The $1 Million Skill Nobody Taught You

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“When you say yes to others, make sure you are not saying no to yourself.” - Paul Coelho

The $1 Million Skill Nobody Taught You

What if someone told you that a handful of sentences over the course of your life could increase your net worth exponentially.

This isn’t too good to be true, as long as you learn this one skill.

That skill?

Negotiating.

Here is the approach I leveraged to tack another $5,000 onto a new job offer, and why you should ALWAYS negotiate.

(Even if you are like me and negotiating makes your heart rate 2x)

How To Negotiate

I won’t pretend I am the best at negotiating. In fact, it is a significant weakness of mine that I became aware of when I had my realtor’s license in college.

Thankfully, there are many good resources on how to negotiate your salary. One of my favorites is the post Salary Negotiation: Make More Money, Be More Valued.

You can read the post if you’d like, but here are the main concepts:

Negotiate only after firm interest: Wait until you’ve received a conditional “Yes‑if” offer.

Companies have sunk costs: Employers invest significant time and money in the hiring process, so they don’t want to lose you.

Never accept the first offer immediately: Always negotiate. Even a well‑crafted offer won’t get worse if you counter in good faith.

Hold off on salary until there's mutual interest: Avoid early conversations about compensation. Starting too soon weakens your bargaining position (I recently waited until the first offer was sent).

Don’t name a number first: Let the employer make the first move to avoid anchoring yourself to a potentially low number. And don’t reveal your previous pay.

Negotiation signals competence: Being willing to negotiate shows professionalism and confidence (no pushovers around here).

Applying these in practice would look like the following:

1. Interview until they show intent (“We’d hire you if…”).

2. Pause, and ask politely for the offer draft.

3. Let them present the first compensation figure.

4. Respond via email to take time to think and prepare (email is your friend).

5. Counter with justified reasons. Market data, role value, etc.

Why You Negotiate

Now you know the basic approach to asking for a little more money.

Here is a six figure example to remind you, or motivate you, to always negotiate.

Lets assume you start work after college at 25 and plan to retire at 60. Over those 35 years asking for $5,000 extra will earn you another $175,000.

If this extra 5,000 a year was invested at an 8% annual return is would result in an extra $1,000,000. A few sentences throughout your life can make that difference.

Conclusion

A couple weeks ago I accepted a new job role. I followed the steps above and one email later improved the offer by $5,000/year. Yes, it felt weird, but in 30 seconds I earned myself another few thousand bucks. If I can do it, so can you.

There is no risk is negotiating, especially if you have done well during interviews and have shown to be the leading candidate.

So always negotiate, even if you hate doing it. You owe it to yourself. ~ Cade

Cade’s Picks

$8K A Day From Boring Businesses: My First Million Podcast episode with Chris Koerner on how he has made millions with simple business models and where he see’s opportunity. As a fellow Texan, his Buc-ee’s story was cool to hear.

Married Finances Approach: As one who is recently married I’ve been doing some reading and am working on what account structure my wife and I should want use going forward. Coincidently, Nick Maggiulli put together a post on the Separate + Joint method that he and his spouse have started using. This might be my favorite one at the moment.

Operation Midnight: I’m sure you’ve heard the news of the US Strike on Iran, but have you seen the actual mission details? Politics aside, this briefing video really puts into perspective the insane capability of the United States armed forces. *buys more Lockheed Martin

Best Memes

Better than trading I guess.

RIP King

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Nothing in this email is intended to serve as financial advice. Do your own research. Thanks for reading, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, etc. about the email don’t hesitate to send me a reply.