How I Increased My Salary Tenfold and What It Taught Me
Or How to Stop Regretting Money Spent
We’ve already explored two primary resources of life: our body and time. Now it’s time to delve into the last one — the material world.
This is the world we create and inhabit.
And for its convenient utilization, humanity has invented a universal tool — finances, or simply put, money 💸
Money isn’t everything in life, as many would assert.
And they are indeed correct.
Yet, as usual, many miss an important nuance.
Money is one of the most crucial things
Health, to some extent, can be bought, restored, or maintained with a certain amount of funds.
Just calculate how much you’ve spent on medicine throughout your life, and consider what you would do without it?
Some effective treatments can be incredibly expensive.
As a result, we periodically see advertisements pleading for financial help for children and adults with complex medical diagnoses.
Often, the amount collected is a matter of life and death 😢
In such moments, money can almost challenge the Great Trio of Resources for supremacy.
However, time does not tolerate such audacity.
Part 1. Loss — The Foundation of Our Existence
The material world is the fruit of human evolution, as a conscious and intelligent being.
This is not present in our biological nature — the nature of a human living 100,000 years ago.
This bestows upon money a fascinating property:
An excessive emphasis on it can kill us.
It can destroy your health, it can shatter relationships with people, even those closest to you.
Yet another incredibly powerful tool.
One with which it’s vital to learn how to handle as early as possible.
The better your skills in managing the first two resources:
Health and time.
The more effectively you will handle financial means.
The world is arranged in such a way that only through loss do we begin to appreciate.
This is especially true for the Great Trio of Essential Resources.
🔹 The more valuable what you lose, the more profound the lesson that loss teaches.
The value is determined by the possibility of retrieving what was lost and the time necessary for it.
That which can not be regained holds the highest value, such as time.
In the material world, if you can quickly purchase something again…
It immediately loses much of its value.
Or in the case where you don’t need to exert any effort. This is often relevant during the period when we live with our parents, when we spend their resources.
Part 2. The Beginning
My first understanding of resource priorities in the material world began in early childhood with computer games.
When you needed 600 gold ⚱️ and 300 wood 🪵 to build a farm 🐷 😊
The next stage was when paid internet arrived in our town.
I began to calculate how many school lunches I needed to skip to download the materials I was interested in: sometimes educational, sometimes entertainment.
🔹 The first conscious sacrifice of my own health.
7 hours without food at school…
No wonder my head simply split by the end of the school day.
The main stage of management started at university when I got a scholarship.
Then, being an honors student, it was doubled.
It was a great incentive at the time when nothing yet ached.
My parents still covered most expenses, so I began to accumulate significant spare money.
At that time, I continued to spend it on hearty food at the university: cheeseburgers and instant coffee.
After two years I had gained almost 20 kg.
The reflection in the mirror began to quietly remind me of something other than the former me.
And one day, I realized it would only get worse and decided to lose weight.
Part 3. Powder
Being young and foolish, swayed by others’ advice and marketing around, almost all my scholarship money went into sports nutrition and various supplements.
Eventually, I lost everything I had gained, and naturally…
I thanked NOT my strenuous workouts but the miraculous powders and pills. 😵
It was everything to me. Everything for which I studied and earned my first money.
It took about three months on average to save up for another five-kilogram packet of protein.
And one day, when I wanted to pour another serving into my glass of water — I held the container over the bag of powder — my girlfriend accidentally nudged me with the door as she was opening it….
I lost control. Pretty much like the Hulk 😡🤬
I was throwing my nerve cells around, yelling at the best person in my life — my future wife, with whom we are still together, so loudly that it seems the whole of our small town heard.
It seemed to me that she had destroyed at least the last three months of my efforts and the next three months of workouts.
My horror, despair, and disappointment knew no bounds. How could the closest and dearest person do such a thing? I wondered.
I didn’t think that I could have not held that glass over my bag, that I could have not kept the powder in such a place.
There were 1,000,000 ways I could have avoided this situation.
It was the first loss, as it seemed to me at the time, of a colossal sum of money. Time was secondary at that moment.
Only later did I see that 400 ml of water couldn’t physically absorb 5 kg of powder 🫠
But all the words had already been said, they could not be taken back 😮💨
I thought it was a natural reaction, you get what you give.
I was ashamed, but just a little.
🔹 The main conclusion I made then — if I had had more money, I could have easily bought what I lost.
The realization I came to much later:
nothing in this world is worth the insults to your loved one ❤️🩹
Part 4. New Losses
4.1. The First Laptop
During my early college years, I made do with a sluggish laptop that could barely run most programs, let alone games. This sparked a desire for an upgrade.
After half a year, taking into account holiday gifts, I managed to save up an amount roughly seven times greater than what I had previously lost.
When I finally got it, my joy and pride knew no bounds. 🥳
One day, my wife decided to teach me a lesson for leaving my trousers in the wrong place.
