5 Life's Greatest Investments (Not Stock Market)
01 - Invest in Health
More than anything else that we have, our health forms the framework that we build our life on. There is no financial well-being without mental and physical health. If we don’t invest in our health, it doesn’t matter if we have all the money in the world. They won't mean a thing because we wouldn’t be able to enjoy them. And even from a wealth building perspective, not investing in our health will hamper our ability to work effectively, to earn more and cost us more in health care costs in the long run. So how do we effectively invest in our health? Let me start with our mental health first.
Mental Health - Number one thing we can do for our mental health is to take the time and energy for our bodies and minds to effectively recover. We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded with information and notifications. We are always on and this has real consequences on our mental health.
Having graduated from business school over 10 years ago where intensity was the norm, I lived this life of being “on” for many many years. I thought working late at night and weekends, minimizing family time was the right way to live. Resting was for losers and I wanted to be a winner. However, it can and will have detrimental mental health consequences if we don’t give ourselves time to recover.
This is why it’s important to have some time every day where we disconnect from technology, where we aren’t checking our email, or scrolling through social media. Just some time for our mind to recover and relax. This can be in the form of reading, going for a walk, meditating or any activity that you enjoy that doesn’t involve technology.
Also if you are really struggling in this category, don’t be afraid to ask for help from family, friends, or mental health professionals. Counseling is not only common but can be very helpful - especially helping to quiet those internal voices that can wreak havoc in our minds.
Physical Health - Activities for our physical health are a bit more obvious but just as important. Not only does it improve our quality of life, but the emotional benefits are also enduring. We can all attest to how much we feel better after a great workout - both physically and emotionally. A simple rule of thumb I like to use are these.
Get at least 30 minutes of physical activity per day. I like strength training, but any activity is good. As long as you fulfill your physical activity needs without it being something you dread.
Minimize processed foods from our diet. If it didn’t grow from a tree or came from an animal in that form, I try not to eat it. Of course this isn’t always the case 100% of the time. I try to follow the 80/20 rule. As long as I can get 80% of my diet from healthy whole foods, I feel like I’m winning.
Sleep. It’s so easy to push our sleep time to later and later at night, and Netflix doesn’t help in this regard. Therefore I force myself to be in bed by at least 10pm every night. Weekdays and weekends. A trick that’s really helped me is to have no electronic device like my ipad or my iphone in my bedroom if I could help it. Instead I have an analog alarm clock and my kindle e-reader on my bed stand. There is nothing like a good book to help you fall asleep and a good old alarm clock has nothing on it to distract you from falling asleep.
02 - Invest In Education
We live in a world no where there are so many different ways to educate ourselves outside the traditional method. There is no shortage of great online blogs, online courses and you can literally find anything on YouTube these days. And you can still borrow tons of books from local libraries for free. The world is full of teachers, great and small, and with the advent of the internet, you can access any of them, anytime throughout the day.
Education is a forever giving investment because when all other resources are exhausted, your education and the knowledge you gained from it will help you get a new job, make a living and build great things people will want to buy.
Don’t be stingy with self-improvement. Don’t be afraid to pay for it. Of course be smart about who you pay, but in the long run, the money you spend on education will compound in the form of knowledge and skills you can use for the rest of your lives.
For me, though I may not replace my socks with holes for many years, I will gladly pay for a good book I can glean some nuggets of wisdom from. Just ask my wife. When she sees me walking around with holes in my socks she nags me constantly about why I just don’t spend the $20 to buy a pair of new ones. For me, that $20 is better spent on a good book than socks without holes. Socks are overrated anyways.
Another way to invest in our education is to be open to new experiences. If we aren’t willing to explore new ideas and new interests by placing ourselves in activities that feel foreign and uncomfortable, we limit our ability to grow. Most often we’d be pleasantly surprised by the new people we will meet and new perspectives we will gain when we have the courage to step out of our comfort zone.
Recently I just came back from a money conference called FinCon which was hosted in Orlando Florida this year. The ultimate conference for money nerds. Though I didn’t know many people there and it was across the country from where I live, I gladly flew over there. I did this because I knew it would take me out of my comfort zone and stretch me in ways that would only benefit me in the long run.
