“Should I invest in real estate?”
“Maybe I should I buy Apple stock?”
“I could boost my emergency savings.“
“Or, put a little more into my Roth IRA.“
“What about a 529 plan?”
When it comes to investment decisions, we all want to make the right decisions. We work hard for our money and know that investing for the future is important.
We just don’t always know what the right decision is.
With so much marketing from big banks and investment companies, not to mention the financial media, the options can seem overwhelming.
Well, what if you decided to drown out the noise and take matters into your own hands?
What if the best thing to invest in was not a stock or a rental property?
What if the best thing to invest in was staring right back at you every time you look in the mirror?
Instead of spending your whole life investing in other companies and other people, what if you decided to invest in yourself?
For my money, there’s no better investment you’ll ever make.
We all invest in ourselves when we go to school.
Investing in yourself is something you’ve long done, even if you didn’t always realize it.
As a lawyer, doctor, consultant, etc., you’ve already made a major investment in yourself through your education.
Following high school, lawyers commit to another 7 years of education before they can start practicing. Doctors can take twice that long.
For consultants and other professionals, it’s not uncommon to return to school for an M.B.A., oftentimes while still working a full-time job.
All this education and training comes at a steep price. Most of us take on huge amounts of debt in exchange for our careers.
The point is that none of us are strangers to investing in ourselves. And, for the most part, we’ve all benefitted because we made major investments in ourselves.
The problem is that a certain point, we stopped investing in ourselves.
So, this leads us to the question of the day:
When was the last time you invested in yourself?
What are ways you can invest in yourself?
There is no shortage of ways to invest in yourself. Just as a few examples, you could:
- Read a book
- Subscribe to a blog
- Listen to a podcast
- Attend a seminar
- Take an online course
What do all of these self-investment options have in common?
They require very little capital.
In other words, you can invest in yourself for a relatively small amount of money.
And, the potential upside is practically unlimited.
The cost to invest in yourself is very low.
When you invest in yourself, the cost of entry is very low.
Books are inexpensive. Blogs and podcasts typically offer free and timely content.
Even if you only learn one new idea or strategy from a book or blog post, the cost to learn that idea or strategy is basically zero.
This makes investing in yourself a near risk-free investment.
Let’s talk about the value in attending professional seminars for a minute.
Every professional field, in every corner of the world, offers seminars.
Law firms and businesses recognize the importance of seminars and will oftentimes pay the registration fee for its employees.
What happens when you attend seminars? Not only do you learn skills to help you excel in your career, you also meet people.
Meeting the right person can make your career. You just need to invest in yourself by registering for the seminar.
Online courses are an inexpensive and effective way to invest in yourself.
The same low cost and effective way to invest in yourself that applies to seminars also holds true for online courses.
There’s one crucial advantage to taking an online course:
If in-person seminars aren’t your thing, you can take an online course from the comfort of your home or office, at your own pace.
Many courses offer valuable insight based on the instructor’s personal experiences and acquired knowledge. This learning format can feel more intimate and relatable.
Additionally, online courses may provide the opportunity to meet the instructor and other participants. That gives you the chance to ask questions pertaining to your personal situation. You also get the advantage of building your network, like if you attended a seminar.
One last note about online courses: before you balk at the price, think back to what you paid for law school.
Law school costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many lawyers spend years in debt to pay off that education.
Now, compare what you paid to attend law school to the cost of completing an online course.
A quality online course will cost a fraction of what it cost to obtain your degree.
If you were willing to take out loans and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to become a lawyer, why not invest a bit more in yourself to continue developing your skills?
Investing in yourself does not only relate to your career.
Investing in yourself is not limited to just acquiring skills or connections beneficial to your career.
As one example, I recently committed to running the New York City Marathon in 2026. I’ve never run a marathon before. I’ve never even run a half marathon before. I’m essentially clueless in how to properly train.
So what did I do?
I searched for marathon tips on the internet.
My search led me to Marathon Handbook. It’s a terrific resource.
There are free articles and training plans for beginners and experienced runners. There is also a paid online course, which I plan to take in the coming weeks.
The thing is, if I’m going to take on the challenge and time commitment of training for a marathon, I want to do it the right way.
I want to learn from other people’s experiences. I don’t want to make preventable mistakes. I’m happy to pay for that knowledge and insight.
This logic applies whether you are training for a marathon or hoping to develop any other skill. Investing a little bit of money upfront can lead to massive benefits down the road.
Personal finance is one of the most important areas of self-improvement.
Investing in your physical wellness is important. Hardly anything could be more important.
You know what else is important to invest in?
Your financial wellness.
I’ll even go so far as to say that investing in your own financial wellness is the best investment you’ll ever make.
Don’t believe me?
Just look up “lottery winners who go broke.“
And that leads us to an important point on timing:
It’s not just what you learn when it comes to personal finance. It’s when you learn it.
The best time to learn personal finance is BEFORE you start making real money.
If you win the lottery, you want personal finance knowledge and skills in place before you receive the money.
The same is true as we begin our careers or start to advance in our careers and start making more money.
If you didn’t learn personal finance skills at the beginning of your career, that’s OK. The next best time to learn is right now.
The worst thing to do is to wait until you have a high income before you learn about money.
If you wait, you’re going to end up like the lottery winners who go broke.
The potential rate of return for learning personal finance is greater than any other investment.
Whether you subscribe to a money blog, listen to podcasts, read books, or pay for an online course, the return on that investment is potentially infinite.
This especially holds true for anyone willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for an education.
Paying another $1,500 to $2,000 for a quality financial wellness course ensures that the investment in your career will not be wasted.
To me, that makes it a no-brainer to invest in your financial wellness.
What’s the point in working so hard to make money if you’re not going to be knowledgeable or disciplined enough to keep it?
When you have money and understand personal finance, you control the circumstances.
When you empower yourself to make intentional choices with your money, something incredible happens.
You gain a new confidence as your walk through life.
You stop worrying endlessly about money.
Trust me, it’s a relief to know that all the money you’re earning at work is not being wasted.
The best part of investing in your financial wellness is that you’ll be on your way to financial independence.
That means the freedom to pursue work that is meaningful to you and the freedom to spend more time with people who are meaningful to you.
Could there be a better investment than that?
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