Admit it or not, we all have dreams. But in order to make every dreams come to reality, it has to be made as a step-by-step goal or target. For sure it will take an awful lot of hard-work, dedication and discipline to succeed, depends on what you wanna achieve. We may all have different definition of success, but somehow I know there might be only one end goal: To be Happy. But remember, money does not equate happiness.
"Happiness is a state of mind, a choice, a way of living; it is not something to be achieved, it is something to be experienced.” -Dr. Steve Maraboli
Few years back, I asked myself, “is it really imperative to sacrifice happiness in order to be successful?” Suspending happiness in pursuit of success? It did not seem right. That question made me analyze my situation then.
Happiness for me is being able to procure freedom in doing things I love and spending time with my family and people that I love. With that in mind, I mulled over again: How can I make that happen?
Thus, my investing journey begun.
What is #investing? As they say, Investing is about “Working Smarter and not Harder”. I read a few books and watched online teachings on how to practically invest my hard-earned money to make the most out of it. (You can just basically learn everything online.)
But why not just save then? Saving money is the first step. Since without saved money, there will be no money to invest.
Saving money is good mainly when you save to invest. When you just save, your money’s value loses over time. To prevent that and take full advantage from your money, you must keep your money elsewhere so it’s value keeps increasing over time. It means letting your money work hard for you.
There are several types of investments:
* Business. I’m talking about investing and owning your own traditional business where you can offer certain services or products to target consumers.
* Real Estate Investing. This includes owning and managing rental and/or sell of real estate property such as hotels, apartments, condominiums, houses and lots.
*Commodities. Commodities contains tradable products such as crude oils, metals (gold,silver or platinum), livestock/meat and agricultural produced.
*Paper Assets. Examples of paper assets are stocks, bonds, mutual funds and many more. Getting started in paper asset investing is quite easy. You can just go online through your bank or a broker of your choice (Mine is COLfinancial Philippines).
Prior to paper asset investing, I absolutely knew nothing. Before totally plunging into it, the very first and most important underpinnings was to gather relevant informations.
As Benjamin Franklin said,
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest”.
At the moment, I am only into stock market investing. It may be unfamiliar but let me give you an example on how it works.
For example you buy a stock for 10Dollar and then sell it for 20Dollar, the difference is the profit you make called Capital Gain. Some say that stock market is rich people’s playground. I totally disagree. You can always start with as little money as you want, what’s important is you get started!
The key principle in investing is to start as early as possible. If only I had known about this earlier! Well, they always say that the next best time to start is now. I encourage everyone that when you start earning, take the opportunity to begin investing. It is not always how much you earn, it’s what you do with what you earn. Consider this: You can have control over your financial future when you act accordingly.
Just keep in mind that investing takes time. It might take 5, 10 or 15 years, but it really pays back. Remember that investing requires prioritizing financial future over present desires, it means delaying gratification. Work smart now, invest and let money work hard. In this way, I may be able to find security knowing that I am one step ahead towards my dreams and goals, and that is to escape the rat race and have more time to spend with my loved ones.
The goal is not to have more money, the goal is to have freedom to do things that matters.
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below. Thank you for reading!
Miss C
Blog contributor