038 My friend makes $1.3M per year but... Sneak Peek of Wealth Building Part 2 of Book

Ready to talk about money in the age of AI?

Here’s a story about my friend who works in AI and makes $1.3M base salary per year… but there’s a catch …

In this bonus episode, Dr. Joan Palmiter Bajorek shares a sneak peak of Chapter 9 of the Your AI Roadmap: Actions to Expand Your Career, Money, and Joy book. She discusses the critical importance of financial security, especially in the rapidly evolving field of AI. 

How to future-proof your finances in the age of AI?

She emphasizes the need for financial literacy, multiple income streams, and the ability to future-proof one's income against job instability. Through personal anecdotes and practical advice, she encourages listeners to take control of their financial futures and explore various avenues for income generation.

Sound Bites:

• "You need to have your own money."
• "Only one job and paycheck is risky."
• "Join me in building wealth. It's a fun place to be, come join me."

Want to learn more? 

Get all the money building templates and frameworks in the book 

✨📘 Buy the Bestselling Wiley Book: Your AI Roadmap: Actions to Expand Your Career, Money, and Joy

💰 Financial security is essential in the age of AI.
📈 Understanding your worth and negotiating contracts is crucial.
🌟 Having a personal brand can enhance career opportunities.
💡 Multiple income streams provide stability and freedom.
📚 Financial literacy can prevent being trapped in a job.
📖 Real-life stories illustrate the importance of financial planning.
🚀 Income expansion is necessary for financial independence.
🔮 Future-proofing your income is vital in a changing job market.
🗣️ It's important to talk openly about money and finances.
🎓 Investing in yourself and your education pays off in the long run.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Financial Security in AI
• 2:37 The Importance of Multiple Income Streams
• 5:26 Personal Stories: The Reality of High Salaries....
• 8:10 Strategies for Financial Freedom
• 11:21 Future-Proofing Your Income
• 14:04 Conclusion and Call to Action

