Key Secrets to Earning Power Every Millennial Needs to Know

This may come as good news or bad, but the latest research from the Federal Reserve suggests that if you're going to get rich, age 35 will probably be your last chance. After that your income growth pretty much flattens. So what are the earning secrets millennials need to know? Make your first decade count. The initial 10 years of your career establish most people's lifetime earning power. The data suggests that if you haven't struck gold by then, it probably won't happen. The wealthy seem to be the exception to aging out at 35. Wealth is an overwhelming determinate of how much you can expect to continue earning. After the age of 45, only the top 2 percent of earners can expect to keep making more money. The median worker has an income growth of 38 percent across their career, virtually all of which comes before age 35. Workers in the bottom 20 percent of the income spectrum actually lose earning power across their lifetime and can often retire making less than the day they started. If you're in the middle of the earnings spectrum you're less likely to experience positive or negative income swings. The data suggests that higher earning individuals will have a less steady financial stream, experiencing both larger losses and more hefty gains. So even though it may look like a pretty bleak picture, it's probably a good time to get working on your earning power, while you still can.