Do you invest? What do you invest and where do you invest? There are just 2 resources that can be invested, and more of these 2 resources can be earned. These 2 resources are Time & Money, in the same order. We can put in the time to make money like an employee, or put in money to make time like an employer. By making time, what it means is, that employer pays the employee to use the time of the employee. During that time, whatever work is done by the employee, the employer makes money from that and pays a portion of that to the employee.
By the term investment, people immediately think of investing money in financial assets to make more money. These assets include real estate, gold & other precious metals, stocks, deposits, mutual funds, SIPs, etc. Once the investment is done, they wait for a certain duration of time to receive their returns on the investment. Depending on the asset & duration of hold, the returns can be very good or sometimes completely wipe off the investment itself.
But there is a serious question to be asked here – what do you mean by asset? An asset is something that can give you money. But what kind of asset is it that itself gets vanished in the process of giving the money. Real estate, gold, stocks, etc. fall under this category of assets. There are other assets, such as business or a monthly paying deposit or dividend-paying stocks that remain intact, and yet give returns. However, the rate of return in this case is much lower than selling off the asset itself.
There is another key asset in our life which we generally tend to ignore. Do you think you yourself are the biggest asset of your life? How much do you invest in yourself? The answer to this question is generally thought in terms of health, entertainment & contentment. But the real investment in oneself is in terms of Education. Our parents take care of scholastic & physical education by sending us to schools & colleges. They also take care of the spiritual & emotional education at home itself or by introducing us to some form of God. These educations give us a platform and basic ways of life, basic tools which can be further used to gain experience & learn quicker & better. But that is exactly what most people don’t do.
Whose responsibility is it to take care of Financial education? When the person grows enough & starts taking their own decision, that’s when they generally decide to not invest in their education anymore. Why is it so? The reason is the lack of belief in themselves. What can happen without financial education? People invest in the wrong financial tools when they don’t understand their finances. On the other hand, some don’t make any investment at all, assuming it to be extremely risky. In either case, both of them end up being short of what they wanted to achieve in life by the fag end of it. It is a fact that if you chose 100 people at the age of 25, they would all want to be successful by the time they turn 60. However, by the time they reach 60, just 5% are financially stable & 40% are financially on the line. The remaining 55% are all broke and dependent on others for their well-being.
Think about your investments one more time. It can be business, real estate, gold, stocks, or anything else; but a significant portion of investment should be in self-development & growth. Because you are the person who is going to live your life. You are the person who knows you the best and knows what is best for you. So take up the charge in your own hands. Invest in your learning, and you will always be wealthy. Even during difficult times, you would be able to sail through with your knowledge & actions.