Published: 2/1/2025

Welcome to this week’s blog about investments! We would be going through what the word “investment” means (in simple terms), why you should even invest, how to measure if the investment made is positive or negative, and the best investment one can make (definitely not money).

What do you mean by investment ?

Surprisingly! Investment is usually associated with money or returns on their money, but if you think deeper, you would realise it is more than just that. “Investment” can be thought of as an umbrella term that simply refers to “giving something with the intention to get something more or better in the future than what we are giving right now.” If you think like this, you would be able to relate stuff, not just money but time, knowledge, and efforts, as investments too! You give money, time, knowledge, and efforts in order to get something more in the future, either for yourself or for others.

Thinking in this way helps you to not just think of investment in terms of money but more. For e.g. Let’s take a question, “Should I learn this skill?” To answer this question in terms of “Should I invest my time in learning this skill?” we can evaluate if giving 6 months, 1 year, or more to this skill, what the end result we get is more valuable or not. If learning this new skill will take 10 months of my life but will get me a 10% hike, is it even worth it? Or if it helps me to free up my time so that I can spend that with my family or learning this will help me to do more my entire life, ask yourself this question. And you will know if you want the end result or not. If not, it is better to think of something that you would rather do. Health and knowledge are very good examples to invest (your time, effort) in, as once you gain those, you would be able to enjoy and use them your whole life.

“A moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory.”

Why should you even invest?

After knowing about what an investment is, the next logical step is to ask, “Why should I even invest?” When I can enjoy my present, why should I even bother to think of the uncertain future? My answer lies in the last words, “The uncertain future.”. The aim for any investment is to be better off than what you were when you started; yes, risks/losses are always a possibility, but that is what the trade-off is. If you look at growth, survival, and expansion, each of them involves doing something ahead of time that puts you in a better position in the present. Hence, investment is not just about money and returns, but about being better off than your present self.

Best Investments: Health, Knowledge, and People

This section is based on my personal opinion and might or might not be true for everyone. I think the best investment for anyone lies in health, knowledge, and people, that too in that order. Let me explain why.

Health is pretty obvious, as it enables you to do anything and everything in your life. Without health, nothing else matters in your life; you can’t enjoy life, time with your loved ones, or even pursue your interests. Lack of health is the biggest downside one can have in life, and so I feel investing in your own health is always a good investment.

Knowledge is an evergreen investment, in my opinion, as once you gain it, it serves you your whole lifetime. With knowledge, you can expand your horizons and experience things that you weren’t aware of; it makes you more capable and independent as well.

Finally, investment in people is also one of the best investments one can make. In my opinion, people are the end game; they are the ones who help you in your life, and they are the ones who create problems as well. They are the ones who spread goodness in the world, and they are the ones who show the worst possible. You are even made and taught by people around you only. Hence, I feel everything ends on people (not saying anything about good or bad but just people) in life, and that is why it feels important to invest in developing healthy, positive relationships with people around you.

Thanks for reading; I hope you learnt something new from this.

Happy learning! :)