What if I told you that you could make an extra $1,000 a year at your day job by tweaking a routine by 15 minutes. Would you Robert Downey Jr. me? It’s true! This is not a scam I promise. But, it’ll only work if you get time and a half pay when you work overtime. Every company that I’ve worked for had time and a half pay when I worked overtime. So, lets say that you get paid $10.00 an hour. Your time and a half pay would be $15.00 if you worked over 80 hours during a 2 week pay period.

Here’s where the slight adjustment comes in that will make you an extra $1,000 a year. And that is to clock in 15 minutes early every morning. And take a 45 minute lunch break instead of an hour. So that’s 30 minutes overtime every day.

Now lets break it down so that you can see it. Remember, in this example we’re pretending that we make $10.00 an hour. So, it’ll be $15.00 an hour with time and a half pay.

30 minutes extra every day.

30 x 5 days = 150 minutes

150 divided by 60 minutes in an hour = 2.5 hours a week

2.5 x $15.00 = $37.50 extra a week

$37.50 x 4 weeks = $150 extra a month

$150 x 12 months = $1,800 extra dollars a year.

Pretty incredible when you see it right! Almost $2,000 extra dollars by clocking in 15 minutes early every morning and lunch break. And lets be honest. Are you really married to that last 15 minutes of a lunch break? If you’ve followed me at all and read my past blogs, you know that I brown bag my lunch and eat it in the break room. Every day. I haven’t bought lunch in years. So it’s real easy to clock in 15 minutes early when you’re right there and not having to haul butt back to work from a restaurant.

Ask your employer first before you do this. I don’t want you to get into trouble. Be honest too. Tell your employer exactly why you need the extra time. Maybe you have debt you’re trying to pay off or you’re building your emergency fund. Just say, “I’d like to clock in earlier and work 30 minutes more at time and a half pay so that I can earn a little more money to pay off some debt.”

I am fortunate to work for a company that allows me to do this. I’ve been doing it for years. In the apartment industry, there’s always lots of work to do. Especially in the summer time. So, clocking in early and getting a jump on things is encouraged at my job.

Don’t be shady. Clocking in early and then hiding in the bathroom is stealing from your employer. That’s not cool and karma will take the extra money from you sooner or later. You clock in early and get right to work. Asking to work 30 minutes longer at time and a half pay is not being dishonest. Hiding in the bathroom for 15 minutes in the morning and afternoon is.

If you get the okay, then you’re golden! Bosses and managers really love it when you clock in early too! Not only do you look good to them, but you’re also fattening your wallet. The tweak is so tiny that you can’t even feel it. I mean really, what’s 15 minutes? The only time you’ll feel something is when you look at your paycheck and see the extra cash that’s on there.

Yes, I know that taxes weren’t accounted for. I want to keep the math simple so that it doesn’t look like an Einstein physics equation. But you’re still making a significant amount of extra money. Even with the few hundred that gets taken out for Uncle Sam’s cut. $1,000 extra is a lot!

EXCUSES

The only thing that’s excusable is if you are told that you can’t do this and they send you home when you hit 80 hours before the week is over. Other than that, there should be no excuses. Are you really going over in your head why this won’t work for you? Stop. You can do it! Do what you have to do. You may need to wake up earlier or bring your lunch to work and eat it in the break room. Whatever you have to do for an extra $1,000. Do it!

The example that I used was a $10.00 an hour example. If you make $17.00 an hour, then you’ll make an extra $3,060 a year. Wow! For only adjusting your life by 15 minutes in the morning and in the afternoon. Why isn’t everyone doing this? Because what’s easy to do, is also easy not to do. So, most people don’t do it. Instead of going to bed at a decent time so that they can wake up earlier and get to work 15 minutes early, they stay up watching T.V.

Money Tricks

I love reading about all the different money tricks there are. Finding new tricks for piling cash is a lot of fun. Even picking up all the pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters that broke people are too proud to pick up pays off every year. My change bucket nets me an extra $250 a year! I’m a maintenance technician at an apartment complex and I wondered if people sucked up their change into our car wash vacuum. They sure do!

I check the vacuum waste bag every 3 days and average around .65 cents for each day.

.65 x 3 days = $1.95 a week

$1.95 x 4 weeks = $7.80 a month

$7.80 x 12 months = $93.60

$93.60 for just looking into a vacuum waste bag. Then I add the coins that I find in parking lots and the change I receive after making a purchase. Boom! An extra $250 a year.

Small money leads to big money. It doesn’t have to be this grand event. The giant oak tree starts as a tiny acorn. Keep watering your financial tree with side hustles, money tricks, and other people’s change that they discard. Before you know it, there’ll be $10,000 sitting in your account.

READING

I’ve been reading and studying wealth and wealthy people for about 3 years now. They all stress that you must start a reading regiment. Most of the wealthy people that I’ve read about so far were voracious readers. And it’s not expensive. A library card and library books are free! The library is full of books about normal people with normal jobs that became millionaires. They wrote down how they did it. And no one reads them! How do you explain that? Reading can save you 5 years from the heartache of trial and error. You will learn what not to do from other people that wrote their story down in a book. Reading will help you tremendously on your financial journey towards saving cash and wealth.

Guys don’t let your friends keep you from your dream of being financially free. Seems like as soon as you’re ready to change and get better, the people around you try to keep you down. They’ll keep you out at night and hungover the next morning so you wont be able to get to work 15 minutes early. They’ll even tell you why your plans won’t work! You’re going to have to walk away from the 90% crowd. Don’t read what they read. Don’t watch what they watch. And don’t listen to what they listen to. Time is our most precious asset. We all get the same 24 hours every day. And it’s what we do with it that determines our success or our failure.

HOME

HOW TO MAKE $1,000 MORE AT YOUR DAY JOB WITHOUT ASKING FOR A RAISE

HOW TO MAKE $1,000 MORE AT YOUR DAY JOB WITHOUT ASKING FOR A RAISE

EXCUSES

Money Tricks

READING