"Average people would rather be entertained than educated. Rich people would rather be educated than entertained"
- Steve Siebold
Since last year I've been taking investments courses to learn more about how to trade, invest, and retire. The instructor did something clever during one of the retirement courses. He asked the class (which mainly consisted of middle class folks between the ages of 35-50) if anyone had a retirement plan. About half of the class raised their hand. He then asked questions to every single person who raised their hand about their retirement plan: what type of retirement plan is it? which plan do you have? how much money has it made you? what has been your ROI? As he asked these questions, most people responded with "I don't know." Out of the 20 people he asked, only one person was able to answer all of the instructor's questions.
The instructor then stepped back thought for a second and then gave us the following scenario.
"Let's say," he said, "I have this plan that will make you money and I want you to be part of my master plan. Who's in?"
The class looked a little confused. One person raised her hand and asked, "Well, what are you going to do with our money?"
The instructor quickly answered, "I don't know."
Another person raised his hand and questioned the instructor, "Well, how much money are we going to make?"
"Don't know," the instructor immediately responded.
After a few of my classmates asked a few more questions and received the same response from the instructor of "I don't know," one person raised her hand and exclaimed, "then, why should we give you our money?"
The instructor then smiled and responded with another question, "Well, why are you giving part of your paycheck to someone when you don't even know where that money is going, how much you're making or who you're investing with?"
We all fall in the same trap. We don't really want to do our homework so we'd rather "trust" and pay someone else to do the homework for us. Some of us might just think that all this "investment talk" is complicated so we don't want to deal with that. Some of us might just underestimate ourselves and feel as though we will never get to retire, or that we're just not smart enough to make important life decisions. Instead, we get lazy and never do anything about it. Others will just follow along with the herd.
Time to time I have people approach me or call me and ask me what I think they should do with their money. In other words, they want to know where they should invest. Should they put their money in real estate or in the stock market? They heard a buzz about gold or the Euro, should they put their money there? I will then give my so-called expert advice and try to lead them in the right direction. However, there is always one type of investment that people fail to understand that can give them the most return on their investment. If you're thinking about investing in someone, invest on this:
Yourself.
I don't mean, go to college (unless that's what you want to do) or buy a bigger house. I'm recommending that you either invest some money or time in yourself to get educated about money. Retirement, investments, your hard-earned money are very important life decisions and the best thing that I feel you can do is start there. Buy a few books (but read them), or do what I did and get some audio books and listen to them on your commute to and from work. Your skills will improve and you'll be a lot more valuable. Learn from people that do the work you want to do or are interested in doing. Look at youtube videos to get ideas or subscribe to a few blogs or articles to enhance your knowledge. This will help you really understand what you're getting yourself into if you're planning on buying investment property, or if you're planning on putting your money on a start-up company or if you want to buy stocks for a certain company.
Some people might have the money to invest in themselves but might just not have the time. I have also 'been there, done that.' However, if this is something you really want to do or deem important, then I know you'll find a way. Get educated. Invest in yourself.
Any thoughts?
Don't forget to share this blog so you can encourage others: family, co-workers, friends. Give them something to get motivated! You never know what they might be going through. A few words of encouragement can go a long way.
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