Where to Invest
I wonder if it’s possible to ever really achieve happiness if you never invest in yourself. I don’t know whether that’s true or not, but what I do know is that the more I invest in myself the happier I feel. I’m also amazed at how many years I’ve spent investing in other peoples dreams, ideas, and interests, thinking that it would make me happy, when in reality I was just serving someone else. And I’m not saying invest like you would in a 401k, or in real estate, or in anything with a tangible ROI, although that could be part of your plan as well. I just mean investing in the things that arouse your interest and help you to grow.
It amazes me how often in my life I’ve talked myself off the ledge of diving into something I really wanted to do, and all of the excuses I could come up with. Time and money have always been the main reasons why I couldn’t do something, even if time and money were actually not an obstacle. Fear of the unknown and inexperience when it came to trying something new was another one. The perception others had was a distant third. But when it came to investing in other people, whether that was through long hours working, or helping fund a project, for some reasons those excuses never came up. In those situations there was no restrictions.
It wasn’t until I left work that I put this all together. That the key to success is investing in yourself. That the key to investing in yourself is having confidence in yourself. That was the main difference. When it came to others and their established and proven plans, it was easy to hop on board. But when it came to my silly interests or big ideas, they didn’t seem possible or necessary to pursue. Especially when other people had already rolled out a path I could follow.
Like, I wanted to take an introduction to writing class with a local writers workshop, but taking a class meant calling myself a writer, which felt uncomfortable, so I tried to talk myself out of it. I told myself that my writing wasn’t good enough to put in front of other people in in person (read as: I was afraid to receive criticism). And, the class wasn’t cheap. Did I really need to spend money on something that was just a hobby with no promise of financial return? I succeeded in making it too big of a commitment of time, money, and emotion, and put it on the back burner.
But a few weeks later I selected at random a video from Devotion to Writing on YouTube. The video spoke about how important it is for a new writer to surround themselves with a community of writers who understand what they are trying to do. I took it as a sign that I needed to take this class. So, I did. After 4 weeks of class I no longer felt silly about calling myself a writer. I felt accomplished and proud. I learned a lot about writing, but more importantly I grew as a result of my participation in the class, and I have been able to carry that growth into other parts of my life.
Similarly, a few months ago I started a kettlebell class with movement specialist Beth Lewis. Learning how to properly and effectively use kettlebells in my workouts has been a goal of mine for years, and the instruction from this class has got me as close to that goal as I’ve ever been. So when she announced a new bodyweight class over the summer, I really wanted take it, but I was hesitant and, again, tried to talk myself out of it.
The usual excuses were at play. Again, cost was a consideration. Don’t I already know bodyweight exercises? Do I need to pay for something I know? Do I want to make another time commitment? The class is Sunday mornings, and kettlebells is Saturday mornings, which meant weekend mornings were shot. And two exercise classes meant two less days of doing the workouts I want. It meant losing my flexibility. There was good reason it seemed to skip it.
But I kept thinking about the opportunity I had to learn from a master, and I kept telling myself this wasn’t just an exercise class, but an investment in myself. Like the writing class, there might not have been a guaranteed financial return in the future, but I knew the lessons learned would expand my knowledge and help me grow. So, ultimately I pulled the trigger, and based on our first class this past Sunday, I know I made the right decision.
But it does also mean investing from a financial perspective. I’ve had an idea for a mobile app for 7 years now. And for all those years I let it sit because it seemed crazy to invest in. I wasn’t confident I could bring it to life, and I couldn’t envision it’s success, so I couldn’t convince myself to put any money or time into it. The fear of investing in something that goes belly up outweighed the desire to do it. So, instead I let it just bounce around my head and taunt me.
But this year I finally made the move. In part because I heard someone say, “The ideas that never leave you are the ones I like to work on.” Hearing that gave me a push. I realized that if this idea stuck with my for 7 years, that it was unlikely to ever leave me unless I gave it a shot. Plus, I was finally feeling settled in my life, had the support of my partner, and was a year deep into pushing the idea of investing in myself. So, I hired a development company, and took two steps towards developing a limited product that would at least test the viability of the idea. I invested only what I could afford, and only what I would be ok with losing.
