourly rate is, but when you try to translate that into a weekly, monthly, or even yearly amount is may be a struggle.
That is totally fine. In this post, you are going to get the math behind exactly how much do I make per year.
All you have to do is follow a simple equation and plug in your numbers for your personal situation. The end result is you will know how much do I make per year.
Right now, there is not going to be a super fancy calculator to help you all through this. (Just kidding… We have calculators below for you!) In all honesty, though, this is something very basic for you to figure out.
You will figure how do I calculate how much I earn a year.
At the end of the post, we are going to go into detail about ways to increase how much you make per year, as well as tips to thrive on your current salary.
Calculating an Annual Salary from an Hourly Wage
When you are an hourly employee, there are many variables that can go into your annual salary or annual income. Primarily, the first variable is how many hours do you work in a given week. Next, is how many weeks do you work in the year. Finally, if you get paid time off.
For example, you may work less all year, but then in the busy season around Christmas, you might increase the number of hours you work. Or vice versa, if you are in the landscaping business, you are more likely to work more hours during the summer, and less in the winter (unless you find other jobs off-season of your main job like snow shoveling duties).
To calculate your annual wage, you need to multiply your hourly pay times by the number of hours that you work in a day.
Then, take that number and multiply it by the number of days that you work in a week. Next, take that number times the number of weeks that you work per year.
The most you can work in a year is 52 weeks. Do you know how many work days in a year you work? This answer may surprise you.
Steps to Calculate an Annual Salary from an Hourly Wage…
Write down your hourly rate (before taxes, FICA, 401k contributions, etc)
Figure out how many hours you work in a week.
Figure out how many weeks you work per year.
Hourly Rate * (weekly hours worked x weeks worked per year) = Annual Salary
– or –
Hourly Rate * weekly hours worked = Weekly Salary Weekly Salary * weeks worked per year = Annual Salary
**Either formula will get you to the right answer.**
Example #1 –
Your hourly wage is $14.26 that is before anything is taken out like FICA, taxes, insurance, or 401k contributions. In a typical work week, you work 34 hours. You receive paid time off, so you can count working 52 weeks per year.
$14.26 * (34 x 52) = $25,211.68
– or –
$14.26 * 34 = $484.84 $484.84 * 52 = $25,211.68
Example #2 –
Your hourly wage is $22.70 that is before anything is taken out like FICA, taxes, insurance, or 401k contributions. In a typical work week, you work 45 hours. You receive do not receive paid time off, so you can plan on working 48 weeks per year.
$22.70 * (45 x 48) = $49,032
– or –
$22.70 * 45 = $1,021.50 $1,021.50 * 48 = $49,032
Calculating an Hourly Wage from an Annual Salary
A lot of salaried people do not take into account how much they make per hour because they just are paid a flat salary rate. That salary is divided up by the number of paychecks over the course of the year.
You need to take your full yearly salary and divided it by the number of weeks per year, and then, divide it by the number of hours worked per day.
This will give you an estimate of your hourly pay as a salaried employee.
Steps to Calculate an Hourly Wage from an Annual Salary…
Figure out how many hours you work in a week.
Figure out how many weeks you work per year.
Write down your annual gross salary (before taxes, FICA, 401k contributions, etc)
Annual Salary / (weekly hours worked x weeks worked per year) = Hourly Wage
Example #1 –
Your annual salary before anything is taken out like FICA, taxes, insurance, or 401k contributions is $76,500. In a typical work week, you work 52 hours. You receive paid time off, so you can count on =working 52 weeks per year.
$76,500 / (55 x 52) = $26.75 per hour
Example # 2–
Your annual salary before anything is taken out like FICA, taxes, insurance, or 401k contributions is $42,800. In a typical work week, you work 45 hours. You receive do not receive paid time off, so you can plan on working 49 weeks per year.
$42,800 / (45 x 49) = $19.41 per hour when working
How to calculate how much you make a year?
As presented above, figuring how much I make per year is fairly straightforward.
A little math won’t hurt anyone. Plus it makes the money earned more real and difficult not to spend.
But, here is a calculator to help you out.
This will show you how to calculate how much you make a year.
There are two versions based on if you are starting with hourly wage or annual salary.
When budgeting your income, it is always better to underestimate how much you can make in a year.
