Your best investments

Hi everyone!

In today’s post, I want to talk about “your best investments”. But what do I actually mean by that?

It might surprise you but your best investments are likely not going to be actual investments. Your best investments will come through choices in your life.

There is no perfect way to live your life but there are somethings you can keep in your mind to try and stay on the right track.

I for one have made lots of mistakes but I try to be true to myself and learn from them. You can’t always optimise every daily task (and that probably wouldn’t be a fun way to live your life anyway) but it is good to realise why doing something a certain way will produce a better result for your future self.

Those closest to you

A very important life choice will be who you spend your time with.

For example, your partner. Your partner is likely going to have the biggest impact on you. You will likely spend a significant amount of time together so will start to do things in similar ways. Well, sometimes. The Mrs might not completely agree with this (I don’t always tidy/ clean as quickly as she might like). But seriously, your partner is probably top of the list in terms of how your future might look. If you are both in agreement about how you want to live your life and what your future might look like, it will make things so much easier.

Otherwise, your family and friends will be very important also. Maybe you get invited to go out and do things together or buy gifts for each other. Your financial future will depend on how extravagant these things are. Are your friends/ family happy with meeting at home or the pub or do they want you to go on the most fancy holidays each year or out to 5-star restaurants? It can be difficult to say no and you can decide if this is something you want to do or not.

The “peer pressure” can also extend to how you spend your money on clothes, cars, house decorations, etc. If there are high expectations, you can decide whether you meet these expectations or not.

The same really goes with your work colleagues. All of this comes together to form the basis of the culture you have around you in your daily life.

The opposite is also true. If you are around positive people who have the same goals in mind or have interesting ways of looking at the world, this can be really beneficial. Seek these kinds of people and it can put your life on a completely different and better trajectory. The problem is often finding these unicorns.

Your attitude

I think this is an important one. Your attitude and staying power will be key. You need to be able to make choices and stick to them. Your future will depend on small choices as well as big choices. Small choices can often be impulsive and I see this more as a muscle you can control. I for one used to be bad for eating takeaways or going to the pub too often. Now I have cut this down. I still have these habits but I don’t give into them as easily as I would have before. I am sure these small changes will add up over time.

Your attitude to investing will also be important. You need to think long term. The stock market is highly volatile and can have periods where it goes down for years or months. You need to zoom out and look at the bigger picture. Eventually it will recover and you need to stay the course. Keep investing as much as you were before and you will get there.

Most people give up investing far too quickly as soon as the first downturn comes along. These people just wanted to get rich quick. Unfortunately there is no get rich quick scheme so the only way to it is through perseverance and consistency.

Not taking it too serious

This one might surprise you but it is also important. When I first found out about FIRE, I was obsessed and wanted to really go for it. I think this is fine but you need to be realistic. You still have a life to live in the meantime and you shouldn’t forget the value of that. I mean, just think about it, you are never going to be younger and more able than you are now. It can also be quite exhausting when all you think about is putting extra money into your investment account and trying not to spending anything. You need to give yourself some breaks.

Now I’m not saying you should go and splash the cash on a brand new car but I think you can likely still afford to do things that you want to do every so often. Like taking your partner out for dinner every now and then or having a few too many drinks with your friends.

Doing this will help with staying power. If you take it too serious, you run the risk of sickening yourself. You also need to try and match the standard of life you have now with the one you want to have in the future.

Remember, there is always the great outdoors that is there to be enjoyed and that is free. I love getting out hiking or to the beach. It is a great way to top up the old mental health positivity tank.

Your health

Your health is probably the best investment you can make. Eating healthy and making sure you keep fit will be really important for your future self and you shouldn’t forget about it.

There is a great quote from the Dalai Lama when asked what surprised him most about humanity: "Man! Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”

There is no point in accumulating all this wealth if you are not fit and healthy enough to enjoy the life you have created. Mental health is important here too. You have a choice and should make sure you keep active and get outside and do things along with eating a varied healthy diet. You can still buy foods that are healthy and varied but don’t cost an arm and a leg. You just need to be a little creative.

Your education and career

You have a choice here too. It is a difficult one because normally you make a lot of these choices when you are relative young and they set you off down a certain path.

I for one was very lucky. I did really bad at high school and had to go to college prior to going to university. I didn’t get into the college course I wanted so I had to go through clearing to study something else.

I remember the day I received my high school exam results - I was crying and felt completely useless. I did the college course and passed with an A grade. I also met someone there who was going to study engineering at one of the universities. I thought, this sounds good, why not try. I spoke to my parents and they were a little surprised. I am not sure they thought I would be able but eventually agreed. This gave me the motivation I needed, I needed to prove to them that they made a good choice.

From there, I went from strength to strength. I passed with a First Class and won all of the class awards in engineering during my undergraduate and then got a scholarship to do a masters degree. I have been more than lucky again during my working career with no major set backs so far. So fingers crossed.

But I think this just shows how little choices can make a big difference. I could have ended up working in a low paying job if I gave up at the first hurdle but I persevered and it paid off.