What Does It Mean to Invest in Yourself?

Many people live day in and day out, repeating the same routine every day. It’s like we’re a hamster on a spinning wheel doing whatever we can to impress our bosses and get our jobs done so we can get our weekly paycheck. However, we often set that at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to ourselves. 

Even though investing, in general, can be overwhelming, investing in yourself can be one of the easiest, cheapest, and most rewarding benefits of your time. By starting to make small changes to your lifestyle today, you can create a higher return for your future. As you start investing in yourself, you will soon realize that you are making an impact on others around you as well.

Why Should You Invest in Yourself?

Investing in yourself means putting in the time, money, and energy into improving your current and future life. Instead of focusing on things that will not increase your wealth in the long term, look for ways to expand your knowledge and make your life better. 

When you focus on improving yourself and reaching your goals, you will notice the positive domino effect on your finances, career, health, and happiness. 

Investing in yourself can be one of the easiest, cheapest, and most rewarding benefits of your time.

Why is it important to invest in yourself?

When you invest in yourself, you gain knowledge and skills that can lower the amount of time you focus on things that are less important to you and more time on things that make you happy. Even though you may not see the impact of your investment right away, investing in yourself can greatly impact your life over time. 

Investing in yourself can:

• Build your confidence,
• Broaden your perspective, 
• Develop your purpose, and
• Increase your wealth. 

Let’s review eight steps you can take to invest in yourself to improve your own life. 

1. Set Goals

Writing out goals is one of the easiest ways to start investing in yourself. A set of goals is like a grocery list for your life. It tells you exactly what you need to realize your dreams. 

No more wandering aimlessly through the aisles of life – you now have an action plan and a clear destination. Start by spending just a few minutes each month mapping out your goals. 

2. Create a Spending Plan 

Spending plans track how much you spend, save and invest each month. Some people use an app on their phone; others plug numbers into an Excel spreadsheet. 

Discover what works for you and consistently track your finances. Remember – you control your spending plan. Therefore, you get to decide what you spend your money on.     

3. Reduce your Debt

Debt is destructive. Not only does it weigh down on your relationships, it holds you back from reaching your goals. Worse yet, the longer you delay paying off your debt, the bigger it grows. 

Once you have evaluated your spending plan, calculate how much you need to meet your monthly minimum debt payment and consider how you could use that money elsewhere. Getting out of debt can be difficult, but the benefits are well worth it.  

4. Invest Your Money

Do you have extra money left over at the end of each month? It’s important to save part of your income to keep up with inflation and accumulate wealth. 

Investing isn’t rocket science; you can keep it as simple as you like. For some people, a savings account with an above-average interest rate is enough. For others, venturing out into the stock market makes more sense. 

When starting out, it is crucial not to put all your eggs in one basket and to diversify your exposure to risk. The longer your money is invested, the more it will grow.

5. Keep Learning

Successful people never stop learning. If you stop building your skillset, you’ll be left behind as technology evolves. Thankfully, picking up a new skill is quite straightforward these days. 

There are dozens of online resources available at your fingertips. Learning can mean listening to a podcast, reading a book, watching a YouTube video, or signing up for an online course.   

6. Get Healthy

Living a healthier lifestyle can help you live a longer life and reduce your future medical bills. Maintaining a healthier lifestyle has many benefits: your body will naturally feel better, and you’ll feel less fatigued throughout the day. 

The key is identifying what health routine works best for you. This may involve going for a morning walk or setting up yearly health checkups.  

7. Start a Side Hustle

Do you ever wish that you could turn a hobby into a business? A side hustle is just that. It’s something else you do on top of your full-time job. 

The goal of most side hustlers is to supplement their income to pay off debt, save for the future, or upgrade their lifestyle. Not only can side hustles provide extra income, they can also be a confidence booster that lifts your overall life satisfaction.

8. Invest in a Financial Planner 

For some people, investing in yourself can be challenging. The good news is you don’t have to go it alone. 

When searching for a financial planner, look for one who educates and guides you, not one who will make all the decisions for you. 

Financial planners are experts who can teach you how to budget, pay off debt, and invest your money. They can keep you accountable, help you avoid mistakes, and create a path to achieve your goals. 

How to Start:

Think Small: Don’t expect to tackle everything at once. The best way to start is by choosing one or two things on this list and doing your best to implement them into your life. 

Be Practical: There are going to be times when you forget or are not consistent with investing in yourself. When you feel that you need to focus more time on investing in yourself, revisit this list and get back into your routine. 

Be Patient: Investing in yourself takes time and effort. If you do not get the results you expect right away, focus on the small achievements you made. Over time, small wins can create large accomplishments.

Reach For Help: When in doubt, find someone that can support and help keep you accountable. This person can be a gym buddy, friend, family member, or financial planner. 

Final tips to help you on your journey to investing in yourself:

Don’t forget you are your best asset. Therefore, it is important to use all your tools and skills wisely. Words of encouragement can give you a temporary boost, but you are the one who gets yourself out of bed and gets to work on time every morning. 

Learning from others is one thing, but analyzing and interpreting what you learn is a whole different story. When you invest in the stock market, there is a possibility that you will lose money. When you invest in yourself, you may make mistakes, but that knowledge you gain will continue for a lifetime.