Negotiating your way to Financial Independence

I hate to break it to you but the American/Canadian dream is over.

You were told to put your head down. Pull up your socks. And you did.

You volunteered, got good grades, attended university, got your foot in the door at an entry level job. But it hasn’t worked out for you?

Sound familiar?

If this was ever true, I’m afraid to tell you it was true for Baby Boomers and us Gen Xer’s. Yes, I’m a tail-end Gen X’er born in the late 1970s. Tuition was cheap for me, including post grad studies, jobs were plentiful, and the cost of buying a starter home was affordable based on wages. I graduated with minimal debt after almost a decade of post-secondary education and I bought my first home in a major Canadian city for $150,000 downtown! I was able to invest in other rental properties including the stock market for retirement, and my principal home and rental properties appreciated nicely over the past decade.

Sadly, this reality is in the rear view mirror.

Earn More Money

Beyond saving more than you spend (something you should absolutely be doing anyways) and investing the difference, the most important thing you can do to fast forward your journey on your path of financial independence, is to earn more money. After all, you can only cut so much out of your life until life is no longer worth living. After all, everyone needs a roof over their head and food on the table to eat.

Earning more money at your job nowadays means you must be prepared to jump ship every 2 years or so. Staying put in a job only guarantees that you’re underpaid relative to the most recent hire at your office doing the same job or often, even one lower down the pole. Staying put in a job like I did for 5 years each job or forever like my parents did, is no longer a viable strategy in a world where your employer no longer has your back in the form of a defined benefit (or even defined contribution) pension plan.

My Top 5 Job Negotiation Tips

These are my Top 5 job Job Negotiation Tips to get you that higher salary:

1. Never ever answer the question in an interview about your salary expectations. Your response is that your expectations are commensurate with your experience. Don’t undercut yourself and leave money on the table. You may offer a figure that is in fact lower than what your employer was willing to offer you. I’m not saying go bat shit crazy either, but don’t sell yourself short either.

2. A job offer is an invitation to bargain with a counter offer. If you get offered a $50K salary, counter with more. They made you an offer so they want to hire you. There is almost always money on the table.

3. Pay attention to currency differences. If the company is American and you’re in Canada or another country for that matter with a weaker currency relative to the United States dollar, the salary offer is priced in U.S. dollars. That means there is 25-35% (assuming CAD vs. USD) on the table given the exchange rate. Don’t leave this money on the table. Take the money. Your employer has already priced the job in USD so take the currency difference.

4. Probation clauses are not your friend. You’re leaving a steady paid job and taking a risk on a new employer who can fire you at will during a probation without severance. Try and get these eliminated or reduced in terms of length of time. (Eliminating these clauses will be easier the more experienced and senior a recruit you are).

5. Job titles don’t cost your employer anything. They are handed out freely nowadays. If you want to position yourself for a future role, ask for the title you want or a different one if the offered title isn’t where you want to be at your next job or where you want to go. Job titles don’t cost a company anything but can make you more money at your next job.

These tips above have all worked to my advantage in the past. Your mileage may vary. Now I’m in a position where quiet quitting is a reality though I still work hard when needed.

Do you have any other negotiation tips that you’ve used that have worked well? Please comment below and share them so we can all benefit from shared knowledge and experience.