Why Should You Invest?

I wanted to invest my money in my late teens and become rich. 

I bought magazines on business and investing. 

I talked to everyone I could about the new business words.

I learned new business concepts. 

I asked as many questions as I could. 

To this day, I still remember all the advice I got. But one little piece of advice always stuck with me. After years of searching and writing down so many things I learned, this stuck with me the most, “Think of each dollar you have as a soldier."

The game's object is to get as many of those soldiers to work for you, even when you're sleeping. And if you put those soldiers to work for you, they will gather more soldiers, which is called compounding. 

And compounding will make you wealthy.

I have to admit; when I was in my teens, this made no sense. Compounding, working in my sleep, little soldiers, what was that about?

I thought, whoever told me that must be out of their minds. It wasn’t until I became older that this little piece of advice started to make sense. 

Even when I invested in my first real estate property, it didn’t make sense. It wasn't until I stopped counting every cent that I was able to watch it grow. 

You see, I wanted to be rich, but what I was doing was building wealth. Month after month, the profit from that rental property started to compound. A few dollars here and there begin to add up over time. After some time, I had money to invest in another property. I use this example as a business example, but a more simplistic example is putting your money into a retirement account. 

Each paycheck, a certain amount of money goes into an account, and over time it gains interest. 

If you start investing at a young age and consistently add money every week or every month, by the time you retire, you could have a decent amount of cash built up.

Please keep in mind that I am not a financial advisor, and I am not trying to give you financial advice. I’m only recommending that you find ways to put your money to work like little soldiers. Is it possible? Yes. Is it easier said than done? NO!

It is very easy to put aside a few dollars each month. 

At Geared 4 Life, we talk a lot about goals and breaking them down into small steps. 

Ask yourself what is more important, putting a few dollars to work for you or buying that expensive toy. There are a ton of ways to simply invest. Talk to your financial institution, bank, advisor, or whoever may lend some guidance. 

Set a goal of how much money you want by a certain age and work the math backwards.  Learn about gaining interest, learn different money-saving techniques, and learn how to invest! 

And most importantly, learn how to get your money to work for you.