How to Have Money Work For You Rather Than You Working For It

The challenge when looking to make an extra income is that most people earn a living by trading the most precious resource of all, their time in return for money; whether you stack shelves in a supermarket or perform open heart surgery – in both instances, you would be swapping your time for money.

The amount you are able to trade your time for is contingent on the value you provide; an attorney will often charge more for an hour of their time than a janitor – because the service they provide has a higher perceived value.  That’s not to say they have more value as a human – it just means they are contributing more value to a client from the hour they spend doing what they’re doing.

The challenge, even if you are a highly paid attorney, is that if you want to earn an extra income there are only so many hours in the week that you can trade your time for money – and there’s also a ceiling that people are willing to pay.  Similarly, presuming you value your life beyond work – you need time to enjoy life.

Here are three ways you can start to have your money work for you – rather than you having to work for it.

INVEST IN BITCOIN

The recent boom in the value of the bitcoin has seen many people wishing they had invested, or at least taken bitcoin a bit more seriously a few years back.  Investing in currency that’s likely to appreciate in value is a great strategy to start having your money work for you – rather than you working for it.

INVEST IN THE STOCK MARKET

There are a number of tools such as stock screener that can help you make a decent income by playing the stock market.  There’s a number of online stock market trading courses you can take to get your head around the logistics, but in reality, it’s reasonably simple and there are some low risk strategies to protect your downside.

HIGH INTEREST BANK ACCOUNT

Admittedly, you need money to start with but if you were to have $100,000 in a high interest bank account, some of which will pay up to 20% interest in countries such as Turkey and India – that would be $20,000… which is a decent yield given the money invested is not at risk; unlike in the two options above.

In summary, there are ways you can start making your money work for you – meaning you are leveraging the money you have as an asset that starts generating passive income; rather than having to trade your time for money.  

Indeed, it’s clear from the above three suggestions that capital is required in the first place which can be frustrating to people just starting out – but even if you were to invest 10%;20% of your salary into some form of investment it will quickly put you in the position to start generating passive income, in the form of interest, appreciation or dividend payments.