Investing in yourself

Interested to hear things community members have done here to invest in themselves. What did you do? What impact did it have? Was it a good ROI?

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This is something I really need to try and embrace more. After spending 10 months living frugally to pay off all my debts and get into a position to invest, I’m still in that same saving mindset now. Instead of it being I can’t spend that, it should go to my credit cards or loan…it’s that could be investing money.

One of the things I’m going to invest in for myself in an audible membership, I’ve got a list of wealth creation and mindset books I want to ā€œreadā€ there’s so much to learn so for me that’s the one thing I’ll invest in.

As for fitness, that’s my therapy, so I don’t see that as a chore at all, I’m one of them people that misses the gym or training two days and it feels like the end of the world haha

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Yeah I agree its something I want to embrace more. Otherwise you spend so much of your time investing in other people’s projects whether its through work, or investing in stocks, or whatever and its easy to forget about investing in yourself to further your own personal goals.

I was thinking of taking a language class. One I have no understanding of at all and committing to learning it over the next few years. But I’m still weighing up which language would have the best ROI.

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Great topic! As per my financial investments trend, the investments in myself have always been scatterbrained… I get obsessed with something for a few months and then it drifts into the background.
I heavily invested into my social life and experiencing different cultures, it’s definitely put my life in perspective and made me appreciate what I have and realise I don’t need much… Although I still want a lot :wink:

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I’d say this heavily depends on what you’re aiming to get out of it/what you’re hoping to use it for.

When learning anything new think about why you want to learn it and what you want out of it e.g. Want to travel to Cambodia and teach English? Learn Khmer. Want to learn another language that is used in multiple countries so it’s more versatile? Learn something like French or Spanish. Want to get a job or a promotion where you need to travel to China to negotiate deals with manufacturing plants? Learn Chinese. Or just want to be able to watch raw anime like a true geek? Learn Japanese.

Then there comes the how e.g. Are you going to download a free app, watch YouTube videos, take an evening or online class, or will you go live in that country for a few months?

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Online courses, you tube, blogs & books about Trading & Accounting (didn’t do any of that at school) reading Economics books. Updated news feeds to be more finance based.
Fitness - crossfit, running, yoga, healthy eating (macro based meals, lots of learning to be done there and how to do cheaply)
Mentally - meditation, yoga, mental strength books.

Can’t recall where I read it but it’s the Health > Wealth > Mind triangle - if you invest in those 3, you can only better yourself and they all tie into each other.

It is working. I never saved until a few years back, let alone started an investment portfolio. am fitter and finally found something I love learning about with Finance. I think it’s about taking control rather than letting life happen. Just need to start seeing money gainz :muscle: :smiley:

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I had laser eye surgery 10 years ago at the age of 20 - easily the best Ā£2k I’ve ever spent. I was spending Ā£50 a month on contact lenses, so not only have i saved thousands of pounds, I’ve got 20/20 vision!

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At this stage I don’t have a specific reason other than I want to further career prospects. I’m in my early twenties so still feel I have time. But like you said what is the reason and how are you going to do it are important questions

What’s your career in? Most jobs don’t have any ROI on knowing additional languages. Eapecially if you don’t speak them perfectly. There will always be a native speaker who speaks english as well as his own language to do customer related tasks. And to actually learn a language perfectly enough will take years and you will probably need to live in a country with that language for a while as well.

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Well I’d say the what, why and how are the important questions :smile:

You’ve got the why so now you’ve just got to figure out the other two.

As Seb said it could be a lot of time and a lot of hard work for little return, although I’d argue it depends on what kind of career you’re aiming for. For example if you wanted to travel abroad to teach English at a foreign school you often don’t need to know the language at all, or if you do then only a very basic amount. But learning the native language will of course make everything a lot easier.

Another example is my dad who is a tour manager and speaks a lot of languages. Again it’s not something he needs to be able to but it sure makes it easier to get around, and he knows the languages well enough to be able to have simple conversations (if with a little difficulty sometimes). He also uses it to form relationships with foreign people around him, and they definitely appreciate the effort even if it’s not always perfect.

But if you want to become a translator or be able to negotiate deals etc. Then that’s going to take a lot of hard time unless you learn very quickly, and even then you’ll likely need to understand the culture too.

Either way don’t feel discouraged if you want to stick with it! It’s still an admirable goal and I wish you the best of luck in your endeavours :slight_smile: the only other advice I can give is once you have picked a language don’t give up, because you’d be surprised how quickly you end up forgetting it after a while (talking from experience - I used to speak two languages).

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I work for a global media company. I think there’s some truth in that but also indicative of our lazy British attitude. But I guess we have that attitude for a reason. I too am not sure how worthy a pursuit it is. I have the ambition to be able to use a language in my career but just because I want it doesn’t mean it will happen

Thanks for your advice. I’m looking for a challenge that at the end will have obvious advantage points. And I’m prepared to commit a few years to. Language is just what came to mind.

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The advantages of learning a new language may not always be obvious at first but hopefully it’ll be worth it! And I’m sure it will be as knowing more than one language will always have its advantages :slight_smile:

Personally I’d love to re-learn Finnish (my mother’s native tongue) and try to learn Japanese again (a country I’d love to visit), but I have other things going on right now.

Edit: actually if it’s of any interest to you whatsoever, I’d strongly recommend learning a programming language :smiley:

As Tim Cook put it, coding is the most important second language you can learn