A new study reveals many of us aren't earning enough to keep up with our regular financial commitments with pay-day loans becoming increasingly common. But many people are also looking for non-financial benefits as they seek to better balance their work and personal lives.

Dear Lifehacker, Today my manager told me that, rather than paying me a bonus each quarter, she would prefer to incorporate that bonus into my base salary moving forward. I fear this puts me in a bad position for negotiating a salary increase this year. Am I better off asking to keep the bonus and then negotiating a pay increase or should I accept their offer of incorporating the bonus into my base salary?

One of the best ways to increase your income is through salary negotiations, either when you're first offered the job or during a performance review. It may make you uncomfortable, but it's extremely important. Here's how to get what you want out of a negotiation.

Movie stars make a lot of money, a fact you are probably aware of. More than me, for sure, and probably more than you.

There's no denying the gender pay gap. It's there: The average pay for a man, the average pay for a woman, and space between. The gap exists regardless of whether or not you believe it exists. Wage gap deniers don't deny the gap itself; they deny its significance. Women stay at home with children, so the numbers make sense, they say. Women don't negotiate, so of course there's a gap.

Many of us avoid negotiating because it seems so tricky and so confrontational. You don't want to miss out on that money, though. One easy, non-confrontational way to haggle your salary? Make a ridiculous joke.

Dear Lifehacker, I am looking for some career advice. I am currently studying a Certificate III in IT Networking and Digital Media. Without talking myself up too much I am doing well and really enjoying it. It is only a six-month course and is about to finish. I would like to do the diploma course which is a further 12 months.

Dear Lifehacker, I have applied for a position internally with the company I already work for. The application process requests you to supply an "asking salary". My application was successful after several rounds of interviews but I was not given any information around salary, so I assumed my asking salary had been accepted. I have since discovered that the company has gone with a much lower salary than expected (25 per cent difference).

Negotiation is a messy, stressful process. But redditor B1aze688 breaks it down into three fundamental elements: The deal you want, the deal you'll accept, and what you'll do if you can't get either. Never enter a negotiation before you know all three.

Some online job applications ask you to fill out what you made at each of your past jobs. You don't have to share your salary history, however, because it's nobody's business but yours.

HBO's Silicon Valley made fun of the old coding argument between tabs or spaces for indentation. But it turns out it's no joke, at least when it comes to making money as a developer. Stack Overflow's recent programmer survey revealed an interesting tidbit: devs who uses spaces make around 8.6 per cent more than their tab-tapping counterparts.

You have problems, I have advice. This advice isn't sugar-coated -- in fact, it's sugar-free, and may even be a little bitter. Welcome to Tough Love.

Calculating the value of your time can be useful for making money decisions, like how long it will take you to pay for that new gadget you want -- but there's a downside to it, too. Turns out, the old "time is money" adage can stress you out.

Some negotiations are simply too difficult and complicated to solve traditionally. If the negotiations you're involved with have come to a stalemate, the "indaba" technique makes it easier for all parties to find common ground and resolve things fairly.

Today is Equal Pay Day in the US, which symbolises how far into the year women work to earn what men did the year before. In addition to pay, many women face different treatment in their careers than their male colleagues. If you're a woman, what strategies have you used to close the pay, and treatment, gap?

It was my first meeting with a new potential client, and they tossed out a number. It was a good number, but I recently vowed to negotiate more. So I threw out a higher number, then held my breath through the awkward silence. I hate the anxiety-ridden, nerve-wracking process of negotiating, but here's why I've learned to embrace it despite the fact.

Most hiring managers expect you to ask about salary by the second interview, but if you do, they might turn that question around and ask you about your own salary history to get an idea of what you're willing to take. Here's why you shouldn't share with them what you've made before.

You're obviously allowed to ask about compensation when you interview for a job. A recent response from an online delivery company to a job candidate was extreme, but it brings up an interesting question: When do you bring up salary?

Salary is important, but it's not the only thing that contributes to job satisfaction. New research from Glassdoor reveals what makes people happiest at their jobs and how it varies depending on income.