I’m expecting the final product in a couple of weeks. I have no idea if it will be successful, how much more work or money it’s going to take, but now that I’ve gotten this far, I can’t picture having never taking this chance. What fascinates me is how the script has flipped, and not trying seems like the crazy thing. Regardless of the success or failure of the idea, I’ve learned that I can be someone who brings an idea to life. And that is way more valuable than any financial return.
Do you have an idea you’ve been kicking around for awhile? A class you want to take? A skill you want to learn? A language you want to master? Somewhere you have always wanted to go? Do you tell yourself it’s stupid, expensive, time consuming, and no guaranteed return, so what’s the point? A lot of times we get a calling to do something, try something, or go somewhere, and it’s not immediately clear why or how it’s going to benefit us, so we make excuses and ignore it, and wait for clear instruction. But just because it isn’t clear, doesn’t mean there’s not a reason it came to you. You have to just do it, and trust that the reason will reveal itself, and that you’ll get something out of it you never expected.
I’ve realized that for most of my life I’ve been living a scarcity mindset. Just trying to keep the nuts I’ve gathered buried and safe for as long as I can. But I wasn’t happy, and success, true success, felt like it was eluding me. I wasn’t sad or depressed, not clinically anyway, but I wasn’t excited about the future. Now that I’m investing in myself, the future feels promising, and I know that the growth I experience will lead to confidence, and confidence will take me the rest of the way.
Invest in yourself.
Financial Advice: Step 1
A friend of mine reached out to me recently. They received an inheritance from a family member, and didn’t know what to do with the money, and asked me for advice.
Right away my brain went to “well you have to diversify,” “you should look into ETFs,” “if the market returns 8% on average per year then, over the course of 10 years, you’ll have X more dollars,” and lastly, “well, we don’t know what the fed is going to do, but if they start cutting interest rates this year…blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”
But I stopped myself, because I realized for the first time in my adult life that information wasn’t going to be helpful in getting him to act. It was only going to fill his brain with information he didn’t know what to do with (for now), and likely cause paralysis by analysis.
So, instead I asked, “Where is your money right now, and do you know what percent interest you’re receiving? Is it close to 5%?”
He replied, “more like less than 1%.”
So, I told him to open a Wealthfront account, which is where I keep a rainy day fund, and that he’d get 5.5% interest for 3 months (promotional boost), and then 5% after that, as long as interest rates hold. I said transfer your money there, and once that’s done, let me know and we’ll talk about other ideas.
With his account open I suggested the following steps:
As long as you’re getting 4-5% in the Wealthfront high yield savings account, keep as much money there as you want. Free interest money.
Open a Fidelity account, so when you’re ready to start investing in the stock market, you can easily do it. Link your Wealthfront account to your Fidelity account so you can easily transfer money.
Open a Fundrise account. Fundrise is a crowd sourced real estate investment platform. You can pick a real estate portfolio that spreads your money out across a wide range of properties to spread your exposure and reduce your risk. It’s one way to diverse into real estate. Open an account here and link it to your Wealthfront and your Fidelity account so you can easily move money between all of them.
After that, it gets a little personal.
It was kind of an eye opening experience for me. Because in that moment I realized the way I usually give advice is not helpful. It doesn’t help facilitate action. It’s really just the passing of information, which, for a first timer of any discipline, is overwhelming.
It’s reminiscent of two things that have recently popped up in my life.
At a recent Advancing Food is Medicine event, hosted by ThinkRegeneration, Dr. Nasha Winters had just finished presenting and was taking questions. She was asked, “how do you get patients who don’t like to eat whole foods to start to change their habits?”
Her reply to those patients is, “Let’s talk about what you do eat, not what you don’t, and build on that.”
In The Lion Trackers Guide to Life, by Boyd Varty says, “In the hour and a half it took us to find the lion, I couldn’t make out one clear track. Where else in my life was there a path that I was missing? The implications felt profound.”
This experience made me question where else in my life I might be missing the real question, the right answer, and therefore, failing to help people.