If you’re like me, you’re feeling the pinch. The price of gas doubled in four years. Food prices also gone up, and particularly if you’re trying to be healthy by including some organic food into your diet, you’re paying about 50%-75% more. For many of us, our incomes unfortunately have not kept up with the rising prices.
For tough times like these, it’s important to remember the fundamentals of investing so that we can maintain our wealth through the uncertainties. Invest in your time and invest in your health, because they will always be valuable.
Hold Your Value Stocks
Time is Like Currency: As every day passes, you can choose to spend it foolishly or to invest it wisely. Time, just like money, has no value in and of itself though. It only has value when it’s converted into something. Money can be converted into real estate or stocks. Likewise, time can be converted into developing a relationship, such as with your family and friends.
The value of assets can rise and fall based on the whim of the market. However, the value of an afternoon spent with a dear friend, an hour spent for family dinner, or even five minutes to remind your sweetheart how much you love that person will always be valuable, and those memories will be even more valuable as time goes by. If those moments were ever taken away, how much money can be spent to get them back?
Good Health is Good Wealth: Economic difficulties can cause stress, which can eventually lead to hypertension, anxiety, and insomnia, and the physical imbalance can further spiral the mental and spiritual imbalance. America has spent over $2.3 trillion on health care, making it one of the biggest industries that exist. That $2.3 trillion does not come with a money-back guarantee either. Remember, money problems can be immediately fixed when you get more money, but health problems (physical, mental, spiritual) are not fixed as easily.
You can sacrifice your money to get more healthy, but never sacrifice your health to get more money.
Sell Your Lagging Stocks
OK, there has to be cutbacks somewhere during tough economic times. Should you cut back on your travel? On how much shopping you do? Or perhaps on how frequently you dine out? The first place you should start is not external, but internal. Cut back mentally with your general lifestyle expectations, and the specific things you should cut back on will be more evident.
A little while ago I spent a summer in Southern California and hung out at Manhattan Beach, which is one of the most beautiful (and expensive) beaches around. One day I overheard a man tell his wife about a friend who had a salary cut, and it turned out he was only making $300K a year. The wife exclaimed, “Only $300,000 a year? How will he survive?” The husband then explained how the man would need to adjust his spending habits in order to live within his means. I just shook my head because the median US income was almost $50K per year, and someone is struggling to survive with six times that amount.
Expectations with standards of living is relative. If you have kept your investments in your value stocks (quality time, personal health), then everything else is essentially expendable.
Ride Out the Storm
Sound investment is to have a strategy for the long haul. Have a clear vision of your long-term goals with your time (your family, your friends) and with your health (physical, mental, spiritual). Stick to the plan and don’t deviate, irregardless of the economic climate.
Follow this strategy and you will be wealthy. Guaranteed.