She threw them towards me, missed, and hit the laptop instead.
I heard the sound of the belt buckle smashing against the screen as it flipped over.
I exploded again 😡
This time even more fiercely than before.
I hurled a nearby computer chair into the air,
Which weighed about 15 kilograms 😳
It did 3–4 somersaults before crashing to the floor 😨
Breaking a chair leg and slicing through the linoleum.
That led to a serious argument.
The main lessons:
1️⃣ Throwing objects is never a good idea.
2️⃣ Don’t buy something you can’t afford to replace if it breaks.
Upon examining the laptop, I am still amazed there wasn’t a single scratch on the screen.
I used it for just under a year when the trend for more modern data storage devices, not default in many laptops (like SSDs), began to gain momentum.
But it was possible to buy one separately and install it myself.
I was convinced to save money and purchase a cheaper one on AliExpress.
About a month later, the product was in my hands.
I installed it into my laptop, and….
It burned out 😭😭😭
I’m not sure of the exact cause, perhaps some incompatibility, maybe something else. Back then, I wasn’t as knowledgeable as I am now.
When the laptop wouldn’t turn on, my heart almost stopped 😵
Not only had I paid for a new part, which cost a month’s savings,
It also destroyed six months of previous efforts and sacrifices 🫠
Unlike the incident with the protein powder, this time nothing was salvageable.
There was no possibility of buying it again.
The lesson is:
Always conduct thorough research before making a purchase.
It’s not foolproof, but it greatly diminishes the likelihood of regrettable decisions.
4.2. Working for Pennies
Upon graduating from college, the jobs we’d been told about throughout our years of study somehow vanished — perhaps they never existed at all.
The best students from our class were approached by the city administration.
They offered us a project that, according to the contract, was supposed to be a month of leisurely work.
We ended up working for three months, 12–14 hours a day 😵💫 😵
During that time, we were paid only a third of the monthly wage standard for our region.
This was the first wake-up call about the value of time and the realization that perhaps money isn’t the most important thing in life ❓
4.3. New Tech Gear
Soon after, I landed my first remote job.
Despite the demise of my previous laptop, the desire to acquire a fully-fledged desktop computer — the best computer — remained strong.
Nearly a year of preparation, and the goal was achieved.
This time, I thoroughly prepared for it.
I spent a long time researching component compatibility, operational principles, and connections.
The knowledge I gained is still valuable to me today.
The parts were not available at reasonable prices within our country.
I had to order them from Germany (4,100km away from my city).
I’m still amazed at how quickly and undamaged everything arrived.
There were about 7 parcels in total, each one received like a gift on a holiday 🛍
And the moment, nearly a year later, when I assembled everything together is still hard to put into words.
It… WORKED! 🥳
This was the most powerful computer I had ever seen 🫢
Thanks to it, I discovered the truly amazing world of computer games.
4.4. The First Move
Soon enough, I received a job offer in the second-largest city in the country.
I had to move.
The new salary was twice what I had been earning 💸
It seemed like an incredible amount of money to me.
But once I arrived and settled in, that optimism quickly faded 😨
- One-third of my income went to rent,
- Another third to a loan I took with the thought of “living for today”
- The last third barely covered my day-to-day expenses. 😵
I still remember my first New Year in the new city, when everyone around was celebrating, and I had only 5 dollars in my pocket, unsure if I could make it to the next payday.
The stress from such a lifestyle shift quickly overwhelmed us.
My health took a nosedive. 📉
With the little money we had left, we tried to get treatment.
We constantly encountered charlatans who did everything to extract money, and the minimum to actually heal.
The first one and a half years in the new city were supposed to be filled with joy and inspiration.
For us, they were filled with a deep sense of depression, attempts to survive, and the realization of the life pit we had fallen into.
My wife and I cried together every other day. 😭
In one and a half years, we hadn’t managed to save anything.
Zero confidence in the future.
I tried to work more, as overtime was paid, but in the end, I still lost out.
Misplaced priorities, forgetting about health and time, quickly took their toll, dragging us further down.
Key lessons:
1️⃣ Mandatory monthly payments should not exceed one-third of your income. The less, the better.
2️⃣ Increase your hourly rate, not the number of working hours.
Somehow, I still found the strength to maintain professional growth.
I believed it wasn’t supposed to be this way.
That my dreams weren’t meant to end at this stage.
That there was still further to go.
4.5. The First Vacation
These resolutions and hard work helped me land a new job.
The salary was once again double the previous one 😱💸
I couldn’t believe such a thing was possible.
We started to save, finally looking forward to the future 🙏
We managed to get the medical treatments we couldn’t afford before.
A year and a half went by.
Despite the significant improvement in the quality of life,
my thoughts about professional prospects hit a dead end.
I realized that where I was wouldn’t lead me to my desired destination.
Better access to healthcare made me realize that sooner or later, I would need costly surgeries for my congenital condition.