For tax purposes, choose to overestimate your income, and then you won’t have big surprises come tax time.
Overtime can influence these numbers if you are paid time and half. In that case, run your numbers without overtime and gain just for overtime pay. Then, add those numbers together.
How much Do I Make per Year Before Taxes or After Taxes
Income taxes is one of the biggest culprits of reducing your take-home pay as well as FICA and Social Security. This is a true fact across the board with all salary ranges
The amount of taxes taken out hurts your hourly wage.
Every single tax situation is different.
On the basic level, let’s assume a 12% federal tax rate and 4% state rate. Plus a percentage is taken out for Social Security and Medicare (FICA) of 7.65%.
Thus, on average you can take out 23.65% just for taxes!!
Your gross salary is before taxes are taken out. Your net salary is when taxes are taken out.
Since every tax situation is different and varies greatly depending on your personal situation and potential deductions. Therefore, here is a great tool to help you figure out how much your net paycheck would be.
Un-Factored Costs of How Much Do I Make per Year
One factor that does not come up in this calculation is everything required for you to get to your job. In these examples, the assumption is you are getting paid for every hour that you are actually working.
However, you should take into account everything that needs to happen for you to actually get to your job.
Some examples include getting ready in the morning, driving to and from work, attending the “must-attend” social events after work, the amount of time to decompress from your day, etc.
It is important to know how much do you make after you account for those variables, because the answer may be surprising to you!
Here is an example…
Your workday is normally a 10 hour day, but you have an hour commute on each side. It takes you an hour to get ready in the morning and two hours to decompress from your day.
Thus, you have already added on an extra five hours of your workday on top of your normal 10 hour workday.
So, in essence, you are working 15 hours a day in order to be able to do your job and function as a human being.
That is much less than the 10 hours per day that you thought you were putting in.
Once you account for those variables, many people may realize the extra hours to make life bearable at their job or their commute is not worth it.
Here is a great calculator to figure out your true hourly wage.
So, they make look at changing jobs, even though they will be paid less per hour, they gain an extra three hours back in their life. Making their real workday just 12 hours. So, even though the pay is less, they are actually earning more when you account for these additional variables.
This is called time freedom.
3 Ways to Increase Income
While it is great to know how much do I make per year, it is more exciting and more enticing to actually figure out ways to increase your income.
Even better if you can find ways to increase your net worth.
By increasing the types of income sources that you have, you are going to fast-track your net worth. Then, you can look at retiring early or finally enjoy your work.
There are plenty of ways to increase your income, but we are going to focus on the ones that will make the most impact right now.
1. Ask for a Raise
Too many people are afraid to ask for a raise because they are nervous they may actually lose their job.
When in reality, if you believe that you are underpaid and overworked, then ask for a raise – especially if you do a great job!
There is no reason that you shouldn’t ask for a raise.
While your raise may not be huge, it may only be 50 cents an hour. That adds up to an extra $1,000 over the course of the year! That is still more income in your pocket than you had by not asking.
Don’t settle for the average cost of living increase that most companies typically give out; you deserve more for your continued years of work. Even worse, do not accept that getting the minimum wage increase is enough because it is just not fair. You need to find a new employer ASAP.
You work hard, so you should be paid for your hard work.
2. You Gotta Hustle (Like Another Job or Side Hustle)
In today’s society, you cannot have just a paycheck as earned income.
You must diversify your income sources to more than just trading your time for money.
You would be pleasantly surprised by the increase in TOTAL income at the end of the year.
If you want to make progress further this is something that you need to start doing today.
You can do simple side hustles, such as walking somebody else’s dogs, pet sitting, house sitting, watching somebody else’s kids, or cleaning somebody’s house. Basic skills.
It may not be a huge amount, but let’s say your side hustle made you an extra $100 a week. That right there will help increase your income over the course of the year to over $5,000!
That makes a solid difference on your bottom line.
Let’s say you want to hire out your specialized skills… You make $250-500 per gig and can handle four per month. That is an extra $1000-2500 a MONTH!
Passive income is one of the best ways to increase your income on a consistent basis. You put the hard work in upfront and then you get to reap the rewards, aka the money that flows in without you actually having to work on that. Possibilities include rental income, affiliate marketing, or online courses.
