I grew up thinking that investing is only for rich people since that’s what I’d often read from newspapers and books, or hear from television shows and movies. Never did those personalities I heard or read about not described as wealthy (with the majority being extremely). So there’s my first misconception about investing.

Another funny detail is, I also thought that one can only invest in companies or businesses. I learned later that you can invest your money in a variety of ways. Your money becomes an investment when you utilize it to acquire properties or other possessions that would become assets or which value would appreciate over time.

The positive point is, it wasn’t too late yet when I rectified these misconceptions. I moved on from the somewhat impossible idea of being able to save an ample amount from my work salary. I figured out, through different successful people, that if you have goals that entail financial stability, investing is the best way to help you achieve those. You say, why?

When you invest your money, and you educate yourself on how to cause that investment to be valuable, it would give you returns even if you would no longer work to affect its increase. This is what you call passive income, opposite to the active income you earn from working hard for another person or organization. For instance, when you purchase a house even if you already have one is not a waste given that you would be able to have it rented and generate a regular monthly income from it. More importantly, the value of that property would increase as the years go by and you would have the option to sell it at a price much higher than the original.

Moreover, if you are an employee but wish or prefer to have your own business, the best way is to grow your money through investment rather than saving it in the bank with rather minimal interest, or you resort to loans. This is in view of the fact that, although not all types of businesses need a significant amount of money to establish, nearly all do. The possibility of you being able to start your own business earlier would be considerably high if you have an investment. In the same manner, if you are especially passionate about your talent or hobby but find it hard to earn if you focus on it instead of working, investing could be the answer. You can do what you love regardless of the income since the money you invested can give you the returns you need or want.

In addition, the returns of your investment would move you to appreciate the fruit of your hard work more. I am not sure if many people share my opinion that we sometimes do not feel the gratefulness we should feel when receiving our salaries for the reason that it usually does not last long in our pockets. We would sometimes feel like we worked only to provide for our needs or to survive. We are not enjoying it at all. If we invest and allow our money to grow, however, we would be able to employ it to enjoy life without worry.

More importantly, it would render us financially free and independent of our children when we grow old. We need to understand that we are not raising our children so that they can provide for us when we can no longer work. Raising them is our responsibility. That is why investing is important on account of the fact that it would enable us to provide for our needs including healthcare without burdening our children. In other words, it is one of the means of ensuring a worry-free retirement, at least in terms of finances.

Furthermore, we all know that it is usually difficult to make ends meet if we depend on our monthly work salary. So, no matter how badly we want, we are incapable of helping others. What’s the solution? You guessed it. Invest and allow your money to grow.

Since you allow some time to enable your money to grow when you invest, you should have patience. Learn to veer away from splurging on non-essential items. Always bear in mind that what you are doing is short-term pain for a long-term gain. In the end, you would experience the beauty of delayed gratification.

The fact that the returns of investment take time, the best time to start it is now. If you don’t know how to do it, then educate yourself by learning from experts. You would then know that there are many ways to invest your money – life insurance, real estate, stock market, and more. Just choose to be smart and invest in your future.