A Huge Lesson Learned: Why Investment is Important to Everybody?

I wonder this myself when somebody told me "Hey, you should invest today before it's too late". I always thought to myself that investing is only for the rich. Well, I was only 17 years old when he told me about that one. Me and my younger brother were already orphans that time; nobody was guiding us on how to manage our finances, even our expenses. Money go in and go out, every single day. Especially at that age when we don't think much of the possible future ahead of us. As long as we live by the day and being happy always, that was enough.

But as we grow old and have our own families and responsibilities, that is when you realize the importance of investments. I also thought that having a day job is enough, but I WAS VERY WRONG! Job security is enabling you to survive every day. Investments is enabling you to build your wealth for the future, so that when that time comes, you'll not stick to that day job that you hate, for the rest of your life.

But the question is: What is investment? As what I said above, that jargon word, I thought, is only for the rich, but again, I WAS WRONG! Investments are for everybody, and you'll be successful in this venture, IF and only IF, you know what you're doing.

Investment, as per investopedia.com, is "a monetary asset purchased with the idea that the asset will provide income in the future or will be sold at a higher price for a profit". It's something that you bought, then after a few months or years, that thing you bought has more value compared to when you initially bought it. One common type of investment is stocks. Stocks is somewhat a common word already since many brokerage firms offer stock trading accounts for any sort who are interested in such kind of venture. Stocks represents somewhat a claim or ownership of a company. If you buy XXX Company shares or stocks for US$5 today, after 3 years, given that the company had a very strong financial outlook, that stock might valued to US$25 per share for example.

Now there were several types of investments. Stocks is one of the examples of so-called paper assets. Of course, building a business is also an investment. Real estate is an investment. Gold is an investment. There were several investment types out there that is just waiting for us to size them. But then again, success on investments can be achieved, if you know what you're doing.

Investment is a very important and very beneficial matter to everybody. Why? I thought if several reasons why, but I can probably tackle 2 or 3 as I continue writing these down at this very moment. One is that, we cannot work forever just for money. Human body, like machineries, are subject to wear and tear. We also encounter sickness and fatigue. Once you stop working, your income also stop if you only rely on your job as your source of income. Second is that, there had been several opportunities outside that we can grab on and have descent source of income without relying on your employment. We live in the Information Age. As Robert Kiyosaki puts it, "Knowledge is money". Investing in yourself makes you a better person on the financial aspect. Last thing about investment is about the word "leverage". Leverage, in a shortest definition possible, means "doing more with less". If we rely on our job only, we only have our own time and own energy to do the work and get paid by that time invested for work. But with leverage, you can delegate people who can work for you, doing that same type of work, but saving more time and energy on your part. That is one secret that the rich is doing, and we can do that too!

On my next posts I'll be talking more deeply about these kind of investments, topics on financial education, and many others related to business and investment space. So stay tuned and I'll keep you posted.

Photo reference: http://oxfordinnovationservices.co.uk/investment-finance/