3. Start Selling Stuff
One of my good friends makes at least $500 each month by flipping kid’s toys and clothes. Yes, you read that right. She buys used clothes and toys and resells them for a profit. She has become very good at what she does and is well known in the local market for her items always being quality and at a fair price.
She is increasing her income by doing flipping stuff. It’s not a hard concept.
There are people that will go into goodwill and buy designer brand clothes with the tags still on them for a fraction of the price and flip it on Poshmark. The next day for a profit of over 900%.
I am not joking with you; you can sell things to increase your income.
And all of this selling is during your free time, so it should not take up a whole lot of your time. Maybe an extra hour a day, maybe four hours on the weekend, but would you be happy to walk away with little extra cash in your pocket.
Watch this free course on how to make money flipping stuff.
There are so many options for you to increase your income.
How to Live on what I Make per Year
These money management tips are simple to embrace.
That is because you can focus on a few key areas and not be distracted by every piece of financial advice.
Pick up one new habit and focus on building another on top of it. Slowly and surely, you are more likely to make long-term progress.
1. Spend Less
The formula for this one is the same regardless if you were making minimum wage, or if you are making over $100,000 per year.
You have to live on less than you make.
That is the simple thing. It does not matter what your situation is or how much income you make.
If you are spending more money and have greater expenses than your income, you will never get ahead. Period. You will be on a hamster wheel and living paycheck to paycheck, and for what my readers say – they don’t enjoy that life.
Also, I know many of my readers that they have broken that paycheck to paycheck cycle. They followed the Money Bliss Steps to Financial Freedom.
You need to live below your means.
2. Save more
Save for the future now; stop delaying saving for tomorrow.
Because when tomorrow comes, you are not going to feel like saving money; thus, you are not going to have any more money than you do today. Start saving.
Even if you start right now with saving 5% of your paycheck, that is a WIN!
Make sure your saving is set aside in a separate bank account. Even better, open an investment account and begin your saving journey.
If you know you are a natural spender, then save more money than the minimum of 20%. If you consistently save 20% of your paycheck by the time you retire, or maybe even sooner, you will become a millionaire.
It doesn’t matter how much you make per year if you do not prioritize saving sooner than later.
3. Set Goals
First, you will never make any progress if you do not set goals.
Yet, most people say they will start setting goals tomorrow; and tomorrow comes and no goals are set.
Carve out time to set goals in all areas of your life – personal, professional, health, wealth, family.
Create a bucket list for your long-term goals and make smaller short-term goals to make sure you reach those big goals.
As with anything in life, if you set a goal, you’re more likely to achieve it.
If you write down a goal, you have a greater probability of achieving your goal.
When it comes to your money and your finances and your income, you need to set smart financial goals.
You have to drive and decide what you want to do in your future.
If your goal is to have more time in life then you need to figure out how to make time freedom a priority. If your goal is not to work until you are 65 and afraid to learn what happens if you don’t save for retirement, then start putting money into a retirement account.
You have to put the plan together to reach your goals. Focus on taking action, not being in motion.
4. Positive Mindset
There are two ways that you can go in life:
You can control your future.
You can let your situation pass you by and let life get in the way.
It is totally up to you what you want to do, but you need to have the mindset that you choose to make the most out of this life here now, and that all starts today.
You make be wondering… what does this have to do with how much I make per year?? Well, if you are focused on that number not being enough, then you will struggle to get pay raises and increase your income.
Your mind is a powerful thing. Stay positive.
5. This is Your Journey
Lastly, this is one we tend to forget. Count your blessings.
Be grateful for what you have today as well as the opportunities in front of you.
Don’t worry about what the future holds today.
Be reminded that this is your journey with twists and turns, hills and valleys. Every step you take is guided on a path only made for you.
How Much Do I Make Per Year:
How Much Do I Make Per Hour:
One of the best ways to improve your personal finance situation is to increase your income. Here are a variety of side hustles that are very lucrative. With time and effort, you can start enjoying the lifestyle you want.
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The Empowered Business Lab teaches you how to sell your digital products naturally with strategies that just make sense.
Monica helps thousands find momentum and create revenue streams in their businesses.
After taking a second job as a driver for Amazon to make ends meet, this former teacher pivoted to be a successful stock trader.
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