The Top 5 Benefits to Investing in Yourself
Investing in our friends, family, and community is a natural behavior. Sacrificing our time, money and effort to benefit others is altruistic, helping us feel that we provide real value in the world. But for all that you spend to help others, how much do you spend on investing in yourself? 
Investing in yourself is more than setting up a retirement account or buying a home. Rather than planning for the future, self-investment is most often directed toward the present. It manifests in several ways, such as:
- Investing in your well-being through exercise and healthy diets.
- Investing in learning new skills through online or in-person classes.
- Investing in self-improvement through therapy.
Knowing you have the right resources available makes you more confident in pursuing your goals. Start with a free financial assessment to see your full potential for self-improvement.
Why don’t we invest in ourselves more?
Investing in yourself is an intimidating prospect. It can feel time-consuming, high risk and free of the expert guidance to tell you what is worthwhile. After all, who knows what will make you happy and fulfilled better than yourself?
There are many reasons, or “good excuses”, to NOT expend our effort toward bettering ourselves. At a certain point, it's easy to lose confidence in your ability, to question if you have the resources you need or feel like the opportunities are long gone.
What so many of us don’t consider are all of the logical reasons to invest in ourselves, even if we don’t start with all of the answers. That willingness to take a risk is one way that //medium.com/@brooke_91161/successful-people-invest-in-themselves-79561ddc432a">successful people distinguish themselves through their self-investment.
Taking the leap of faith on yourself sometimes has to start with a push. Let’s get motivated to make the change by looking at the top five benefits of investing in yourself today.
1. Investing in yourself makes investing in others easier
The idea of investing in yourself entails serious reflection. Am I worth an investment? Wouldn’t it be better to help others first?
Those who are uncertain about making a change for themselves operate under the myth that self-investment is selfish. Through a narrow lens, it makes sense — you are using your money and time to focus on you.
But that mindset focuses too much on the cause and not the effect. Are you really the only one who benefits when you invest in yourself? Your new talents, perspectives, and overall well-being actually radiate to touch the lives of others in practical and purposeful ways.
Maybe you exercise, get more energy and end up being more productive at work, much to the satisfaction of your boss. You could take cooking classes and teach mom a new way to make a favorite dish. Or perhaps you take time to learn financial strategies so you can send your children to a top university.
Investing in yourself gives you greater value. You see the effects of that value in stronger relationships as it gives you opportunities to share, teach, and otherwise provide a positive influence.
2. Investing in yourself always yields something positive
The way we think about investing involves risk and the definite paths of success or failure. When we fail in our investments, we do not often have much to show for it. If you invest $1,000 in stocks and it goes belly up, leaving you with $10, all that time and money is just lost.
Investing in yourself is far different because even our failures yield something positive. The insights gained from our mistakes set us up for success in the future. Plus, a whole host of intangible benefits are realized when we invest in ourselves, whether we succeed or not:
- You enhance your perspective and become capable of considering unique points of view.
- You build awareness and reform your beliefs to align with reality, giving you the outlook to accomplish your objectives.
- You become better at introspection and understanding the extent of your abilities, allowing you to set more meaningful, actionable goals.
The prospect of failure should never keep you from trying to better yourself. The most successful people throughout history attribute much of their success to the failures they have endured. The willingness to make the jump and accept the risk is a greater indicator of how you will fare than any fleeting failures you may encounter.
3. You build self-confidence when you invest in yourself
Confidence issues are part of the reason that so many people refuse to leave their comfort zone and invest in what will truly benefit their well-being. Self-doubt can make you question if you are worth the investment or if you have what it takes to pursue your dreams. How low will your confidence get if you go for it and fail spectacularly?
Not very low, as it turns out. There are two ways to look at how your confidence is affected by putting effort into improving yourself:
- It adds to your knowledge base whether you succeed or not, making you confident in the outcomes you can expect in the future.
- When you take gradual steps forward, you gain confidence through accomplishing manageable goals. You can subsequently set larger, more demanding goals that you did not think were achievable when you first started.
Saying “yes” to new experiences immediately benefits your confidence. The more you allow yourself to move out of your comfort zone, the easier it becomes to do so in the future.
4. You ensure sustainability when you invest in your growth
Your financial sustainability arguably sees the most positive gains when you invest in yourself. Part of investing in yourself, if you deem it important enough, is getting the extra boost to excel in your profession. For instance, if you are a designer for a marketing company, you may take extra classes to learn how to code for web design.
Taking the initiative to invest in your career beyond what your company gives you, such as in-house training, gives you leverage and boosts your earning potential. If you take time for more training, you become more valuable than your peers who are comfortable with what they are given. You will be more likely to get promotions and earn more money.
Sometimes the going gets tough, and the investments you have made in yourself sustain you through the storm. The skills, experience, and insight you earn from bettering yourself always stay with you, no matter the circumstances. A diversified skillset means you can get back on your feet if the economy tanks and you get put out of a job.
5. Investing in yourself offers continual improvement
Opportunities abound when you take risks and dive into the unknown. You strengthen relationships with others when you have value to share and experiences to relate. When you use your abilities to help others as an expert, the system of improvement perpetuates itself, as you have new opportunities to learn through applying knowledge and getting feedback.
Your relationships may benefit after you start your new journey but you set yourself up for ongoing improvement in the initial stages of your investment as well. As we’ve established, having the right resources to begin taking steps towards self-actualization is crucial, especially as our goals grow. One key resource is a support system, which we invariably develop as we step out of our comfort zone.
If you want to focus on your health, you may join a gym and end up meeting other fitness fanatics. Maybe you want to be a successful entrepreneur, so you take a leadership seminar full of other small business owners. You meet other passionate, like-minded individuals when you enter a world that is meaningful to you.
The connections you make when you invest in yourself make continuing your growth easier. In one way, it serves your confidence because you know that your struggles are familiar to others.
The greater advantage in your network is the support to keep reaching higher. Your peers will motivate you, offer advice and add to your growth with their unique knowledge and skills. And from a professional standpoint, it helps you immensely by giving you new opportunities to advance your career.
Rethink Investing
We have covered a lot about investing for your future and it absolutely should be a top priority to ensure a fulfilling life through retirement. Investing in yourself does not take away from that. Instead, it enriches the journey and could even make the difference in creating that comfortable retirement.
Think about what matters most to you and what will happen if you do not make the effort to grow in that direction. Growth will never happen on its own and goals will never be fully realized if you refuse to invest in yourself.
At NextGen Wealth, we strive to act as a valuable partner in that growth, offering the support and financial guidance to make your goals attainable. We work closely with clients to enhance their investment strategies, maximize their wealth and live richer lives. Contact us today to set up a free financial assessment so you can start your journey to personal fulfillment.
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