May 5, 2025
Cinneah El Amin didn’t just climb the corporate ladder, she scaled it with a toolkit in one hand and a strategy in the other.
The 30-year-old product manager — and founder of the financial and career education platform Flynanced — managed to more than double her salary in just four years, jumping from $72,000 in 2017 to $186,000 by 2021. And after two years of running her business full time, she’s now in the public sector making around $190,000 as a senior product manager for the federal government.
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While many Americans are watching grocery bills swell and tariff-driven price hikes hit the essentials, El Amin didn’t rely on penny-pinching her way to financial security. Instead, she focused on increasing her income.
“I was intentional about positioning myself, even at my early career, for a career path that was going to lead to salary and career growth,” she tells CNBC.
Here are the income-boosting strategies that helped El Amin take control of her money story, and how you can make them work for you.
Plot your rise
El Amin didn’t have the technical background that other product managers possess, but she was able to identify the work that was considered high value, networked with the right people and figured out which skills would translate to higher positions.
And she didn’t just stay in her lane — she swerved across departments, collaborating with marketing, legal and engineering teams. That cross-functional hustle paid off big time as it opened doors to management opportunities she may have missed if she’d stayed on one track.
“The easiest way to start to transition your skills into new career paths is doing it at your current company,” she says.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, the wage gap between workers who stay put and those who jump ship is widening.
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As of June 2022, job stayers — folks who’ve stuck with the same role for at least three months — saw their wages rise by about 4.7%. But those who switched jobs with a new company saw an average bump of 6.4% — the biggest pay gap in two decades.
If you’re thinking about making a move, El Amin admits the current job market isn’t exactly a walk in the park, but that doesn’t mean you should stop looking. Whether it’s within your current company or beyond, staying curious and keeping tabs on new opportunities is always a smart career move.
“We should not stay in companies beyond our expiration date,” El Amin says. “Even in this job market, you should always be assessing your options, seeing what else is out there.”
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Your 9-to-5 isn’t your only superpower
Aside from the two years when her full-time focus was on Flynaced, El Amin has been managing her company on the side since 2020. But you don’t have to start a business to generate some extra income on the side.
Nearly 40% of Americans are currently working a side hustle, according to a recent survey — and for 61% of them, it’s not just for extra cash. In fact, the side hustle is the only thing keeping their lifestyle afloat.
One thing to keep in mind is to leverage the skills you already have. El Amin says there’s demand for practical talents like bookkeeping, content strategy, tutoring and even data crunching. Whether you’re freelancing, consulting or snagging part-time gigs, your expertise can potentially stretch further — and pay more — than you might think.
Sometimes the simplest skills bring in the steadiest cash. From pet sitting to resume editing, there’s a market for just about everything. The goal isn’t to hustle yourself into burnout, but to build streams of income that fit your life.
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Victoria Vesovski is a Toronto-based Staff Reporter at Moneywise, where she covers the intersection of personal finance, lifestyle and trending news. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto, a postgraduate certificate in Publishing from Toronto Metropolitan University and a Master’s degree in American Journalism from New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. Her work has been featured in publications including Apple News, Yahoo Finance, MSN Money, Her Campus Media and The Click.