Transcript

0:00

Hey folks and welcome back to another episode of Your AI Roadmap. Today I'm really excited to share with you a story from my book where I talk about my friend who has a fantastic career. She has a beautiful brand, personal brand. She makes a lot of money, but she doesn't have financial security, which is one of the things I strongly recommend. in the age of AI and the opportunity and volatility, making sure that you can take care of yourself financially. So I'm gonna share a sneak peek of the second part of the book, which is all about money. Now I've gotten some feedback, hey Joan, you work in AI. You help us with talking about career stuff. As an AI influencer, do you really wanna be sharing stuff about money? And the answer is yes, and I'll tell you why. When I came into this field, it was pretty clear that in tech, in AI, there are some good salaries, right? You can be paid very well. You can be paid six, seven figures relatively easily here in the United States. So people would whisper to each other, hey, what's your base salary? What was your signing bonus? What kind of equity package? Blah, blah. But these were whispers between people. trusted each other. When people actually share what they're making, it's not always equitable, people don't always know what to ask for. When I was negotiating the biggest contract so far of my life, a big seven-figure contract, I was so out of my depth. I had gotten to the place where they wanted to sign a contract with me and they were like, okay, you proposed the terms. I think hoping that I just wouldn't know what I was doing. And I pinged my friend who I call Amir and said, hey, could you help me? I need help. I don't know what to do. Like on the technical stuff, I know what I'm doing to get here, but actually to sign all these different terms. So he walked with me step by step how to do that. And in this book, similarly, I want to give back to you, my audience, not to get in the trap of having a great personal brand, having a great career in title. in project and then at home spending it all not having financial security and being trapped regardless. So when you create your own AI roadmap, I want you to have joy and agency in your life. And a lot of that comes with financial security. So let me read you an excerpt. So second whole part of the book is financial recommendations. None of it's rocket science, but I'm telling you, if I had learned this stuff in my early 20s, wow. I would be a lot wealthier, my friends. Okay, so part two of the book, this is in your AI roadmap, Beyond the Day Job, Future Proofing Your Income in Entrepreneurship. Quote, monetize your expertise, create multiple income streams, and thrive, says Dorie Clark in Entrepreneur You, published 2017. Today, more than ever before, winning at wealth requires you to know when you're winning and how to position yourself to quit. while you're ahead. Julian and Kirsten Saunders of Cashing Out win the wealth game by walking away 2022. Those are some fantastic books I recommend you read. Okay, but the book right in front of us. Chapter 9. Bitch better have my money. Beyond the 9 to 5. Finances and my 22 income streams. You will never be truly free, stable and at peace until your financial house is in order. A pesky truth of the age of AI is that everyone's day job is at risk, but we all still need money. As the field of AI automates and eliminates many jobs in the next few years, jumping from job to job won't future-proof your income and provide stability. You need to have your own money, in your own name, in your own accounts. In the first section of the book, we talk about how to future-proof your career. In this section, we'll talk about how to future-proof your income by knowing, growing, and being in control of your wealth. This may be the longest chapter in the book, and my guess is it might become one of your favorites. I'm darn transparent about my wealth. Here are two stories to illustrate how careers and income are interwoven, but also separate. Let me tell you about my friend Sharon. Now I do have an asterisk in my book that unless I say otherwise, all the names are pseudonyms to protect my friends and colleagues. I think this is obvious, and dear friends and colleagues, I hope you appreciate as well. Okay, let me tell you about my friend quote-unquote Sharon. Confident, ambitious, and vibrant, Sharon has been climbing the corporate ladder for years. Working at glitzy companies you know the names of, she has closed $100 million plus deals and now has a C-level title. Network and personal brand? yes, Sharon's got them. Her LinkedIn profile is a work of art. She posts regularly about her amazing projects. conferences. She works hard, works fast, and has cultivated a huge network. She knows everyone in her industry and is well respected. I know and really adore my ambitious friend. What about her finances? She's told me. Sharon's salary, so her base salary, is $1.3 million per year. But here's the kicker. She makes $1.3 million and has been making this type of robust money for years, but she spends it. Her financial portfolio is insecure. When she was telling me recently about really wanting to leave her current company, I asked her, instead of another job, could you retire at this point? Her face went blank. No, definitely not, she responded. Between you and me, I do not know how she spends all that money yearly, but that's her personal choice. From her personal brand, you'd think that Sharon has it all, but the fact that she doesn't yet have her financial house in order. prevents her from having full freedom and agency she craves in her career. Like Sharon, I wish you tons of career success and a robust income. We also need to talk about finances so that you can have a future-proofed income. Now, let me share a story about money and Trader Joe's cheese. So this story, I hope, really illustrates that if someone is making a large salary, that doesn't necessarily mean that they have wealth in that way. Because if they still, I don't know you've heard this phrase, golden handcuffs, but if they perceive that they are stuck in a scenario related to that money, maybe their mortgage is high or they've spent it on a lot of cars or maybe they're taking care of other family members or whatnot, that money isn't actually there to get them to their financial independence goals, which I talk about in a later chapter of my book. I would love to talk to you about Trader Joe's cheese, so let's dig in a little bit longer. Groceries and Trader Joe's cheese. As I started grad school in California, I was horrified to learn that my paycheck did not cover my rent and groceries. I did the math about how much money I got in my paycheck and how much money my rent was and calculated how much my groceries were to be per month. If the overall cost of my groceries was too high at the checkout, I'd need to remove items and not purchase them. It was embarrassing at the Trader Joe's checkout to begin removing cheese and chocolate from my cart. Not the cheese! I felt hot waves of shame wash over my face as