Aside from retirement accounts, I’ve never been interested in investing money. I don’t own real estate or big-ticket items. I don’t invest in stocks, bonds, or gold. I don’t own a house and the car I own is 15 years old with more than 200,000 miles.
The largest and most powerful monetary investment I’ve ever made was spent becoming debt free. I’m not opposed to investing, but it’s never interested me enough to take action. When there are highs and lows in the market, it doesn’t have a dramatic effect on my life and I think there are better ways to invest.
Investing money is an option, but if you want a better return, invest with your heart and soul.
5 Investments That Always Pay Big
1. People
Invest your time, money, and energy lifting people up. Give them your attention. Teach them what you know. Connect them with other helpful people. This might start in your own family or community, and it could be a social networking or business connection.
Believe that you have something to offer, because you do. Offer it with your heart in the right place and you will help the people who are open to it.
2. Passion projects
What makes your heart sing? How do you want to change the world? How many ideas have you dismissed because you didn’t think you had the time, skills, or money? Bring one back and dig in. Give yourself permission to move past the fact that it’s a crazy idea or that you don’t know how to do it. Dig in.
When you discover and invest in work you love, you find a way to make it work.
3. The Underdog
In my case, the underdog was a dog. Our dog, Guinness was diagnosed with aggressive bone cancer last May and given a 5% chance of living more than 175 days. That 5% was on condition that we amputate his front right leg. Without amputation, the pain of the cancer caused too much pain. We invested money to have the surgery. We invested time to help him recover from a traumatic surgery. We invested our hearts and souls into giving Guinness what we thought would be his last few months with treats, trips to the park, hikes, and on demand belly rubs.
This month a chest X-ray and blood work showed no signs of cancer more than 7 months later. While the underdog might be an animal, it could be an organization, a little league team, or a struggling business. Don’t dismiss the underdog. Take a chance and invest in one.
4. Education
An education doesn’t have to come in the form of an expensive degree. What do you want to learn and why? Local courses and seminars are a great way to learn and connect with like-minded people. While there are great courses at universities, community colleges, and other local venues, you can learn almost anything online starting at zero dollars.
- There are free and paid creative classes on Creative Live.
- I’ll teach you how to thoughtfully earn your first $100 and 100 blog subscribers for $10 with Zero to 100, a microcourse for beginning bloggers.
- Skillshare offers courses in entrepreneurship, photography, and culinary skills with a free month of premium membership.
- Learn the power of Desire Mapping and then turn what you learn into a thriving business.
- My friend Jess just opened registration for her Life with Intention course.
Want to learn something else? Be curious and jump in.
5. You
Pay yourself first. Make an investment in your body with nourishing food, a full night of sleep, and exercise. Invest in your heart by spending time with people who lift you up and by saying no instead of saying yes or maybe (especially when you desperately want to say no). Invest in your soul by doing work you care about, and by serving your community. Invest in your brain by being curious, daring and open.
When you invest in yourself, you create limitless resources to invest in what matters most to you.
No matter what you choose to invest in, once you are truly invested in something that matters to you or in people you care about, prepare for the very best returns.
Another great, free way to learn is coursera.org. I discovered this last year and I’ve taken a bunch of awesome classes. There are courses in just about every subject, offered online by major universities (like Yale) and they’re FREE! I highly recommend it. Plus you get to connect and share ideas with other students from around the world.
I realize this sounds like an ad – I promise you I’m in no way connected to coursera. I just really love it and wanted to share.
I totally agree with you Courtney. Investing in ourselves, education and people around us are the best investments that we can take up in life.
Thank you for this article <3
So right on. As several friends have cancer right now, I’m poignantly aware of the importance of investing in people before it’s too late and you never said what you really meant to.
At the same time, I also have concerns about financial stability in my later years. So I think that’s a good place to put attention too.
Well said. Totally agree.
Woohoo! Such great news about Guinness! AMAZING and true love.
There all kinds of ways to invest in ourselves or others – even cooking or sewing with our loved ones is time well spent and memories in the making that can’t be bought or lost.
Such good news about Guinness. Best news I have had today. Give him a hug and a belly rub for me!!
Great post, Courtney! It’s crazy how we get so sidetracked these days and lose sight of what really matters. For me, the underdog project is charity work or donating rather than an animal, but completely agree with taking time to invest in your health and yourself, relationships with others, learning (!!!) and unique passions.
The minute that you’re not learning I believe you’re dead.
Jack Nicholson
Hello Courtney,
Great post!
I’d like to suggest an additional education resource:
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/
CORE THEMES GRATITUDE ALTRUISM COMPASSION
EMPATHY FORGIVENESS HAPPINESS MINDFULNES
They offer many great free online courses, videos, and their articles are excellent.
Cheers,
Carol at Ahh The Simple Life
Fab post, this really resounds with me. Thanks for sharing. Oh, and what great news about Guiness. :o)
I’ve found this statement to be so true for me lately: “when you discover and invest in work you love, you find a way to make it work.”
As a busy work-from-home Mom taking care of a 6-month-old and juggling work at the same time, I’ve found that the more passion I feel in the work that I’m doing, the easier and more joyful it is for me to balance it all. Getting all of my work done for the day requires me to wake up at 5a, and I find it to be so much easier to get out of bed at this hour when I’m going to be working on something I love doing.
Passion and investing time in work that you love is ALWAYS worth it. It makes life so much more enjoyable!
I completely understand the point of your post, but I have to say that choosing not to invest financially is something that can put you really far behind in your goals, when you live in an expensive city. I live in toronto, in one of the most expensive cities for real estate in North america.
It is super hard. It is extremely common for most houses that go up for sale to have 10 bids on it. I dream of owning a small house, with a yard and neighbourhood sense (I’m 30). Tiny boxed condos are unappealing to me now and I am single, so affording a house is beyond challenging. There is no such thing as debt free in toronto. It is ‘normal’ for everyone to have at least a 500k mortgage. Rents have gone up considerably. I rent my 700 sq foot condo out to a tenant for 2,200 a month (I live elsewhere to save money). I do happen to invest in stocks. If you aren’t pro active, you’ll find it way harder to make the life you want. I can understand renting a condo just as a couple and empty nesters – but some of us dream of a little patch of yard to call our own. The dream here is owning about 1500 sq feet (semi detached) – not the 5000 sq foot type houses! It takes an arm and a leg, and therefore it’s not nearly as simple. I wish it was! But such is life in cities where it really does take quite a bit of money to live.
After becoming debt free, my husband learned about investing in index mutual funds. They are “boring” investments, which is fine for us. I realize that our long-term goals with these financial investments will help us focus on the five things that you listed above. Of course, these are also investments that we can make now. I realize that there are some areas for me to work on in the new year. Thank you for this post and helping me to think about how these pieces can fit together in my life.
I am glad that people are sharing more education resources in the comments! This is an area of investment that I want to work on this year. I also think that using the resources through your local library is another way to invest in free education. Our library has an online form to suggest a purchase if it is not already in the catalog. I have been able to read numerous books for free this way. I have also been able to cut down on clutter by donating our extra books to the library.
Stephanie – I can relate to your comments on Toronto. We have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for 3 years and also face high prices to rent or buy any property. Learning about simplicity and minimalism has helped me navigate the high housing cost out here by focusing on what is important to us. We choose to rent a small house near schools, parks, and libraries. Our rental options are limited by having a dog, which is okay with us. I’d rather have our dog than a larger house.
Courtney – That is great news about Guinness!