Plant the Tree
If the best time to plant a tree was 25 years ago, then when would be the next best time to plant a tree?
The answer to that question is now. This question sets the stage for what people seem to want to do and that’s invest. So let’s start with the definition that speaks to this
With the craze of the day being cryptocurrency let me just say that this post won’t be talking about what should be invested in or how you should choose your investment strategy, this will purely talk about investing in a general sense which could be applied to personal endeavors or in a variety of markets because the formula is the same, just the variables are different.
Merging the first two examples of the definition above we come up with “expend money, one’s time, energy, or effort to a particular undertaking with the expectation of a worthwhile result”, congratulations we’re all investors. Great, we’re all investors so this post is finished right, not quite. All of us are short-term investors and fewer of us are also long-term investors. Example of a short-term investment: I’m sore and I’d like to feel better by paying for a massage, if you don’t have a bae. Example of a long-term investment: I want to learn Spanish because I plan on making Puerto Rico my primary residence due to the 4% business/income tax living in the U.S. territory instead of the tax percentage living in the United States.
Before I continue let me say that there’s nothing wrong with short-term investments, whether it be making a purchase of something you want, buying penny marijuana stocks in hopes to it big, or investing your time watching a mini-series. Short-term anything helps us break the monotony of the long game. The issue comes when people don’t think about the long game at all. Some apprehension in regards to this tends to be about the amount of time it’ll take to reap the benefit of said investment. Let’s stick with the example of learning a new language. Say it takes 2 years to become fluent in a new language (I’m just pulling out 2 years out of thin air). One might say, “2 years is a long time”, but wouldn’t the time pass regardless of if you learned that language, skill, investment strategy, etc? IF it’s something that you really want to reap then the length of time shouldn’t really matter. Whatever that thing is that you really do care about, start now.
Now for the random resources in regards to investing financially, books, and other things I liked: