Household stability depends on wealth, which allows you and members of your family to afford reliable shelter, food, clothing and other essentials as well as various comforts. Yet, wealth is not as easy to build as many people expect — largely because typical earnings do not provide much latitude for workers to increase their savings and allow their fortunes to grow. According to recent research, the average livable wage for a family of four in 2019 was $16.54 — and that was before rampant inflation of the post-pandemic period. The average annual salary in the U.S. hovers around $51,000, which is less than most families need to thrive.

To build wealth, you need to invest wisely, save strategically and increase your earnings as much as possible. Your wealth is limited by the money you have coming in; you will struggle to grow your wealth if you cannot save a large portion of your paycheck every month.

Fortunately, increasing your earning potential does not have to be as difficult as it sounds. Regardless of where you are in your career, you can make a positive impact on your income by using the following tips:

Motivate for a Raise

In most organizations, you will not get what you do not ask for. Not long ago, it was customary for companies to provide small annual raises to allow salaries to keep pace with inflation and to return value for employee loyalty. However, in recent years, regular raises have fallen out of favor. These days, even if you are the highest performing member of your team, your manager might not be able to offer you a raise unless you make a request for one.

Many employees avoid asking for a raise, fearing that it might cause conflict with their superiors that could put their employment in jeopardy. However, most managers are eager to reward their hardest working team members with raises and merely need you to initiate the conversation to get the process started. You should make your first raise request a year after you begin with a company, and you can make annual requests thereafter. If you can make your request after you complete an important project, you are even more likely to see a salary increase.

You should be prepared for some negotiation with your employer when you ask for a raise. You might ask for more than you expect to receive with the anticipation of lowering your request to a more reasonable amount during negotiations. You can research your role and your industry to find out what others in your position are earning, and you should talk to your coworkers about their wages to develop your minimum figure.

Motivate for a Title Change

Your job title matters more than you might expect. If you have been laboring for years under a job title that includes a word like “junior” or “assistant,” you might request a change that better reflects your responsibilities or expertise. Many organizations cannot afford to give you a raise but altering the name of your position is essentially free, and it gives you more authority to negotiate for promotions, better pay or a new job with a different employer.

Continue Your Education

Research shows that more education equates to a higher salary and lower rates of unemployment. The biggest jump in earnings occurs between lacking and earning a high school diploma, but there are noteworthy increases between associate’s and bachelor’s degrees and between master’s and professional or doctorate degrees.

If you are young and have not yet established yourself in the professional space, you might benefit greatly by pausing your career and returning to school for an advanced degree. Otherwise, you might use online education to boost your credentials and improve your earning potential. For example, prestigious universities offer opportunities for high-level executive education online, which you should be able to fit into your existing work schedule with ease.

Practice New Skills

Formal education programs provide you with the tools and space to gain the expertise you need to advance your career, but there are plenty of skills you can practice on your own, outside the classroom. Some examples of skills you can practice on your own to boost your earning potential include:

• Communication. You can practice actively listening, paying attention to your tone and body language, being concise and other elements of effective communication at home, with friends and with coworkers.
• Writing. You can practice writing by keeping a journal, crafting morning pages, reading high-quality writing and allowing others to edit and critique your writing.
• Coding. Coding is a similar skill to writing, and it is becoming increasingly valuable as the demand for tech workers rises. You can practice coding online using websites that gamify the coding skill and by sifting through code you can find online.

Become an Industry Influencer

Once you have the enhanced education and skill required to excel within your industry, you can turn to the web with your newfound expertise. There are several platforms on which you can create content for fellow industry professionals; LinkedIn allows you to write and publish articles about your industry to better develop your professional network, but you can also generate a sizable following by engaging with popular social media sites like Instagram, YouTube and even TikTok. Being an industry influencer affects your earning potential in two ways: You can market and sell products like ebooks and webinars to your audience, and thanks to your expert voice in your industry, employers will be more apt to hire you into positions of authority.

Look for a New Role

If your request for a raise was denied and your manager is not impressed by your education or skills, you probably need to look for a new role where your abilities and loyalty will be valued. You might consider searching for a new role within your career lattice, which might take you into a different business department where you are more passionate and productive in your work. Considering a move along your career lattice can keep you employed within the same organization if that is important to you. However, it might be faster and easier to increase your earnings if you make a move to a role at a different company, where you can set your salary higher from the start.

The first and arguably most important step to building wealth is reliably increasing your income. With the above tips, you should position yourself well for a high earning potential that will give you more access to money for saving and investing.