A self-proclaimed "millionaire" has revealed that she earns a whopping £300,000-a-year by being lazy, insisting that working smarter is the real key to success.
Pav Lertjitbanjong, 42, says she spent most of her life working hard until a failed marriage and a debt of £80,000 forced her to change her ways.
Now, despite working from home and never doing overtime, she rakes in a hefty income. The data scientist from New Jersey, US, said: "I call myself a lazy millionaire because I've made all my money without having to learn any new skills.
READ MORE: 'Spending my husband's money is a hobby – I often splash £72k on a shopping trip'
Check out more real life stories here
Pav, who doesn't spend money on gym memberships or waste time at networking events, believes embracing a lazy lifestyle has made her more efficient. As a child of first-generation immigrants from Bangkok, Thailand, she felt the need to work "10 times harder" than others.
She often found herself saying 'yes' to every opportunity at work, including overtime and networking events, even when she didn't want to. She also felt obligated to invest time in her marriage, which ended in 2019. "I always thought success came from working extremely hard, and losing yourself in the process," she admitted.
"In the past, I always wanted to be a people-pleaser. I wanted to make my co-workers happy, so I spent a lot of time overworking and saying 'yes' to everyone. I wanted that promotion to get more money, and I devoted too much of my time towards it. As an immigrant, I felt like I had to work 10 times harder to get to where I wanted to be. But that's not the case."
Pav and her ex-husband finalised their divorce in March 2020 – but the legal fees left her £80,000 in debt. She didn't take any assets away with her – leaving her with "virtually nothing". But, wanting to clear her debts and become financially independent, Pav decided to change the way she worked and embrace a "lazy" work ethic.
She said: "I walked away from my marriage with nothing, right before Covid hit. In the US, the default ruling is to split your assets 50/50 in divorce, but I didn't want to fight a long battle with my ex. I didn't want to take anything with me.
"I just had this epiphany – I was thinking about how people float through life so easily, they don't have to burn themselves out and they work smart, not hard. I knew I needed to shift my mindset – so I tried the laziness approach."
Pav decided to re-evaluate how she was going to get a promotion – including making a list of all the key people in the company and how she was going to get them on-side. She stopped attending networking events and started being more selective with her friends – allowing successful people into her circle.
Want all the biggest Lifestyle news straight to your inbox? Sign up for our free Daily Star Hot Topics newsletter.
Pav, a savvy investor, makes around £100,000 a year from her stocks. She decided to stick with her current job and stopped doing overtime, saying: "I'm lazy, but I'm smart about it."
She thought about who she needed to impress at work to earn more and knew her job would keep her afloat. But she wanted extra cash, so she started investing in stocks, something she'd always been interested in. "I knew it'd be hard for me to start a new job, so I just didn't bother," she admitted.
Thanks to her investments and a promotion in January 2023, Pav managed to clear her £80,000 debt. She also bought a three-bedroom house for £900,000 and travelled to Bangkok to see her family. While she likes to save money for a "rainy day", Pav plans to spend on her travel bucket list in 2024, including trips to see the Northern Lights, Hong Kong and Singapore.
* This article was crafted with the help of an AI tool, which speeds up Daily Star's editorial research. An editor reviewed this content before it was published. You can report any errors to [email protected]
Source: Read Full Article
