Most everyone will agree that doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc., are careers with high-income skills. But all of these require at least four years of college, if not more. Because these specialized skills need formal education, it’s understandable why they demand a high income.
However, did you know there are skills you can learn to generate six figures without a formal education? Keep reading for a list of 29 valuable skills and how you train for them.
What Is A High Income Skill? The Difference Between A Skill And A J.O.B.
A skill is something you do. Hard skills are things like being able to type, whereas a soft skill would be more nebulous like a “good communicator.” Soft skills are often much more challenging to learn than hard skills, partially because everyone’s perception of what constitutes a “good” mastery of a skill is subjective.
It is easy to see if you can type 65 words per minute with no errors, while it is not easy to know if you will be able to get along with your team members.
A job requires you to trade time to start making money. It is where the acronym J.O.B. (Just Over Broke) comes from. You are expected to employ skills to perform work for an employer. In the end, it still is directly trading time for money unless you are being paid for piecework (i.e., x dollars for x pieces of work).
The Economics Of A “Six-Figure” Income
If you want to determine your take-home pay from a $100,000 job, here is a nifty online calculator that figures it out for you. If you play around with it a bit, you will find that where you live matters. Money just goes further in some states, especially when you look at the cost of living calculators.
The average working month contains 173 hours. A general rule of thumb is that an hourly rate of $50 per hour will result in a six-figure income. By using this as a baseline, any kind of service you choose to provide where you can bill a client $50 per hour is a high-paying skill by this definition.
As you will see, the majority of the list focuses on becoming an entrepreneur. The tax advantages of owning your own business are substantial and can lead to a high income. Not only that but most of the skills listed can also be used exclusively in an online business, with no brick-and-mortar storefront required (with a couple of notable exceptions).
Therefore, if you can work from virtually anywhere, there are significant advantages to living where living costs are low while earning a six-figure salary. Your money will go much further.
How Do You Develop High Income Skills?
By avoiding formal college classes (not full-time or for a degree), most high-income skilled workers attend trade or certificate-specific training. Almost everything in life requires time and money to learn. There are only a couple of the skills in this list where good looks and charm will get you the money you desire (being a con man is not recommended).
Not every skill will be worth $100k from the start. You will most likely need to suffer through the school of hard knocks to get to the top level of the skill. There is no substitute for hard work. To earn top dollar, you have to BE top dollar. These are not “get rich quick” schemes.
