Is Your Boss Stealing From You Behind Your Back?

Several years ago I made a startling discovery. I discovered that nearly everyone's boss, including my own, is secretly and continually stealing value from our wages. Once I discovered this, and took covert action to keep it from happening, my hourly wage began to increase without ever having to ask for a raise.

What was this startling discovery? Before I disclose the secret, we first need to solve for a key variable in the equation.

Your Boss Is Not Who You Think

While your boss may be able to dictate what time you need to be at work, and whose rear(s) you need to kiss in order to keep your job, there are two things your boss can't do. First, your boss cannot keep you from changing careers or going to work for someone else. And second, your boss has no say in what you do with your paychecks. This begs the question, who is ultimately in charge of your income level?

You are!

Your boss at work is only deemed to be your boss because you promoted him or her to that position. If they are not performing the job you to your satisfaction, you can fire them and promote someone else into the position -- by changing careers or going to work for someone else. In other words, the missing variable that needs to be understood before you can use my discovery to get a pay raise is ... YOU are the boss, not the person who is signing your paychecks.

How To Get Your Boss (You) To Give You A Pay Raise

As stated earlier, your boss at work has no say at all in what you do with your paychecks. This means that you are the boss of those funds, with complete control over what happens to them. It's what you do with those funds that ultimately determines your wage from one hour spent at work. How so? Please allow me to explain.

Suppose the wage your employer pays you is $15.00 per hour. If you spend the entire $15 on products or services whose value diminishes with time or use, you have effectively limited your wage to just $15 per hour.

On the other hand, if you invest a portion of the $15 you earned from one hour's work, you have effectively given yourself a raise -- equal to interest you will earn on the investment for the period of time you keep it invested. Let's do the math to answer the question ...

Just How Big Of A Pay Raise Are We Talking About?

Continuing with our earlier assumption, if you were to invest just 10% of your hourly wage ($1.50) and you are paid for 40-hours of work each week, the monthly addition to your investment would add up to $260 ($15 X .10 X 40 hours X 52 weeks ÷ 12 months = $260). If you earned 6% (compounded annually) on your investments (4% lower than the historical stock market average) and continued to invest for a period of 10 years, the future value of your investment could be $42,255 -- $11,055 of which would be interest earned, i.e., a nice pay raise.

And that's only for 10 years. Here's what might happen if you continued investing $260 per month (just $12 per workday) for longer periods of time (FV stands for Future Value and Pay Raise refers to interest earned).

• 20 years: FV: $117,927, Pay Raise: $55,527

• 30 years: FV: $253,445, Pay Raise: $159,845

• 40 years: FV: $486,136, Pay Raise: $371,336

But wait! That's only one of several alternatives you have to choose from when it comes to what you might do with a percentage of your paychecks in order to increase your return from each hour spent at work.

Other Pay Raise Strategies

Instead of investing 10% of your hourly wage in traditional investments (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, etc.), you might consider investing in your debt. If you have high interest rate credit card debt, you might be able to earn a guaranteed, tax-free, 18% return by paying off your debts ahead of schedule, versus a 6% speculative return from traditional investments.

Or, since your value to others is a determining factor the size of your paychecks, you might also consider investing a portion of your hourly wage in increasing your value to others -- by furthering your education.

Or, you can do what I did. Use a portion of your hourly wage as start-up capital to build a business around a work that you love. Grow slow, paying as you. If you do that, not only will you eventually be able to set the size of your own paychecks, but you may never have to work again.

If You Have To Ask ...

Do you see how you are the one that ultimately determines your hourly wage, not your employer? The question is, are you (the boss) stealing from yourself by spending every dollar of your paycheck on things that don't appreciate in value? If so, I strongly urge you to position yourself squarely in front of a mirror, look your boss straight in the eye, and ask "Why won't you give me a pay raise?"