Learning how to make 6 figures ($100,000) a year is a common goal for many — and why wouldn’t it be?
The six figure number is a milestone that would put your earnings well beyond the median household income in the United States, and potentially afford you with a more comfortable lifestyle.
But how do you get there – especially if you’re making nowhere near this number now?
Ways to earn 6 figures a year:
There are many ways you can get to earning six figures a year. The two most common ways are:
- Getting a job that makes six figures a year
- Starting a side hustle and scaling it so you’re eventually making six figures a year
- A combination of the two above strategies
None of these options are easy, and they will likely involve sacrifices and sweat equity. But leveling up your full time job and scaling a side hustle are https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/about/about-ramit/”>exactly what we specialize in at IWT. The following systems have worked for thousands of our students successfully, and with time and effort, you could be on your way to earning 100k in a year.
What Does a Six-Figure Income Actually Look Like?
You need to make at least $100,000 a year if you want a six-figure income. That means making at least:
- $8,333.33 a month, or
- $2,083.33 a week, or
- $416.66 each workday, or
- $52 an hour.
Breaking down your larger goal into smaller increments will help you understand what it will take to get where you want to go. Can you land a full-time job that pays $52 an hour? Or can you freelance for that amount?
It’s important to figure out where you are now compared to these benchmarks if you want to reach your goal of 100k/year.
How to make $100,000 a year in 5 steps:
Let’s get started.
Step 1: Set up your financial foundation for 6 figures
When you have a goal as ambitious as “I want to earn a six-figure income,” it’s easy to lose sight of the really important things in your life.
I’m talking about the basics: food, water, shelter, etc.
This is the “Tripod of Stability” — all of the foundational, big aspects of your life that you keep ultra-stable so you can take risks in other areas.
“I’m a proponent of part of the https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/the-tripod-of-stability/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Tripod of Stability,” says Naveen Dittakavi, founder of https://nextvacay.com/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>NextVacay.com. “If you have a day job, you need to ensure that it’s stable. You have to carve an ability to work on your side hustle while doing great work at your day job.”
He continues, “I lived at home for six years. My parents were really cool and helped me get by while I built out my business.”
Naveen recently scaled his hustle so that he’ll be taking away roughly $1 million this year (so you know he knows his stuff).
By taking care of your big things — your home, car, relationships, food — you’ll be able to take risks in areas like your side business. As Ramit says, when you have your bases covered, you’re not really taking risks at all.
Your Tripod of Stability doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re free of sacrifices though. If you want to devote yourself to making six figures a year, you’re going to have to change some of your habits and beliefs.
“I sacrificed a lot to build my business,” Naveen recalls. “After all, living at home with your parents for six years means you’re going to be single for six years — BUT it gave me what I wanted out of my life.”
Action step: Identify your Tripod of Stability
Write down the three main “legs” of your Tripod of Stability. These are the things that, if they remain constant, would allow you to weather dramatic changes in other areas in your life. It could be things like:
- Your home
- Your car
- Your job
- Your spouse or partner
- Your savings account
Once you know what makes up your Tripod of Stability, you can make sure you have those areas secure so you can start taking risks in areas like starting a side hustle.
Here are a few suggestions of some other great sites freelancers can use to find business online:
Once you find a potential client, you’re going to want to reach out to them and pitch your services.
Building a business, including a freelance business, can be complicated. In Earnable, we’ve broken down the entire process. It’s been proven over 15+ years, 50+ industries, and 42,000+ paying customers. It’s a complete system — you get all the exact strategies, frameworks, hands-on tactics, real-world examples, mindsets, done-for-you templates, word-for-word scripts, and hard-won breakthroughs to start and grow your own business. https://buy.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/earnable/?_pt=Website&sales_channel=website&utm_campaign=earn-blogpost&utm_content=earn-blogpost-100000year”>Click here to learn more.
Action step: Find a client and email them (with scripts)
Find your client using the information I’ve outlined above. Let’s say you are a video editor looking to pick up some side work. Here’s a handy script you could use (just replace the “video editor”–specific stuff with your skill):
CLIENT’S NAME,
I saw your post on X and visited your website. I noticed that you’ve recently started using videos too.
I’ve been doing video editing for three years and I’d like to offer to help you edit your videos and get them optimized for the web.
That would make them look more professional and load faster, which is important for your readers. And you’d free up time that you could use to create new content.
We can discuss the details, of course, but first I wanted to see if this is something you might be interested in.
If so, would it be okay if I sent you a few ideas on how to help?
Best,
Joe Example
A few takeaways:
- There is zero fat in the pitch. Every word counts and is needed to help really sell the benefits of working with you.
- Don’t mention payment. There’s nothing that will kill a potential client’s interest in you more than pushing prices on them before they’re ready.
