There are so much going on in 2019: trade war between the USA and China, the Brexit, the anti-extradition bill in HK and the protests, all have definitely clouded the outlook of the global economy. Despite this pessimistic situation, investors are being conservative on funds and investments on high risk assets. I believe many of them started to diverse their investment and having more portion on personal savings; and even to focus more on their lifetime savings.
From an eye of an economist, savings 🏦 should equal to investments 💸 (assuming it is at Autarky). Of course, the form of how each is taken is not necessarily the same.
I would like to take this opportunity to share what are the three most important lifetime savings and investments for myself. Don’t get me wrong, I did not invent these ideas myself. I heard the concept from many brilliant superiors and speakers. However, I am taking it from my own perspective and iterate it with my personal experience. Hey I know, I am fully aware that there are so many writings about this topic, but hear me out 🙏.🎯 3 most important Savings/Investments in life：
- At the bank 💰💰💰
- At your professional skills/taste 🖌 🎓 📚 🍷 🏃♀💻 📊 🎨 ⛳️ 🍣 🍲 🌯 💄
- At your connections 💃 👫 👭 👬 🍸 🍻 🍶 🥃
Here below I will talk about each of it.
1) The Savings/Investments at the Bank
I think this one doesn’t need to be further explained. It is pretty straightforward; exactly what it means. Everyone is doing this type of savings on a daily basis, regardless if your balance is greatly positive or extremely negative. This is a saving/investment that we don’t start at the same starting line; some people just endowed with more at birth and some simply don’t.
Nonetheless, this is the one that most of us care so much about for a simple fact — you can’t live without it. I know many people who has set their lifetime goal to maximize this. But I personally think it is not wise to set this as the first priority and only focus on it. Wait a minute, don’t mistake it as I discount the importance of this type of savings. I just believe there are more important savings to focus on and when you did enough of those types of saving, you will never need to worry about this one.
I am also saying this because this one is the riskiest one and its intrinsic value or its purchasing power is hard to keep up with inflation as compared to the other two types of savings I mentioned. Of course, I am assuming that the inflation is at a steady rate and that not everyone is an expert in the investment market.
This is a saving/investment that can go from negative to billions overnight and vice versa. It all has to do with whether you turned the right corner, at the right time, with the right person.
2) The Savings/Investment in your Professional Skills / Taste
Your professional skills, knowledge, ability, know-how, civility, manner, taste, artistic and cultural connotations are also a saving that you have accumulated over time. It surely reflects the investment that you (or your family / background) invested in yourself.
This is a saving / investment that no one can take away, at least not easily, as it is basically you. It is in your brain, and it has to do with how you carry yourself, how you talk, how you interact with people, how you dress, so on and so forth. It is something to do with your taste, your wisdom and even if you see the world in a humorous way, have a big heart or if you are bitter and cynical.
Everyone got to help themselves in this type of savings as no one can help you as much as yourself. As compared with the savings/investments at the bank, this one seems a bit fairer to everyone. We started at the same racing line on our learning curve about the same time, and at a relatively similar ground — with a very much similar opening balance. Of course, there are exceptions that some people are born as a genius and some have more challenges. But I would like to say that if we look at it from a longer horizon of time, the natural endowment isn’t the most important thing in this type of savings in most cases. What is pivotal to this type of savings/investment is how hard you work to earn it.
I strongly believe, anyone who has great savings/investments in their professionally skills or taste, she/he is charmed enough and very capable. Therefore there is no need to worry much about the first type of savings — making a living shouldn’t be a problem. If you have great saving in this type of investment, for sure you are someone who is successful and lovable. In addition, this type of saving is good at keeping its intrinsic value. Take wisdom as an example, it actually grows more as we aged. I would like to encourage all of you to invest more in this type of savings. And every bit counts. 💪 💪 💪
3) The Savings / Investments at your Connections
I think this is 📌 the most important savings / investments 📌 for anyone. This idea is of course nothing new, but let me explain my take please.
We have all read articles and heard from seminars that connections matter. The more the merrier. It all sounded exciting and we should all meet more people and build more meaningful connections. But, it is never easy to build a “meaningful” connections. Even if you know many people, ask yourself, how many of them you think you could actually “call for help” when you need it? And you know this big shot at this prestige company holding a position at C level. Awesome! 😄 You met her/him once at a social function. Or, okay several times. Do you think when you call out, she/he actually recognize you? 😳 And even bother to spend time with you? 😳
The bottom line is, if you can’t ask that person to go out of her/his way to help you, she/he is not a real connection of yours.
So here comes to the part how I see that a meaningful connection is a type of saving. For a starter, there is no free lunch. No one should help you and you should give up that expectation. PERIOD.
So why would someone help you when you are in need?
Perhaps, you’ve lent a hand in the past and therefore she/he is returning your favor? Is it because you are so charming that she/he can’t resist your request? Is it because you are someone that everyone respect and just want to help you as you deserve it? Is it because you represent a possible benefit in the future for her/him? All in all, I believe they are your meaningful connections because you strike as someone who is worth the investment.
Let’s talk about keeping the intrinsic value of this type of savings/investment. From my personal experience, the more meaningful connections you have, the easier it is for you to get more. They actually grow at an exponential rate in my opinion. And I really can’t think of a reason how you bankrupt on this type of savings — you will be just fine even if you had a horrible accident or a sudden serious illness.
But how invest in meaningful connections? I would say if you are a great saver in investing in your professional skills and taste and that you are not counting penny with people around you, you may out to a great start. If you are someone who is very capable and useful, of course there are many people around you who likes to ask for your help from time to time. So you are saving in your meaningful connections up!
So, the next question is, will there be people who simply just take advantages of you and abuse your friendship? Of course! But I assume you know how to protect yourself. I also believe, This type of savings/investments should not cash out easily, you save this for serious raining days.
I hope you enjoy this article. I will talk about how to connect these three types of savings / investments so it is helping each other to grow at a momentum using some personal stories in the future. Stay tuned~
🀄️ If you like to see the Chinese version of this article, please visit here.
