Investing isn't just about money
Posted
Mar 21 2008, 09:06 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar.
When I first sat down to write the "Investing in yourself" series, I was thinking mostly about financial investments -- how you can invest money in yourself in order to increase your earning potential. What the series actually pointed out to me is that investments take on a lot of forms, and you can often transform one type of investment into another.
For example, take The Simple Dollar. For me, it's a money investment (hosting fees), a time investment, an intellectual investment and a bit of an emotional investment, too. What do I get out of it? I reap some financial rewards, increased knowledge and understanding (as a result of the research), improved writing skills, a network of acquaintances, and the wonderful feeling one gets from helping someone.
Is it enough reward for the time investment? I believe it is, but it's probably not an exchange everyone would see value in.
There are lots of ways to invest in something.
Money. That's the most obvious investment. It's very easy to see how financial investments increase in value over time, let alone how you can use money in effective purchases to improve your situation. Most tangible goods in some way fall under money, as they have some sort of direct monetary value.
Time. It's also rather obvious, and for me it's the more valuable investment. An hour of your time should reap some sort of reward, and that's why, I think, many people were frustrated with my recent article about personal appearance and hygiene. For some, the benefits of the investment of time in cleaning yourself are so obvious as to be idiotic (and thus some were insulted by the article), but yet others didn't think it's worth investing their time because the benefits are less apparent. The comments on that post make that dichotomy clear (and convinced me that I made the right call in posting it).
Emotional involvement. Whenever you become emotionally involved with something or someone, you're hoping for a positive outcome. I immediately think of my sister-in-law here, who works at a job she's emotionally involved in without much pay. For her, it's much more than just a time investment. It's passion.
Intellectual investment. For example, I often come home from my regular job completely drained of mental energy. Sometimes it's almost all I can do to find the mental energy to engage with my family in the evenings.
Not all investments pay dividends in the form of money. Reward can take the form of time, emotion and self-improvement. My sister-in-law invests a great deal of time and emotion in her work. What is her reward? Money is just a part of it. She is rewarded by the happiness of bringing a positive change to people's lives and the satisfaction of doing something that fills a true social need. Overall, the equation balances out for her, even if a time-for-money perspective makes it look as though she's getting a raw deal.
When you start looking at investments from a wider perspective, you may look at things differently. I do.
Time-wasting activities seem more wasteful than ever. I'll be the first to confess that watching "Lost" each week is probably not the best time investment. I spend an hour of my time, a bit of my mental energy and a tiny bit of money on a show solely for entertainment. Do I get enough out of that time to make it worthwhile? Because it's rather hard for me to make that case -- even for a show my wife and I enjoy a lot -- it's almost impossible for me to make the case for just flipping on the television and staring.
Things that previously didn’t seem like investments seem more like investments. The personal appearance and hygiene article comes to mind again. Most people don't think about this as an investment, but that's exactly what it is. You're investing time and a bit of money in exchange for a better appearance and slightly better health. For most people, this investment seems like such a no-brainer that it's not even something to think about, but for others, the costs of this investment (mostly the time lost) isn't worth the reward.
Maximizing the value of investments takes on a whole new light. It goes beyond maximizing the cash value of an hour of your time. If you can spend an hour doing work that's incredibly grueling and draining for $20, or you can do something very easy for that hour for $18, the $18 is a far better investment opportunity because it leaves you with energy for other tasks. I think back to a time two years ago when a penny-pinching travel companion of mine insisted that we sit in an airport for eight hours to save $30 on an airline ticket. It was a good investment for him because he could cozy up in a chair and read. It was a terrible investment for me because I wanted to see my infant son.
Think about things in your own life that drain your emotions, your mental acuity and your time. What rewards do you get from those activities? Are there other opportunities to get more value out of your investment?
Other articles of interest at The Simple Dollar:
"Investing in yourself: Personal growth"
"Investing in yourself: Self-confidence"
"Investing in yourself: Diet"
