A self-branded "millionaire" says laziness was the key to her success - and working smarter is more important than working harder. <br /><br />Pav Lertjitbanjong, 42, says she "wasted" most of her life working hard - but a failed marriage and £80k worth of debt forced her to turn things around. <br /><br />Now, she earns £300k-a-year - despite working from home, staying in the same job and never working overtime. <br /><br />Pav, a data scientist, from Chatham, New Jersey, US, said: “I call myself a lazy millionaire because I’ve made all my money without having to learn any new skills.<br /><br />“I work from home, I don’t spend money on the gym, I hate cooking and cleaning and I don’t waste time going to networking events. <br /><br />“I embrace the lazy lifestyle - and it’s made me so much more efficient.” <br /><br />As the child of first-generation immigrants from Bangkok, Thailand, Pav says she felt she had to work “10 times harder” than everyone else.<br /><br />At work, she often felt like a “people-pleaser” who had to say ‘yes’ to every opportunity - including overtime and networking events, even when she didn’t want to. <br /><br />Pav also felt she needed to spend time working on her marriage - which ended in 2019. <br /><br />“I always thought success came from working extremely hard, and losing yourself in the process,” she said. <br /><br />“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.<br /><br />“I wanted that promotion to get more money, and I devoted too much of my time towards it.<br /><br />“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.”<br /><br />Pav and her ex-husband finalised their divorce in March 2020 - but the legal fees left her £80k in debt. <br /><br />She didn’t take any assets away with her - leaving her with “virtually nothing”. <br /><br />But, wanting to clear her debts and become financially independent, Pav decided to change the way she worked and embrace a “lazy” work ethic. <br /><br />She said: “I walked away from my marriage with nothing, right before Covid hit. <br /><br />“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. <br /><br />“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. <br /><br />“I knew I needed to shift my mindset - so I tried the laziness approach.”<br /><br />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. <br /><br />She stopped attending networking events and started being more selective with her friends - allowing successful people into her circle. <br /><br />As well as this, she pursued her interest in investing and put money into stocks - which now makes her around £100k a year. <br /><br />She also decided not to do any more overtime and to stick to the job she’s in - rather than spending time looking for another, higher-level role. <br /><br />“I’m lazy, but I’m smart about it,” she said. <br /><br />“I started to think ‘who in the company do I need to please to make more money?’ <br /><br />“I also knew my job would pay enough to keep me afloat, but I wanted disposable income, too. So I started investing in stocks - I’d always been interested in it. <br /><br />“I knew it’d be hard for me to start a new job, so I just didn’t bother.”<br /><br />Through investing and her promotion, which she got on January 2023, Pav was able to clear her £80k debt, as well as buy a three-bedroom house for £900k and travel to Bangkok to see her family. <br /><br />While she prefers to keep money in her savings for a “rainy day”, Pav wants to splash the cash on her travel bucket list in 2024, including trips to see the Northern Lights, Hong Kong and Singapore.<br /><br />Pav’s top tips for becoming lazy and rich - <br />1. Being efficient with your laziness - if you hate cooking every day, spend one day at the weekend batch-cooking for the rest of the week.<br />2. Create direct debits for all your bills so you don’t have to stay on top of them.<br />3. Don’t bother spending money on gym membership - just get your steps in when walking to get food.<br />4. Avoid networking events - unless you want to waste time making a bunch of acquaintances.
