Films tend to over-dramatize the wealth enjoyed by finance professionals. While plenty of high-level finance executives take home incredible sums every year through salaries, stock options, bonuses, and other perks, the typical worker in the finance field often manages to make a livable wage until they can climb the career ladder to those sky-high positions.
However, there are some career hacks that can help you become wealthy sooner rather than later. If you already have a finance degree and are ready to live a life of luxury, here are a few tips and tricks you might employ today.
Make Yourself a Competitive Job Candidate
Competition in the finance job market is fierce, to the extent that some of the largest investment banks report that their job application acceptance rate is lower than 2 percent. The higher-paying entry-level finance jobs are going to attract the most applications and the best applicants, so you need to make sure that your resume stands out from the rest.
Education credentials are some of the most eye-catching features of any application portfolio. In addition to a bachelor’s degree in finance, you should consider pursuing an online master’s in finance, which will equip you with advanced knowledge and skills and make you more attractive to most employers.
In some cases, a graduate-level degree might allow you to skip entry-level roles and launch your career in a management position, which will come with higher pay.
Other ways to improve your competitiveness as a job candidate include:
- Participating in internships and gaining real-world work experience in other ways
- Volunteering with high-profile causes that matter to you
- Networking with high-level financial professionals on social media or at industry conferences
- Developing a professional brand to market yourself to employers
Negotiate Regularly for a Higher Salary
Getting hired is the first step to earning income as a finance professional. The second step is regularly increasing that income with raises. Most employers will have raised schedules, which ensure that workers’ salaries are keeping up with inflation and rewarding their contributions to the company appropriately. However, you might try to increase the rate at which you receive raises—and increase the amount you receive—by negotiating cleverly with your boss.
Negotiating for a higher salary doesn’t involve pestering your manager for more money. You should wait at least six months to a year between every attempt, and you should be certain that your employer is performing well and thus is capable of paying for your requested raise. To bolster your case, you should research salary data for your position and reflect on your achievements in the period since your last raise.
If your boss rejects your request, you might discuss the availability of other benefits, like more paid time off, more flex hours, stock options, or professional development opportunities. If you are continually frustrated by an inability to increase your compensation, you may simply need to look for a different employer.
Avoid Overspending at the Start of Your Career
When you work in finance, people expect you to be rich and live a lavish lifestyle. Unfortunately, these expectations often cause new finance professionals to spend more money than they have, putting them into debt that can negatively impact their wealth for years, even decades, to come.
Though you might have dreams of living like a millionaire—or a billionaire—you should get in the habit of living well within your means. In fact, if you can put a significant portion of your early income into savings, you can grow your wealth passively over time using compound interest. Then, later in your career, you might be able to acquire the markers of wealth you imagined, like your own boat or annual tropical vacations.
Consider Launching Your Own Finance Firm
Partners, directors, and other higher-ups in finance are earning the highest salaries, so the faster you can reach those positions, the sooner you can get rich. Perhaps the fastest way to ascend to the highest levels of finance management is to launch your own finance firm. Of course, opening your own business comes with a bevy of risks, and you may not get your new firm out of the red and into the black for several years.
However, if you have the experience and drive to succeed as a finance entrepreneur, you might be surprised by how much you can earn every year.
You can become wealthy in the finance profession, but only if you make wise choices about your wealth from the very beginning. You will need to work to create a fantastic career in finance and avoid major spending mistakes, and only then will you be able to live the life of finance professionals you see in movies.
