The Best Investment for Long Term Financial and Life Success
Jun 21, 2010I worked in the financial services industry for many years, largely in forecasting and measuring risk for large (billions of dollars) portfolios. Naturally people would frequently ask me about where the economy was headed, what kinds of investments should they make, etc. They were often very surprised by my response, at least initially: You.
The best investment you can make to ensure your long term success, whether financially or with your overall happiness, is investing in you. What do I mean by that? It's investing in your on-going learning so that your knowledge and skills are up to date. It's developing new skills so that you can diversify in case something happens that results in you losing your job, growing skills that get you a promotion or a big raise or bonus. It's investing in your health (diet, exercise, visiting the doctor, taking relaxing vacations).
From a purely financial standpoint the world is growing and evolving so quickly you need to be investing in developing your skills on an ongoing basis. Job that existed a few years ago no longer exist and jobs that people didn't even think of exist today. How can you be prepared? Make sure you have the skills.
Your return on your investment is your continued employment, raises, bonuses, medical benefits, 401(k) access, and all the returns you get on those. The return on your health investment is your health and ability to continue to work and do all the activities you enjoy and be there for your friends and family.
Of course just learning skills for the sake of learn skills is also not necessarily productive. So you need to put some thought into what skills will really help you get where you want to be. Knowing and articulating your personal values, vision, mission and purpose will help understand the knowledge you need to acquire or skills you need to develop next. Working a with an experience coach can help accelerate the process for you.
So remember, the best investment you can ever make is in yourself. There's no other investment that comes even close.
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