Investing is sexy.
When we asked our community (The Wealth Mentor Community – you can find it here) to vote on what money related topics they wanted to learn more about, ‘Investment Strategy’ was the clear winner. All the other topics paled in comparison to this juggernaut.
It got me thinking. Why are people so intrigued by investing? Do they picture Wall Street traders in flash suits and expensive watches? Perhaps big shot property developers in Ferraris? I think people do correlate success with investing. Success in your financial life. Success as business person. Success in your chosen career.
And rightly so.
If you want to succeed in any pursuit in life, you must invest in it. You must invest time. Your must invest energy. You must invest money. Be prepared to invest some blood, sweat and tears too, if you really want something bad enough.
And so this month I want to dedicate as much time as I can to getting my thoughts on strategic investing down for others to see. For today, I want to take you back to the start. Back to where I begun my own investment journey.
You see, I was not very good at school. Finished up at high school at the age of fifteen. And good riddance. I could not wait to get into the workforce. I begun working at a local smash repair business shortly after dropping out of year ten and begun the hard slog as an apprentice spray painter.
From there I got lucky.
I met a man by the name of Klaas. He was my boss. And he was the first mentor in my life that was going to teach me about money and investing. Klaas had a style of investing that I still practice to this very day. It was simple and effective. The words of wisdom still ring in my ears today.
- Invest time, energy and money into your education. The amount of money you earn will be determined by your ability to make better decisions, not your ability to work a hundred hours a week.
- Invest time, energy and money into creating a successful business. If done correctly, this will propel your fortune like no other investment, and all your passive investments will come off the back of the business.
- Invest your money into property. You will quickly learn that property is a game of finance. Master the game of finance, and that is how you will find success as a property investor. Never sell.
- Invest your money into shares. The sharemarket is not a casino. The sharemarket will crash plenty of times over the course of your life. When the sharemarket crashes, buy more. Let me repeat, when the sharemarket crashes, buy more.
We had a lot of character traits in common, Klaas and I. However I believe the most significant factor that we had in common when it came to investing, was our ability to delay gratification. We were both natural savers. We saved money first, spent whatever was left second.
Most people are natural spenders. They spend money first, and save whatever is left second. Hence the whole point of this blog. Everyone loves the investing part. The sexy part. But most people do not make it that far!
The first trick to investing is to spend less than you earn. Learn that trick and watch the cash start to pile up. That is the beginning of your investment journey.
