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You Are Your Own Best Investment!

Posted on: Friday, 16 September 2005, 06:00 CDT

I LOVE MY work. Do you?

I hope so. But let's get real; there's a good chance you grunted `NO' to

my question.

If you did, rest assured I understand what it's like to be in the

frustrating, painful situation of waking up each morning and dreading

having to go to work.

Thankfully, I remember just one supremely awful employment stint -

endured 17 years ago in England, as a trainee chartered accountant - that

resulted in mental depression and persistent physical illness arising from

my daily reluctance to go to that specific office and face my boss-from-

hell!

But even from the first part-time job I secured, while still at

university, on through numerous other income-generating ventures in the

United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore and Malaysia, I realised

there were attributes of each employment or self-employment stint I truly

enjoyed, aspects I merely tolerated and portions I actively loathed!

We are the same, you and I.

So, I'm willing to bet you have felt the same range of emotions

concerning the regular activity you call your job.

Thankfully, the wonderful thing about living in a free, capitalist

society like ours is that most of us have the power to choose where we

work and what we do there. Sadly, however, even now, many Malaysians feel

trapped in jobs they detest. And because of that lack of positive fervour,

they tend not to excel in what they do.

All of us know that it takes more than going through the motions like a

soulless automaton to excel in any job ... or to create an excellent place

to work! Management guru extraordinaire Peter Drucker once explained why:

`For it is the willingness of people to give of themselves over and above

the demands of the job that distinguishes the great from the merely

adequate organisation.'

None of us are going to give of ourselves `over and above the demands of

the job' if we hate it. But what if we also feel powerless to extricate

ourselves from that terrible job? Usually, we feel that way for two

reasons:

* lack of skills; or

* A lack of courage.

I can't help you with the second problem, except to urge you to look

deep inside and admit to yourself that our mortal lives are too short to

be squandered doing work that ill suits us, within environments that

stifle us.

Thankfully, the first problem, a lack of skills, is one that can most

readily be fixed: If you don't have the skills to secure a better job, get

them.

You can do so through a structured programme of part-time study that

will allow you to earn a diploma, degree or professional qualification, or

through personal study that enlarges your capacity to excel in any field

of endeavour you desire. Either course of action will fling open new,

bright vistas of economic opportunity for you.

I'm not saying it will be easy; only that it is doable. Many others have

trod the same path of upward mobility through adult education,

successfully.

Earlier, when I said I love my work, I didn't tell you why. One of the

reasons I find satisfaction going to my office or going out to see my

clients or travelling to speak professionally to different groups is the

sheer variety of the work. All of us need to find ways to inject

appropriate variety and diversity into our job functions.

Another reason I love my work stems from one of the many hats I wear

which allows me to sit down in front of investment clients and explain to

them the pros and cons of cash, income and equity investments, and then to

help them structure savings and investment programmes using money market,

bond and equity funds in ways that allow them to stand a good chance of

meeting the financial goals they set for themselves.

Often, this is what I say: Over periods of about a decade, equity funds

tend to yield more than bond funds, which, in turn, tend to yield more

than money market funds. But over periods of about a year, money market

funds are far more stable than bond funds, which are far more stable -

meaning less volatile - than equity funds.

In the realm of conventional investments, you can't usually have your

cake and eat it too. That's because the ubiquitous risk-reward

relationship holds sway.

If you want a low-risk investment, then you have to settle for low

returns. If you are sure you can handle the stomach-wrenching volatility

of a high-risk investment, then you stand a decent chance of earning good

returns over the long haul. (A note of caution: When it comes to

succeeding in the Malaysian investment arena, you should put in place a

consistent monitoring programme that allows you to lock-in intermediate

supernormal gains from equity or even bond investments before inevitable

drops take place. Remember: What the market giveth, the market taketh

away!)

It might interest you to know I'm so used to explaining the risk- reward

relationship to clients that I often forget to tell them there is one

obvious class of investment that defies it! Those are investments you make

in yourself.

You see, if you're willing to pour money into your own development - by

learning core skills that allow you to do your present job better, or new

skills that will eventually permit you to do a future coveted job, or

money management skills that support your long-term wealth building

dreams, or time management skills that help you raise your personal

productivity, or something completely different that empowers you to tap

into your highest potential - then you will be making zero-risk

investments that afford you the highest returns of all!

If you rework your budget so that it allows you to invest between 5% and

10% of your net monthly income into personal development, you will be

astounded at the positive improvements your economic life will exhibit

over the next 10 years.

It isn't hard to figure out why. As a working adult, your income comes

from two sources: active and passive.

Your active income is derived from `the sweat of your brow'; you work

hard for your money.

Your passive income is derived from your savings, investments and

business shareholdings that do not require your direct, consistent

involvement; here your money works hard for you.

Ongoing, personally directed learning can help grow both crucial income

categories. It isn't hard to figure out why.

With active income, the more you know about your job or profession the

more you will excel in it, and earn from it.

With passive income, the more you know about market fluctuations, the

more likely you will be to exhibit the courage needed to buy during market

dips when almost everyone else is fleeing in terror.

I think it is shocking how few people understand the crucial importance

of continuing to learn brand new skills after leaving school or

university. The minority that does, stands out. A man named William J H

Boetcker once advised: `If you want to earn more - learn more. If you want

to get more out of the world, you must put more into the world. For, after

all, men will get no more out of life than they put into it.'

Drifting along on the random currents of life is not the way to succeed.

You must chart a course.

As part of a sensible course, I believe it is vital for everyone to

structure personal financial plans that address the three key areas of

wealth protection, wealth accumulation and wealth distribution. If you

haven't done so yet, I hope you will commit to a self-learning reading

programme that helps you plug those gaps. (Bookstores and the Internet are

full of resources you can use to structure such a personal curriculum. But

if you aren't sure where to begin, you're welcome to download my free e-

book, 26 Books to take YOU All the Way to the TOP, at

www.RajenDevadason.com to use as a self-study blueprint.)

Regardless of whether you earn your living by arranging, breeding,

cooking, darning, estimating, farming, governing ... teaching,

underwriting, visiting, writing, Xeroxing, yachting or zipping, committing

to learn how to do it better is vital if you are to thrive in the 21st

Century job market.

Never before has there been such a tight correlation between a person's

future earning power and his current learning power! Therefore, even more

important than putting in place an intelligent financial plan that takes

into account those three important areas of wealth protection, wealth

accumulation and wealth distribution, or even establishing a programme to

keep abreast of your job's requirements, is understanding that -

ultimately - the only financial security you can ever bank on hinges upon

the bone-encased grey matter nestled between your ears.

* Rajen is a speaker, author and independent consultant. He is CEO of

corporate mentoring consultancy RD Wealth Creation Sdn Bhd. His free

electronic magazine. GET BETTER can be subscribed to at

www.RajenDevadason.com.

Source: Malaysian Business

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