Simply Making Money Won’t Help You Build Wealth If You…
Image: Kris // Pixabay
I would have assumed the solution to make wealth is simple: just earn more money and you’ll eventually get rich. I thought I had it figured out when I began to make money from freelance design jobs. Clients were coming, payments were arriving and I was proud of each money alert that popped on my phone. And yet, somehow, I was still broke.
Nobody explained to me why that happened…no one told me that earning income and building wealth are not the same thing.
I believed that just making money daily has solved my financial problems. But what I have learned over time is that money is just the beginning. Your challenge begins when the money arrives. Yeah! Meaning that how you manage, grow, and multiply it may become a very difficult task for you. That was my hardest life lesson, too.
The majority of individuals in business are interested in earning money. But very few talk about keeping or growing it. And that was my challenge for a long time.
Here are…
5 Money Mistakes You’ve Probably Been Making and How To Fix It —
…the five reasons why simply earning more won’t make you wealthy.
1. You Treat Income Like a Trophy Instead of a Tool
When I initially began landing design jobs, I was just trying to ensure that I earned more money within a month. But half of it vanished, and I couldn’t trace it at the end of the same month.
It was at this point that I realized that clearly, I hadn’t learned the habits of people who always have money left. So money itself is not just a reward; rather, it is a resource that needs direction.
It’s quite nice to celebrate with your money and be happy with it. After all, it’s your hard-earned money! But if you don’t tell your money where to go, it will leave quietly into the thin air without a trace.
Here’s what helped me fix that:
- Develop a basic spending system: 50% for needs. 30% for personal goals (wants). And 20% for savings or investments. This has been one of my top strategies from financial experts like Investopedia.
- Automate your money: When the income is received, allow technology to do the work. Set automatic transfers into investment or savings accounts.
It was only after I stopped doing manual work with money that I finally started to feel in control.
2. You Don’t Build Systems around your Money
If you’re just starting to make money online, you already know the pain of inconsistent income. This month, you’re doing well. The next, you’re wondering where the next gig will come from. The fact that you are not sure of how much you’ll make in a month can ruin your financial faith.
The difference in my case was that I developed systems—techniques that automated the way I handled my money.
The following is what I did (and you can do it as well):
- Open separate accounts for income, expenses, and investments.
- Use PiggyVest or Risevest if you’re in Nigeria or any other auto-saving apps such as Mint or YNAB for global users.
- Automate transfers such that money is transferred into your savings wallets or investment wallets before you can even spend it.
- Schedule a weekly “money review.” That will help you track flow and goals.
As soon as I ceased to use my feelings to manage money and created systems that did so on my behalf, everything changed. I got a stable financial situation, and my stress decreased.
Who you’re becoming is more powerful than who you are! And discipline, learning, and patience are the major factors here.
3. You Mistake Work for Wealth
I had been associating being busy with being successful over the years. When I was working a full-day stretch, I felt like I was creating wealth. I was wrong!
True wealth occurs when your money continues to generate even while you sleep.
This is how I started to move from mere activity to sustainability:
- Create reusable value. I began to transform my design works into digital templates that I could resell many times over.
- Build once, earn repeatedly. Courses and some digital products like eBooks, or toolkits don’t require so many hours of work to start making money even as a student.
- Invest early. I started to deposit a percentage of my earnings into mutual funds and dividend-paying stocks, not huge amounts, but, of course, consistent ones.
Just have at the back of your mind that when your income ceases whenever you cease to work, that is not wealth; it is merely activity.
4. You Spend Before You Plan
Once I began making good money, I got into one of the pitfalls most freelancers make — lifestyle inflation. I made upgrades, purchased things that I did not really need, and used it as a reason to treat myself well. But this is what I discovered: if you celebrate progress too early, you sabotage long-term growth.
To correct that, I made another rule: “Invest first, spend later.”
Whenever I earn, I place a fixed amount into savings and investments before touching anything else.
Delay gratification. I have now adopted a 24-hour pause rule before I can decide to make a non-essential purchase.That single transformation was a huge difference.
Even waiting a day to buy something could usually remind me how unnecessary that stuff was.
5. You Failed to Multiply What You ‘Learn’
It is not the money you make but what you know that makes you rich.
The moment I began testing new applications such as AI design assistants, automation software, and web applications, I opened up new sources of income that I never expected to see.
Here’s how you can apply this:
Acquire a high-demand skill every year (still within your field so you don’t become a “Jack of all trades”). For me, it may be the AI content tools, web design systems, or digital marketing automation. For sure, each new skill you acquire will increase your value
Turn knowledge into income. Apply what you have learned to create a course, create an agency, or even make templates of your process that can be purchased by others.All my new skills did not just appear on my resume, but they rather expanded my income potential and reduced my financial anxiety.
Wealth Isn’t About Earning, It’s About Becoming
My actual transition was not the time I earned my first huge income. It happened when I stopped pursuing money and began to create systems around it. So who you’re becoming is more powerful than who you are! And discipline, learning, and patience are the major factors here.
Making money is just one step. Building a system around it is another. The only way to be wealthy is to keep the money, build the money, and have the money work for you even in your absence. That’s how you turn your effort into freedom.
Hey! I'm Akpan Unwana, the founder of MoneyBreez. I am a digital entrepreneur, graphic and web designer who loves to use the digital space to generate income, freedom and meaningful opportunities. Over the years, I have been able to understand how design, creativity, and clever investing can be used to build real opportunities online
I write on MoneyBreez about real life tips on how to earn online, using emerging technologies to create wealth and be a smarter person with money.