- Stress the benefits. This email shows the client why it would be in their best interest to buy from you in the third paragraph.
Once you get a client using this email, congrats! You just secured your first client — but it doesn’t end there. You need to actually do the work for them, and that means continually adding value.
“Being super aware of how you can help people and how they perceive you and recognizing that money will come if you’re valued by your audience helps most,” Naveen explains.
Step 5: Invest in your finances AND yourself
Investments can take all shapes and forms. Let’s walk through three areas where you can start to invest when it comes to building out your six-figure life.
Investment #1: Personal finance
This is IWT’s bread and butter. We have https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/category/master-your-money/”>extensive resources when it comes to personal finance. It’s also a very important leg anyone should have on their Tripod of Stability.
The easiest way to get started ensuring your personal finances are in order is by automating your finances.
This is our system of sending your paycheck where it needs to go each month (utilities, rent, cell phone bill, etc.) so you don’t have to worry about it.
“Being financially conservative, I have also automated my cash flow so that I automatically have savings and investments,” Enoch says. “I enjoy not having to think about savings and investments. I enjoy being able to spend money without worrying whether I’d have enough cash to pay for the highly cyclical quarterly gas bill or bimonthly electricity bill when they come.”
“Automation is incredibly important,” Naveen says. “At the time I was drawing a wage from my day job, it was helpful to put my trust in a system that made sense and would work out in the end. At the time, I was putting cash away in my ING Direct account and my sub-savings accounts. I was able to see that number increase and I saw it worked really well.”
https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/automate-your-personal-finances/”>Automating your finances only takes one to two hours at the most, but once you set it up, you don’t have to worry about it again. It’s definitely a key part of how to make $100,000 a year.
AND it’ll save you thousands of dollars over your lifetime.
Investment #2: Your side hustle
If you want to know how to make $100,000 a year, you’re going to have to hustle hard. That means you’re going to reach a point in your https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/5-best-side-hustles-you-can-start-today/”>side hustle where you’re going to have to put back some money into it if you want to grow.
That could take the form of hiring employees, buying a website domain, or getting a mentor / coach as was Christina’s case.
“It sounds cliche, but working smarter instead of working harder is how I reached six figures,” Christina explains. “How do you work smarter? You surround yourself with people who are smarter than you and have already achieved what you’re working for.”
So she hired a business coach and found someone to help her build out her business.
“I really did my homework,” she says. “I hired someone with a team of people, all of which were successful entrepreneurs earning at least multiple six figures, many of their clients were earning at least multiple six figures, and the coaching team had a very high retention rate, which told me they must do something right!”
That’s just one example though. You can find many ways to put money back into your business to help it grow.
One great way to invest is to https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/hard-to-find-mentor-coach/”>seek out mentorship or purchase a product or a book — which brings us to …
Investment #3: Yourself
Possibly the best investment that you can make that will put you on a path to make 100k a year is putting money in developing yourself both career-wise and on a personal level.
“My biggest investment is self-care,” Bonnie says. “The first thing on the calendar each month is Pilates, pole fitness, massages, day spa visits, couples therapy, quick getaways to Desert Hot Springs, and so on. If I’m not my best self, I’ve got nothing to bring my clients. It’s just stupid important, as investments go.”
LOVE IT.
Who cares if this seems like a luxury? Who cares if people might scoff at the idea of getting a massage? What matters is that YOU want it and that YOU are willing to work for it.
The best way to get started is to begin investing in yourself. This is something people rarely think about when they start learning how to make $100,000 a year.
And one thing that you will find very common with people who have not taken the time to invest in themselves and learn how this stuff works, is they will create what’s called levels of abstraction.
Rather than just going directly to what they want, they will create all these different levels of abstraction — like making a Facebook page or a blog — that make them feel good, but that actually don’t require them to do the hard work.
So, they’ll spend six, nine, twelve months doing something frustrating and then give up because they never spent time buying a couple good books or buying a course.
Frequently Asked Questions About How To Make 6 Figures
Is it hard to make 6 figures?
Building up to or earning 6 figures is not easy. It will take hard work to be able to earn that much or acquire that much wealth. The best way to get to $100,000 is by constantly increasing your net worth and skills.
What jobs make 7 figures a year?
Here’s a list of jobs that make 7 figures:
- Business Owners
- Doctors and Other Medical Professionals
- CEOs and Other C-Suite Executives
- Salesmen
- Investors
- Bankers
- Corporate Lawyers
- Actors and Actresses
- Professional Athletes
- Youtubers and Influencers
At what age should I be making 6 figures?
Usually, people don’t earn 6 figures until they are in their 30s. However, there is no specific timeline for this and everyone is different. Workers in America are usually expected to be making 6 figures or more by the time they are 30 because of their experience. There are of course outliers and exceptions to this rule.
https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/how-many-of-you-make-over-100000-year/”>