Yes, absolutely. What you invest in will depend on where you are at.
However, there are a few foundational pillars that are essential to invest in throughout your entire journey through The Wealth Triangle.
The 2 main things you want to invest in are: yourself and your skills.
This is the #1 most important thing to invest in if you’re at the 1st pillar of The Wealth Triangle.
Investing in yourself means investing in your own personal growth and development.
Here’s what that looks like:
Working on your mindset; to expand your sense of what’s possible and to clear any limiting beliefs holding you back from creating what you want.
Another way of investing in yourself is working on improving your own personal productivity and performance. This affects your ability to get things done, and your ability to achieve and accomplish your goals.
Investing in your skills means investing in your own professional growth and development.
Here’s what that looks like:
Working on your high-income skills; to raise your income and earning potential and to find new ways of creating value in the marketplace by using a combination of different talents and gifts. Another way of investing in your professional development is by working on your leadership ability, as well as your communication skills and your people skills.
Both of these elements are important to focus on.
The high-income skills create value for people, while your communication and leadership skills help you communicate and present your value in the marketplace.
So, the very first thing to invest in is always yourself.
Do whatever it takes to upgrade yourself and your skills.
Read books, go through courses, workshops, trainings, seminars, etc.
This will pay the highest dividends throughout your career.
Upgrading yourself and your skills is a lifelong endeavor. You’ll want to keep investing in your development as you continue to develop and grow.
If you are in the 2nd part of The Wealth Triangle and already have a scalable business, it’s still wise to invest in yourself and your skills.
However, when you have a scalable business…
The #1 best thing to invest in for the highest return on your money is…. marketing.
When your marketing is performing well, you could get a 200-300% percent return on your investment.
This would be considered criminal in the stock market. But in business, it’s common.
For example: you could spend $500 on marketing and get a $10,000 sale.
So why would you invest your money in a mutual fund getting only eight percent?
You have much more control over your business than a mutual fund.
The key investing principle applies here: you want to invest in what you know.
If you know your industry better than you know the stock market, it would be wise to invest in that.
Generally speaking, you will have much more control investing in your business than you do investing in stocks.
However, if you’ve already maxed out your business investments and can’t manage to grow any bigger due to capacity…
Or if you’re at a stage in your life where you’re wanting to diversify your investments and leverage other investment vehicles, it may be wise to explore different high-return investment opportunities outside of your business.
I discuss more about investing and the 7 levels of investors in more detail in this article.