Our society tends to be mesmerized by the ups and downs of the stock market. We place stock market gurus such as Warren Buffet on the top of our most admired list and crown him as a financial super hero. I’ll be the first to admit that his story of rags to riches via the stock market is compelling, but it’s very difficult to repeat. Very few of us will ever get rich dumping money into our 401k or buying stock with our online accounts. In fact today, most people are happy with a modest gain. It simply amazes me when I hear people brag about getting a return on their 401k of 20%; then the next moment they are complaining about their job. While 20% return is a solid pay back on your investment relative to stock market performance of late, it pales in comparison to the return you can get if you simply Invest in Yourself.
I’ve had a fair amount of success over the years buying and selling stocks, never enough to retire, but often times I get asked what I’m buying next, or what’s the next home run stock. Each time I respond with a simple answer, Yourself. Why are we so comfortable handing our hard earned money over to a complete stranger to invest in hopes to get 20% back on it? Even more so, why are we just as comfortable putting that money into the hands of a greedy CEO running a Fortune 500 company? Yet when it comes to putting a $5 or $5000 investment into ourselves we hesitate, second guess, and doubt the choice. If you’re like me it’s extremely hard to take that leap of faith and consider myself as the best investment on the market.
If you stop to think about the pro’s versus the con’s of investing in yourself, it’s a no brainer. Who else would you rather see succeed (except your kids or spouse) then you and your company? Take John Chow for an example; he could have easily put the money he spent launching JohnChow dot com into a bell weather stock in the Dow and more then likely be at a negative return right now. Instead he built a highly successful blog that is yielding huge returns month after month that he would only dream about getting from stocks. Take a look at his blog income report from October and you’ll see he turned $335 dollars into over $34,000 in one month! You don’t have to build a company to invest in yourself and get a high yielding return, there are other ways to invest in you as well. How about going to get your Masters Degree or training for a trade you love. That money will pay itself back many times over not to mention learning a ton along the way. It might even propel your career or give you the confidence to start your own company.
The main point is to stop looking for other people to make money for you; believe in your abilities to get to the next level by investing in Yourself. I’m not saying that having a good retirement isn’t important, in fact I do think you should save and invest, but the next time you look at your 401k or think about taking a risk on a stock, stop and ask yourself is that 20% return going to pay a higher dividend then if I buy a couple hundred shares of me?