Call me CCO – Chief Clown Officer

Call Me CCO – Chief Clown Officer

Today we bring you an awesome guest post from Matt and Jordan who blog over at The Dollar Hackers. Matt and Jordan are each other’s accountability partners and have helped each other towards getting out of debt and increasing their income.

Just like us, they are also working towards doubling their income in the next 5 years so they can increase their savings/investments.  They are going to tell us how we can all achieve that goal. 

Without further ado….

How To Double Your Income

From Matt:

Matt-The Dollar Hackers

“There’s not enough check left in the week!” I’ve heard, said, lived, and breathed this for most of my adult working life. It didn’t matter if I was making 30K, 50K, or more.

No matter what, I’ve always had a problem with the amount of money I made.  That was, until I decided to double my paycheck of course.

Curious how I did it?  The Dollar Hackers have put together a quick guide to doubling your income. No, these aren’t magical steps.  If you follow them, they might NOT work to give a 100% increase, BUT, if you follow them diligently, you should be making more money in no time.

Don’t Be Desperate 

A lot of times we take things because we think we need to.  We take jobs, dates, advice, and opportunities because we think there’s no other option.

This is a quick way to be stuck in a job, career, and financial mindset that is going to derail you from where you can go.

You MUST not accept bad opportunities.  It doesn’t mean to not take them.  I took a job running network cables through a hospital ceiling and getting kicked by doctors under desks but I did not accept it.

I kept my eyes and ears open for opportunities and as a result was interviewed for a job at a Fortune 500 company through a friend of mine.  It would turn out that the position wouldn’t open for hire until 1 year later. I kept looking but ultimately was offered a spot on a Systems team and my income jumped by 40% that year.

Lose the Title.  Change Your Goal.  New Title: CCO

It’s critical that we don’t get caught up in titles. I wanted to be a composer for film, television, and Video Games.  I went to a top 100 college and was accepted into Berklee College of Music in a 10 seat Film Scoring program.

Ultimately? I had a TON of school debt and bar bills on a credit card and realized that careers take years to foster. Once I came to my senses a few years after college I realized just how broke I was at the time.

I sold the expensive sports car and started taking weekend jobs setting up carnival games.  Call me the CCO – Chief CLOWN Officer.  I gave up my pride and drove a $700 car for a year until the water pump started leaking into the engine block.

I gave up this idea that my title and prestige mattered and realized one critical thing that I’ll leave you with before Jordan takes over:

No one is looking at your stuff.  They’re looking at THEIR stuff, thinking you’re looking at it too!

Titles, cars, dignity, career paths…NONE of it matters if your goal is to get out of debt as quickly as humanly possible.  Here’s Jordan.

From Jordan:

Jordan-The Dollar Hackers

 Stay Confident

There seems to be this general thought floating around the business world that you have to be some kind of genius to be successful. This is not true. I’m not saying anyone can be super successful, but it might not be as difficult as you think.

I believe part of the reason for this common thought process is due to Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and other ultra rich figures. We think wealthy individuals and our minds shoot right to the top of the money ladder.

Bring your expectations down a bit (unless you’re planning on being the next big-time billionaire). Think about people you know that make 100K or more a year. Are most of them geniuses who escape their bat caves at night to secretly fight crime? I would venture to say probably not.

$100,000 can offer a nice living in the majority of the US, yes even in many cities. It’s probably a safe bet to say that the people you know making six figures work hard and are always making plans for the next step forward. You can do the same thing!

It doesn’t matter if you’re working at a fast food restaurant making $8 an hour. Make a plan, work hard and pursue your goals!

I have a real estate business and have only been in the field for about three years. I constantly run across other real estate investors that make well into six figures or more. Want to know my most common thought? “THIS guy is making THAT sort of money?” As I mentioned, you don’t have to be a genius to be successful.

You can do this career building thing, you don’t have to be destined for greatness to be successful. Create your own destiny, find your own path, find what you love, work hard and live well!

Grow Your Stash, Keep Your Cash, CCO!

Just like most of you I have an annual income I’d like to achieve within the next five years. Once I reach that goal (and I will!) I’ll set a new income goal.

Do you know what will help me reach those goals? Investment opportunities. Do you know what you need to pursue investment opportunities? Money. No money means no pursuit of investment opportunities which means no profit from those potential opportunities.

Now, you may have heard the phrase “it takes money to make money.” That phrase makes me cringe EVERY TIME because it’s simply not true. It takes HARD WORK and DISCIPLINE to make money.

Don’t misunderstand me, it helps to have money available for investments. The more money you have set aside the more doors of opportunity will open for you.

Learn to live on as little of your income as possible. You can stash the rest for future opportunities, or invest it in IRAs or a 401K, 403B, etc. Make your money work and GROW for YOU. Your future will thank you.

You know what’s nice? A beautiful house, a fast car, vacations, fancy dinners. You know what’s awesome? Having money in the bank, paying for your child’s college, funding your own investments and the ability to sleep at night knowing that you won’t be on the street in two months if you lose your job or your business closes or the market takes a dip.

The “nice” things mentioned above will come in time. But I promise you if those things are the goal, you’ll always feel like there’s “not enough check left in the week” as Matt mentioned above.

Stop self-doubting and procrastinating.  Start pursuing your dreams. The opportunities are endless!

Editor’s note

Thanks Matt and Jordan for this awesome article.  We can relate to everything you mentioned such as not caring much about tittles. 

For example, depending on a contract, Mr99to1percent might get contracted as a Principle/Expert Programmer or as just a Programmer.  Either way, we don’t care, as long as the pay is in line with what we are looking for.

Had he also stayed a permanent employee, by now he would have advanced from Principle/Expert Programmer to Director or VP. However, as a contractor, he still makes more money than your typical Director or VP for less stress and less hours.

As for me? At one point in my career, I was able to negotiate a non-management team lead promotion so I could continue earning overtime.  With the paid overtime, I was able to pay off my $40,000 student debt before graduating, buy a condo, and save a $100,000 emergency/opportunity fund, all in my 20’s.

What about you guys? Do you have any income goals? What about saving goals? How are you growing your stash and keeping your cash? Do you care about titles? Would you rather have a higher salary or a nicer tittle? Any CCO’s in the house?

Thanks for reading.  Please feel free to comment, share and subscribe! We love ya and wanna get to know ya!

Don’t forget to check out Matt and Jordan’s blog The Dollar Hackers

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Do you want to learn more about us? If so, you can also read these other posts:

1. About us
2. How We Increased Our Annual Income From $0 to $160K to $400K+
3. How we live on 15% of our income
4. Joining the Million Dollar Club/Challenge and So Can You
5. How To Pay Off A Mortgage In 5 Years
6. Our Biggest Money Fight and 9 Lessons Learned
7. Our 6 Financial Mistakes and 15 Lessons Learned
8. How I Paid Off My $40,000 Student Loans Before Graduating
9. The resumes that bring in $400,000+/year (Samples Provided)