Chapter 7

I have spent way too much time on the internet and all social media platforms. Without fail every time I end up on some sort of personal finance or budgeting side of these platforms.

Every single personal finance 'guru' gives the same advice to people: Cut down your expenses and you'll gain financial freedom. Now don't get me wrong, cutting expenses is not inherently bad. However, when someone is making minimum wage, or close to minimum wage and the cost of things is constantly going up, it's tone deaf to tell people to 'cut costs'. Mainly because there are a lot of things that are basic necessities and you can't always cut costs there.

"Tejal, where are you going with this?"

I promise I am going somewhere with this.

What most people fail to understand is that cutting costs can only go so far, what most people need are jobs that pay better or negotiate their salary or ask for a promotion.

Most people likely need to increase their income.

If you are already in your career field and enjoy it, that's great. You can still negotiate your raise or ask for a promotion.

Now don't go into your next 1-1 with you manager and demand a promotion, instead do this.

• Look up the job description for your current role.
• Align all the duties you've been performing for the last six months to a year.
• Next you'll list out all the additional tasks or duties you've been performing for this period as well. See if these additional tasks or duties are aligning for the next level up at your organization.
• During your next 1-1 you'll bring up this additional responsibilities and clearly identify that you want to work towards your promotion. Ask your manager this question after bringing up your intention: "What do I need to do to get to this next level?"
• Your manager might not have an answer right then and there, if they don't, ask them when you can follow up. If they do, ask for a timeline. Something like, "If I start doing these tasks, what timeline should we expect for the promotion?"
• Your manager will give you some level of answer.
• Next you'll follow up on that timeline, and talk about the raise.

You'll need to do some level of market research on what this next level pays. Typical increase from one level to another is about 10-15 %. Yours could be more, it could be less. So DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!

Your career is your responsibility. Take ownership of it.

Next chapter, I'll talk about how to get those higher paying jobs if you aren't in the field of your dreams.

Until next time,

Stay Caffeinated.