How To 10x Your Income In 2025 Without Working More Hours

Forbes

06-05-2025

To make more money in 2025, multiply your value, not your hours getty
We've all heard the oft-repeated advice, 'Work smarter, not harder.' But when you're desperately trying to make extra money to cover the exacerbated costs of living, especially with skyrocketing interest and mortgage rates, tariffs, and overwhelming student debt, resorting to panic, survival-mode and working harder for insanely longer hours seems to be your only alternative.
Or is it?
You're probably tired of hearing about passive income ideas to help you earn money while you sleep. The fact is, while those are helpful, there's another strategy that is far more effective than mere passive income streams like affiliate marketing, creating a course, releasing an e-book, or content creation.
This strategy works on the principle of multiplying your value, as opposed to multiplying your hours. It's called skill-stacking, and it's been recommended by experts more recently.
I spoke with Coursera executive and managing director Nikolaz Foucaud, who shared what he believes will easily get you into the top 1% of in-demand, highly paid professionals in 2025:
"If you want to be at the top 1% of any one skill, that's obviously very hard, because that's where it gets really competitive. But if you choose a combination of two skills and then you want to be in the top 1% for that combination of two skills? Well, mathematically, all you need to do is top 10% and top 10% and then you're in the top 1% for the combination of the two, right?
'And then if you build on three, four, or five skills and instead of studying four or five years, you study for four months or maybe four weeks then you get to the top 50% in data science (for example). But then suddenly you're the top 1% for that combination,' Foucaud explained.
Foucaud went on to describe the three types of skills that need to be layered: Industry knowledge (subject matter or domain expertise)
Technical skills
Human skills, also known as power skills (previously referred to as soft skills)
As an example of each, he says you could ask yourself, Am I learning data science? Am I learning collaboration? Am I learning health, transportation, or the automotive industry?
Foucaud was also keen to highlight that practice is key when it comes to learning any skill. 'One of the world champions in javelin learned his sport on YouTube, which is incredible. But obviously not just watching YouTube,' he said jokingly, 'but then actually putting it in practice.'
So this means that you should always look out for opportunities to reinforce your learning by applying it practically to projects. Look out for freelancing or small projects, or any other hands-on experiences that you can undertake so that your skill acquisition becomes tangible and you build confidence in yourself. How Skill-Stacking Works
Foucaud's advice to start skill-stacking works for professionals in any industry and in different types of workplaces, whether working in a traditional employed setting or in a freelancer/independent contractor setting.
Let's say for example, you're offering your services as a freelance social media manager. Your industry background is in hospitality. You're also bilingual and can speak Spanish, which gives you a unique edge, especially since multilingual professionals are in high demand and can get paid a premium. At the same time, you have exceptional relationship-building skills.
This unique combination or stacking of skills enables you to build trusted long-term relationships with key clients, many of whom might be providing services to, or operating in Spanish speaking countries and might require a social media manager who is familiar with the language.
Now, while there may be many social media managers around, by comparison there aren't that many who are bilingual and can appeal directly to the hospitality market in Latin America (as an example), using their nuanced insights and expertise for this niche.
As a result, you're able to potentially charge a premium to hospitality businesses for your social media management and marketing services, and you'll be highly sought after and more clients would want to continue working with you, rather than leave to find someone else, because you've made yourself rare.
No, you haven't taken on extra projects that cost you hours of sleep. No, you're not working on the weekends. But what you are doing is increasing your value. How Microcredentials Help You Skill-Stack
'That's one of the key benefits of microcredentials,' says Foucaud, who is a passionate advocate for professional development through online courses and certificates. "Because it's micro, now you can think about how you want to package and bundle and how do you choose your microcredentials. And if you have this matrix and if you pick the right three, four, or five, then you can build a pretty unique set of skills.
'When you stack your skills, your value in the job market rises. And as your value increases, so does your income. You'll have a competitive edge to command higher-end salaries and premium contracts because you're one-of-a-kind, because you've taken the time to be well-rounded in two to four areas,' he advises.
So here's your challenge today:
Identify the industry you want to start or continue working in. Find one or two human skills you can refine, and one or two technical skills you can develop as well. They could be skills you already have, or some of them might be new and require study. Combine them together and find ways to create services or products (if you're a freelancer) or ways to pitch yourself, your value, and your job title (if you're looking for a job or promotion) using your stacked skills.
As you articulate your value and perfect your skills, you'll pretty soon find yourself in the top 1% of experts in your field. That means top 1% pay, top recognition, and top career and business opportunities.
Layer your industry knowledge with technical expertise and power skills getty
Try it now.