other patrons waited in line behind me. I love Trader Joe's cheese. Footnote. Try the Trader Joe's unexpected cheddar and thank me later. After this happened, I knew something had to change. What was my plan? I decided to increase my income. For context, I was a hardworking graduate student. I was heavily investing in myself, my education, my career, my future. I taught at the university, took on a full-time slate of graduate coursework, conducted individual research projects, and overall worked at least 60 hours per week. As an adult, I was off my parents' health care plan, and I was financially dependent on my paycheck for all my bills. California is not a cheap place to live. I had three roommates and was living frugally, but that wasn't enough. Working hard wasn't enough. My paycheck did not cover basic costs of living and a single paycheck wasn't enough. Income expansion and revenue streams. So what did I do? I posted on Craigslist about being a French tutor. Footnote number two, see the text I used in the successful tutoring post at youraroadmap.com slash craigslist post. You can actually see it. Go download it if you want. I had a BA in French and I just moved back from a year of working in France. I put out an offer, explained that I was a graduate student and that I'd just been working in France and I'd done tutoring before and then I charged $40 per hour. It was simple, it was effective. I got multiple inquiries. I then took on three students per week. One was a high schooler who needed homework support. Another was a French speaking family who wanted me to speak with their kids. And the last was a retiree preparing for a trip to France looking for conversational partner. My students paid in cash or checks that many went straight into groceries. In addition to tutoring, I let people know I was available for jobs. I walked dogs. I did dog sitting. I was briefly an after school nanny for a family. After that, I had money to buy my beloved cheeses and chocolate. Huzzah! Soon enough, I found gigs that pay better and better. I found a gig at the Graduate Student Association on campus. It paid $500 a month. As the public relations officer to do marketing, host events, and write fancy emails to provosts. My friend referred me. I applied and I got the gig. My grocery budget now is more secure for years. I then cut some of my least favorite, least favorite tutoring students. It's true, I did do that. Extra bonus, with more money, you can make different types of decisions for your life, for yourself and your life. So overall, this is the financial freedom recipe that I recommend for you three parts. Number one, know your finances. In this story, you'll notice I knew what my budget was and what my groceries were, how much my rent cost, et cetera. Number two, grow your income streams. Instead of shrink, there wasn't much to shrink. I was not spending very much, I just had a really, really small paycheck as a graduate student. So growing my income streams, doing this tutoring, doing these gigs, dog sitting, et cetera. And number three, being in control of my finances. I knew my financial picture and I knew the goals that I had. And at that point, I was investing in my education. know, my master's and my PhD that got me here to speak with you all. growing your finances so that no grow be in control of the finances is that three-part recipe. And from there, I talk more and more about the risks of being, of only having one single paycheck, Jones Hot Take. Only one job and paycheck is risky. Being laid off in a day is possible. You need more options on how to make money to future-proof your income. need multiple income streams. Literally, I just recommend trying one more. If you only have one paycheck, a day job, is there a small side hustle that you might wanna try or scale or otherwise and monetize? know a lot of people who do cool things on the side, but they don't yet make people pay for them. I recommend just starting, you know, five bucks, 40 bucks, start small. So this chapter goes on to talk about more detail of the no-grow be in control. I've got stuff about your emergency fund, expanding your wealth, retirement goals, money review, fun, boring stuff like life insurance and password managers and wills. I've got tons of links. And then in this chapter, I also share, ba-ba-da-ba, my 22 income streams. I've gotten feedback from a lot of readers already in my DMs that it's really eye-opening. that I have literally I've written out all my income streams. You can see my net worth and also talk about the taboo of talking about money, which it's very much taboo. So this is hopefully a very inclusive and hopefully very helpful way to talk about money. In the next chapters, have chapter 10, you wanna be a millionaire, money in and out. I talk about living expenses and shooting for seven figures, paying taxes. lifestyle creep, stocks, diversification, goals for retirement and financial independence. If you heard Luna, she was just jingling over there. I talk about retirement and taking care of yourself at old age. It can get expensive. are you ready for it? So instead of just leaving you hanging, I also provide 57 income stream ideas. So if you're like, hey Joan, I don't know if I'm gonna do French tutoring. I don't really like dogs. I hope you like dogs, but maybe it's not your thing. Here are so many ideas for income streams, how to set up a basic offer, what that might look like, revenue versus profit, and how I have sold different products. So there are 15, 16, anyway, there are several chapters of this type of stuff, and it really walks you through step by step how to consider doing this. And I... If you're listening to this, I'm guessing that this content might be for you, might be for your friend, might be for your colleague, might be for someone around you. And for the small price of $35 to learn more about that, I recommend you get this book. So you can find this at yourairroadmap.com, which is our website. You can check out more about the book. You can also go directly to the Amazon page, yourairroadmap.com slash book. Grab the book, read some testimonials, and I would be so honored and delighted if you upskilled in your financial stability for the next few years and hopefully work out of anxiety mode and into wealth building mode. Come join me. It's a fun place to be. I hope to have a, I already have lots of income streams that help balance me out through different times, and it's really exciting that I've been scaling up some of them that I didn't expect to bring me as much revenue. You just, you'll learn more. So I hope that that's something I can provide to you. Like I said, I wish I'd known this so much sooner. I could have been so much wealthier. And so it's definitely a gift I feel like I'm giving you all. And I hope you take advantage of that knowledge. So hope you had a fantastic time listening to a snippet of your AI roadmap and these money stories. I hope you increase the money in and the money you keep and invest and have a wonderful day and definitely check out the book. All right. Cheers.