The best investment

As I work on figuring out how to get Elliott Says in front of more people to help them improve their investing I often look at Facebook Groups related to investing.

This is actually how the course Learn to invest confidently in 30 days was born. I see so many joining these groups and asking for tips on where to begin, only to be hammered by scammers and get rich quick schemes.

There is also another group of people in there I see a lot, which is people that simply ask questions like “which stock should I buy?”, “what is the best ETF right now?”, “I stumbled on 2000$ where should I put them?” (I’m not making this up!).

So what is the best investment at any time when you are in doubt?

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There are actually three ways you can invest. To invest means to devote time, energy or money into something expecting a positive outcome.

The three ways you can invest then are:

• Work: Apply your knowledge and skills for something in return. This costs your time.
• Learn: Improve your knowledge by educating yourself and practicing. This costs time and money.
• Invest your money: aka make your money work for you. This costs money.

Of the three above which do you think provides the best long term returns?

Working has no leverage (unless you work as a business owner and outsource work to others profitably). Because there is no leverage and time is limited to the same 24 hours a day for everyone we have a hard limit on the returns we can get.

Investing might seem the right answer coming from this newsletter and me. After all it is the only way to achieve financial freedom since it is the only way to make money without it requiring us to work for it.

The downside of investing is risk. The market changes all the time. What worked once, might not work tomorrow. We can easily lose money instead of making it if we are not careful, financially educated and informed.

So the obvious answer to what is best to invest in when in doubt is knowledge, even if it costs both time and money!

Specifically, invest in knowledge that improves the outcomes of your other two investing channels, work and money.

The best investors are all extremely avid readers, some of them are quoted for reading a book a day, one a week seeming the average. Of course they are all way past understanding how to leverage so they can easily carve out the time needed to read such amounts. The point is that you only get to reading a book a week starting by reading books in the first place.

Books are not the only way though. Universities have programs, apprenticeship and mentoring still exist in modern forms, and online courses and coaching are now the easiest ways to upskill fast.

Why go through extensive trial and error applying theory when you can get an experienced person to guide you through it, right?

The greatest asset you have is yourself. So take great care of yourself and invest in your knowledge regularly.

If you have doubt about an asset don’t invest, spend the money on knowledge that will save you from the doubt (and costly mistake) the next time around.

Investing in the right knowledge will result in increased hour rates or salaries from your work and increased returns from your investments.

How many books have you read this year? How many courses have you taken?

Please share your best recommendations!

Happy learning this weekend.

Have a good one,

Chris

Originally posted 20th October 2023 on ElliottSays.com

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