How to Increase Your Income After 40

Pay increases usually hit a glass ceiling around age 40. You're in for a precarious situation even if you have saved for retirement, no thanks to higher inflation rates and increasing expenses throughout your mid-life. Cushion the blow of rising costs by earning more on the side while saving. It's possible even if you're past the age of 40.


Here's how to get started.


Make a list of your skills
Write down all job positions you've held over the years and take note of the skills required from each position. Don't drop your pen yet. What about skills you weren't able to use at work? Skills you only apply in your spare time such as writing and designing kids apparel? Any more hobbies? List them down.


Match your skills to career opportunities
There are too many career ideas that spring up everyday on the internet. There's a big chance that one of these ideas match your skills and work experience. If you're into writing, there are plenty of jobs on freelance writing or editing and research. Start establishing your portfolio early on so you can later win clients.


Upgrade your skills and get additional career ideas
When you work from home and get writing and editing gigs online, the next thing you should do is look for complementary skills that can further improve your chances of winning a project. Learning SEO can help you bag web writing jobs. And so is web research.


There also plenty of useful tutorials to mine around the web. If you're a total newbie, get free tutorials and PDFs that cover the basics of topics such as SEO or HTML.


Rethink your idea of retirement
Do you want to retire early? What if you can't afford it? What if you can afford it but it's not going to offer you the lifestyle you're after? It's time to rethink your idea of retirement. There are many who benefit from a semi-retirement lifestyle. These are people past the age of 40 or even 50 who have found part-time careers in the later stage of their lives.


Maintain a low-profile lifestyle
If you can't be frugal or skimp on necessary expenses, at least keep a low-profile lifestyle. Make sure that you've build enough nest egg and avoid falling into debt. Aggressively pay credit card or loan debt while you're young for who knows what major expenses will crop up later.