So, I reopened my resume, started the job hunt anew, with a substantial dose of stress.
And I did it again. My salary doubled once more. 🤪
And again, I could hardly believe what was happening.
We finally allowed ourselves to take a first vacation by the sea.
Where for the first time, I experienced regret.
Regret that we hadn’t managed to get away sooner.
I found a reason to live.
To live not just to die at the work desk,
But to live a happy life during the time given to me.
Filling it with various good experiences, with different views of this world.
It turns out, without exaggeration, that it was precisely money that led me to realize some of the greatest things in life.
Upon returning, we moved to a new apartment.
Nicer, bigger, more beautiful. 🤩
An apartment that was a pleasure to enter every time, one that filled you with energy and warmth simply by being there.
And it seemed as if life was finally starting to get on track.
Up to that point, these were the best four months of our lives. 🥲
But all good things, sooner or later, come to an end.
The only surprise for me was just how quickly that end came.
4.6. The Second Move
February 24, 2022 — a day that divided life into “before” and “after.”
We had just relaxed, just settled into our new apartment, just started planning for the future.
For three months, we lived without a salary because we couldn’t receive it due to sanctions. Three months dwindling our last savings.
Packing suitcases again.
We had to urgently sell everything material.
With a heavy heart and tears in our eyes…
That very first computer, beloved coffee machine, the dryer and washing machines, the first PlayStation 5 console (I got it on pre-order, ahead of everyone, a unique specimen), my spouse’s bicycle.
You might say they’re just things.
Perhaps, but they were associated with too many good memories.
In the end, they covered all our moving expenses.
And again with the naked ass 😵
Experience was the only thing we had left.
This time, even in a foreign country. 😔
Despite moving to a less developed country, contrary to many expectations, life did not get better for us, it even got worse.
An influx of migrants created incredible demand for dubious housing.
Doubling, sometimes even tripling the prices.
Many familiar products became “foreign,” with a corresponding price increase. Twice or three times as much.
Many items simply couldn’t be found.
And that’s just the material side of things.
In terms of depression, this period is comparable to our very first move, sometimes even worse. 😵
The higher you climb, the harder you fall.
4.7. The Future
The reality is that you can’t infinitely follow the beaten path and double your income each time.
But for residents of some countries,
that possibility remains for another 3–4 leaps from my position. 🙃
With what we have, we need to think about how to move forward.
This whole year, we’ve been working on implementing our plan.
🔥 Water does not flow under a lying stone.
All this time, I actively developed skills beyond my usual domain, in several directions at once.
Not always at the same time, but in turn.
As investors say, diversify risks.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, but in several.
The same applies to human efforts.
If you dig only in one direction, you won’t strike gold in another.
And time is pressing…🔔
However hard I try, money remains the foundation of all plans.
The threat of surgical intervention in the future hasn’t gone away, food isn’t distributed for free, airlines don’t carry you for “thank you.”
Without money, except for your relatives, you are nowhere, no one, and not needed anywhere.
The higher you aim to jump, the more preparation and training you need.
5. Final Thoughts
Instead of a prosaic “conclusion”, I ended up with somewhat chaotic ‘final thoughts’… 😅
I haven’t yet figured out how to frame them more appropriately 🤔
However, it’s crucial to emphasize them (some of them, repeatedly).
No matter what anyone says, we cannot escape one simple truth:
Commodity-money relations have existed since the dawn of humanity.
Initially, it was just barter, one thing for another.
The modern format of money appeared much later.
It didn’t become something else; it’s just a more convenient and standardized form of the same relations.
Nevertheless, it is just a tool that we use every day.
A tool that can be used for good… and evil.
To break hearts and give smiles.
It can be frivolously spent, or it can inspire.
Like all material things, it can be lost in an instant.
The lesson of this whole story is NOT to think, “if everything can be lost, then why try.”
The moral is that with wise management, obviously, money can significantly improve the quality of your life, bring more happiness.
To develop this skill, one must experiment. 🧑🎓
Analyze your failures.
And most importantly — your successes too! Many forget to mention that.
🔹 It’s necessary to ask questions not only when things go badly but also when they go well.
Only a full understanding of the process from all sides will lead to control over it.
I’ve lost enough funds over time on such experiments.
And the more I earned, the more I allowed myself to spend on experiments in absolute terms.
I don’t regret any of them, even though not all purchases were successful.
A child learns about the world through tactile contact.
As adults, we don’t have the opportunity to simply take something off a store shelf.
We need to buy it first.
In addition to free experimentation,
I lost a little, lost a lot, and lost everything at once.
All in response to the challenges of circumstances.
Somewhere it was necessary, somewhere I could have reduced expenses, and somewhere I could have avoided them entirely.
But to know this for sure, one could only find out by taking a specific, even a well-thought-out action,
And analyzing the results.
It’s impossible to calculate all the options in advance.
For everything in this life, one must pay, and it’s a blessing if it’s only with money