03 - Invest In Family
Especially our spouse and our kids, and the best way is with time and love. I make it a priority in my calendar to have quality time with my wife every week. Even if it's only an hour walk around the neighborhood or a lunch out at our favorite restaurant, we block out dedicated time for each other. And this intentional time has become more and more important as kids have grown and require more attention.
It’s easy to get caught up in the day to day and week to week of life and let time slip away from us. But if we don’t make an effort to invest in our relationships, they will slowly erode over time. It’s important to have regular conversations with our spouse about our relationship, about our goals and about our dreams.
When it comes to our kids, I try to approach it the same way. And trust me, I make more mistakes than I can count with my kids constantly. Yelling at them unnecessarily. Feeding them junk foods. Displacing my own insecurities on them. But I’m hoping I can at least be a better parent today than I was yesterday. Some of the things I try to prioritize are to read stories together before bedtime, play soccer at the local park and just spend some level of focused time with them without any distractions.
I’m hoping that these activities will become building blocks of their adulthood and happiness. If I can lead them with strong effort regardless of how flawed I am, I’m hoping I can leave them with a decent example of what living looks like.
And of course given I run a personal finance youtube channel I can’t exclude money from my lessons. I try to teach them about finances so they can understand what money can and can’t do for them in attainment of their life goals. Life is always about choice and your money reflects what your priorities are. Do you want that Nintendo Switch or a birthday party? You can’t have both, but you can choose one. The investment of time in our family is an investment that will have returns throughout our lives.
04 - Invest In Relationships
Bronnie Ware worked in Palliative Care for many years and wrote a book titled "The Top Five Regrets of the Dying." She listed out the most common regrets expressed to her by the people she cared for. One of the most common statements she heard was this:
“I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.” - Bronnie Ware
She saw many people not truly realize the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. For her, it was a common sight - everyone missed their friends when they were dying.
It’s easy to get caught with our lives and allow friendships to slip over the years. And most often, the quality of our lives are reflected by the number of quality relationships we have in our lives. Therefore if we invest in people, the compound interest will multiply into a lifetime of love and happiness.
Long after we are gone, our presence will still survive in the memories of those who shared in our lives. So make sure to keep in touch with your friends, reach out to them and let them know you care. Make intentional time on our calendars to catch up with valued friends and invest in relationships.
05 - Invest In Yourself
This one is hardest to do for many of us because it feels so abstract. We understand what investing in health and education looks like. It's working out and reading. However, how do we invest in ourselves? However, I believe this is one of the most important investments to make if we want to have long and happy lives.
Let me share with you a few from my own personal experience. Personal investment comes in many forms but one of the most overlooked ones is self-forgiveness. It’s easy to constantly look over our shoulders of the path we’ve come and regret the decisions we’ve made. Only if I had taken that job. Only if I had saved more money. Only if I was more gentle with my kids.
Our capacity to blame ourselves and regret our past decisions is unlimited. We can spend literally all of our lives feeling bad about the things we wished we had done. Or things we wished we didn’t do.
While some reflection is good, too much of it will consume our ability to move forward. It's impossible to move forward, or even look forward when we are constantly looking at the rearview mirror. We must learn to forgive ourselves for our past mistakes, see the silver lining and move forward.
I often struggle with this when it comes to my past money mistakes. I spent most of my twenties making all the dumb money mistakes you can think of.
Max out my credit cards for unnecessary toys? Done that.
Buy a new car with outrageous financing terms? Been there.
Got close to a six figure student loan without even realizing it? Have the t-shirt.
And I used to agonize too much over all the mistakes I made instead of forgiving myself and moving forward. I’m sure many of you have something similar as well. Action taken too hastily or action not taken. Object bought on a spur. Or maybe not buying it when you needed to. The list of things we can regret over will never end.
Let’s learn to forgive ourselves for our past mistakes and strive towards the future. We can learn from all experiences, whether good or bad and we have the choice to allow it to make us better for it.
Another of my favorite ways to invest in ourselves is to slow down. Many of us are driven individuals and often we have big audacious goals we want to achieve immediately. However, if my favorite fable, the story of the tortoise and hare can continuously teach us anything, slow incremental gains are what will help us win the race in the long run. Slow and steady, wins the race. Focus on making progress. Not speed. If we are 1% better this month than the last, this will compound over time and we will be astonished by the progress we’ve made years from now.
