Confessions of An Investor: My Personal MBA

What’s Your Investment Strategy?

Today I want to talk about my favourite investment strategy…that works.

What kind of investment strategy do you have?

What are you investing in?

Do you work on your investment strategy daily?

Do you take a long-term or short-term approach to your investments?

What are you investing in? Is it shares, property or something else?

The Forgotten Investment Strategy

When discussing investment strategies, it can be easy for us to forget the most important investment strategy of all – investing in our personal development.

How much are you investing in your Self and your personal success?

I ask this question seriously. I want to know how you invest in yourself in a way that is going to pay you a real dividend.

We can get so caught up in investing money in things outside of ourselves – a house, gold, clothing or a share portfolio and yet the investment with the highest Return On Investment (ROI) comes when we invest in our life.

Investing in you is the least risky strategy of them all with the highest ROI. Period.

A personal investment isn’t influenced by external factors like market conditions and you are completely in control of the investment at all times.

An Investment Strategy

There are many ways that we can investment in Self. This can include an investment of time or money (or both).

Here are some examples that you can use to design (and refine) your own investment strategy:

Developing Your Mindset

Invest time in developing a mindset for success. You can do this through coaching, attending training and seminars, online courses or books.

A powerful mindset is the most powerful tool you can have in your toolbox. It will allow you to transform and design your most successful life, according to your own definition of success.

A powerful mindset gives you the confidence and the trust in yourself that you need to design your most incredible life and career.

When someone complains about the cost of coaching and training, I always like to ask them the following:

“Is an investment of [$X] reasonable if you’re going to get a return of [insert multiplier x $X] on your investment?”

The answer is always a resounding YES.

Acquiring New Skills + Upskilling

We need a personal strategy that includes the time to upskill and acquire new knowledge. I design my own personal development strategy every quarter.

I sit down and map out the goals I’ve set and then I consider the skills and knowledge that I need to reach those goals.

Once I have identified the skills I need, I research ways in which I can acquire those skills.

I then decide on the best means to acquire that skill and I weigh up the alternatives.

For example, I could learn some sales skills from a book (for example, $30 investment of money and 6 hours of time reading the book) or I can shortcut that process by investing in a coach ($250 and 1 hour investment of my time).

My point is, decide how you want to upskill and make the upfront investment in order to receive a return on investment.

Investing in Experiences

We are here on this earth to love, learn, grow and evolve. When we invest in experiences, we are:

experiencing life for everything that it has to offer us; and
we’re gathering valuable data that assists our gut instinct in making decisions.

Travelling isn’t the only way to gather experiences. We gather experiences by going out in to the world, challenging our comfort zone and trying things that we haven’t attempted before.

We can gather experiences simply by living our life, starting a business, developing relationships and learning about Self.

Investing in Your Higher Self

I have to include this here because it’s an incredibly important resource that, when tapped into, blows all other investment strategies out of the water.

How often do you honour your gut instinct and your personal intuition?

Do you create space in your life to listen to your Higher Self and your intuition?

How have your learnt to flex your intuition muscle?

Has your gut instinct ever let you down?

In my experience, my gut instinct has always been right. When I don’t follow my intuition, I end up regretting my decisions.

Learning how to fine tune that instinct has allowed me to leap forward in my career and business. Can it do the same for you?

Investing in Relationships

If we are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with, then investing in relationships is a no brainer.

Not only do relationships enhance our life but we get out of our relationships what we put into them. Relationships open us up to experiences and opportunities that we do not have access to if we’re simply investing in property.

Who are the most precious assets in your portfolio? Can you invest more time with them and watch them bloom and grow?

Confession Time: My Personal Investment Strategy

I’m going to be really honest and fully transparent with you. This year I’m spending $50k + on my personal development. To date, I have invested over $170,000 in my learning and self-development.

Over the past 5 years, I have completely transformed my life and I’m now living in alignment with my Life Purpose.

5 years ago I decided to live by the following investment strategy:

I am my number one asset and I invest accordingly.

Here’s a breakdown of my education and self-development costs over the past 10 years:

Psychologist – $3,000
Healers – $2,500
Life coaching – $5,000
Mentoring + Business Coaching – $10,000
Design thinking training – $1,500
Online business courses – $2,000
Meditation course – $1,100
Diploma of Business – $17,000
Accredited Coaching Training – $22,000
Law/Commerce Degree – $60,000
College of Law – $8,000

This amount does not include the $50k I’m investing this year and it doesn’t include that amount I’ve invested in my businesses over the years.

The total is around $170,000. Sound like a lot of money? It is.

Do I regret any of it? No, because I’m my number 1 asset and I invest accordingly.

I also trust that my investment will deliver a massive return on investment. In actual fact, it already has.

No Excuses

Here are some excuses that you’re going to make:

“It’s too expensive to invest in these things.”
“This investment isn’t tangible.”
“It’s a luxury and not a priority.”
“This isn’t a real investment strategy.”
“This won’t bring me a real return on investment”.
“Work won’t cover this expense so I cannot afford it”.

I’ve heard all of the excuses. Sometimes, I make them myself but I want you to know this – There is NO other investment strategy that really matters.

Take away your health, happiness, relationships and your soul and what are you left with? No assets at all.

If you’re making these excuses, it always comes down to one thing – You do not trust yourself. If you trusted yourself, your investment would always deliver value.

Investing in your emotional, spiritual, physical and mental health is the best investment strategy you can adopt. Once these elements are in place, everything else can flow.

Share your favourite investment strategy with me in the comments below.

With love,