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Increasing My Annual Income 10%

Do you know how much your annual income increases each year? Does it even matter?  For me, knowing that bit of information is a pivotal aspect of my financial success.  Knowing how much you made one year compared to the previous can help you quickly gauge if you’re properly handling your money.  If you earned 10% more this year but only have a 3% increase in savings where did the other 7% go?  It is amazing how many people don’t know their monthly nut or the basics of personal finance.  Did you have a huge unexpected expense pop up or is lifestyle inflation creeping in?  If saving for the future is important to you, then keeping this number in mind could greatly help you on your journey.

When I chose the goal of increasing our income 10%, I had no idea what previous years had been like for us.  I also didn’t know what a reasonable income increase should be.  What I did know was that my husband wouldn’t be getting a raise anytime soon.  With things the way they are now his base pay isn’t moving.  He can earn more by teaching martial arts classes outside of the school, so there is a little room for income growth there.  My pet sitting business, on the other hand, has tons of room for growth and this is where I plan on increasing our income the most.

For most of the year, I’ve unintentionally ignored this goal.  August was the first time I’ve even checked the progress on this goal, so I was scared when I sad down and did some calculations for the last few years. This is what I came up with:

  • A 10% increase would be approximately $4000.
  • We had a measly 3% income increase in 2010.
  • In 2011, we saw a phenomenal 10.34% income increase.
  • We have successfully added all new income into our savings for the last 2 years.
  • As of today, we have earned 7.04% more this year than last year!

I am very excited that I am completely on track for accomplishing this goal.  The added income has mainly come from my pet sitting and a radio show project my husband picked up.  Some rough calculations estimate that we may just hit the 12% mark!

I contribute my success in this goal mostly to having a business I am passionate about.  I love caring for animals and most of the time it doesn’t even feel like work.  Because of this I am able to take on more business without feeling stressed and stretched thin.  If my plan had been to make more money doing something I was indifferent about and had ignored it till August I’m sure I wouldn’t have succeeded this year.

 

Readers: Do you know what your income is this year compared to previous years? If so, is that money being utilized to help achieve your goals?

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24 COMMENTS

  1. An awesome goal. It may seem like it would get harder and hard as the income grows, but with inflation erasing some of those gains I think it is a very double goal for years to come! Especially since you are building multiple income streams.

    • Yes, it certainly will become more difficult to accomplish as the income grows but if I continue building multiple income streams then I have a better chance of accomplishing it

  2. I will be getting a substantial raise this month, but I am also hoping to increase my side income and have it equal to at least 10% of my income. Good luck with your goal!

    • Good luck with you goal as well! My 10% increase is essentially from side income since my pet sitting business is very part time while I stay at home with our kids. Once they are a bit older I’ll be turning it into a full time gig

  3. I track my annual income fairly closely. I’m expecting about 20% growth this year mostly from job related stuff to a total of about $155K. Next year is when I’m planning to aggressively move on trading/side income. My wife will hopefully also be employed next year, which would be huge.

  4. My income varies so much that I haven’t tracked it in awhile. Reading your post woke me up to this fact…this is something I should DEFINITELY be doing.

    • I’m glad I could help you realize that. Since tracking mine I have certainly felt more comfortable with our finances because the success is more visible.

  5. Nicely done!

    I’m looking for my passion at the moment, but I have no idea what it is. 😛

    I agree with your idea of tracking your finances and keeping adequate documentation. It’s amazing what you can do with a couple of financial statements. 🙂

    -RG

  6. I was going to say our income has been steady the past few years. I’ve been closely tracking finance since 2008 to keep track of bill paying. But the income has fluxuated a bit more than I thought due to job changes and medical issues. Not sure how this year’s going to be compared to last since there’s been yet another job change in the family. My salary hasn’t changed in a few years but it’s not enough on it’s own. The worst part is all the great savings we accumulated while things are going well is almost gone. I’d love for things to take a turn for the better but it doesn’t look like it’s going to be this year.

    • Sorry to hear its been a difficult year. At least you know that when you are able to save you do so. Things will come up to block progress but getting back on track but being grounded in your savings when times are good keeps those bumpy periods a lot more manageable.

  7. Interesting! And, no, I just look at the W2s or W9s or whatever you get at the beginning of the year, and think, oh, I think that’s more than last year.

    • I used to just do that until I realized that our savings wasn’t reflecting the higher income shown so I wanted to pin point how much of that new money was disappearing because of lifestyle inflation.

  8. great goal – i know what my income relative to last years was, but probably not all of it will go to paying down my debt, which is a chief goal of mine. A good portion of it will, but not all, unfortunately.

    • I’d be impressed if all of it did given all the changes in your life this year. Wedding planning and new house with lots of renovating is a lot.

  9. Would you be interested in writing a post about your animal care business? I would be very interested in hearing about it (in detail!).

    • That post will be coming soon enough! I love writing about it because its something that paid for all my expenses in college expect tuition and many people overlook it as something that can really generate good money.

  10. Yes, I make salary so it is pretty straight forward. I did switch jobs and get a slight bump in pay but all of that bump went to retirement savings.

    • retirement savings is a great place to put that newly earn money! I’ve gotta start saving for retirement. Still figuring out where to put my money.

  11. Every time my income goes up, the state/county/city increase my property taxes to offset any raise I receive 🙁

  12. I have been using Mint.com to track my expenses and income for the past ten months or so. I think it could really help you with tracking your goal as well.

    • I used to use Mint.com but too many duplicate transactions would appear that it ended up taking more time to go through all of them and get rid of them than it took me just to look at my statements and do the math myself. Glad it works for you. It was a great resource for me when I first started budgeting and tracking my spending

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