Five Reasons to Become Financially Independent

Five Reasons to Become Financially Independent

 

Why even bother to try to become financially independent?

Why postpone your spending so you can invest and have more money for spending in the future?

What if you’re happy with your life and your job as it is?

I’ll tell you why.

Why Becoming Financially Independent is Important

It’s my firm conviction that everybody should invest purposefully to become financially free.

Everybody.

Including the person with a great career. 

Including the person who feels safe because her partner is providing for her.

Including the person who feels like the future is golden.

Why?

It’s called prevention.

It’s like eating fresh vegetables and working out even though you aren’t sick now.

Becoming financially independent is one of the steps in creating a wonderful life.

Here are five specific reasons why you should invest in stocks now in order to become free later:

Reason No. 1: Avoiding Adding a Crisis to a Crisis

Your life will take its own turns.

Surprises are part of life.

It could be sickness, a divorce, a dismissal, a global pandemic, or a sudden death in the family.

Yeah, we don’t really want to talk about that, and that’s why most people avoid planning for disasters like these.

It’s like facing the pictures of the starving children in Yemen. It makes you feel uncomfortable, and instinctively you want to scroll on.

Yes, it’s unpleasant thinking about how something can disrupt the path you’re on.

But that’s the nature of life.

We’ll be surprised, challenged, and we’ll overcome.

But we have to get through the difficulties, and that’s why you need to do some preventive work.

You need to make sure that a crisis doesn’t become bigger than it should be.

If you’re going through a divorce worrying about money, you’re adding one crisis on top of another crisis.

If you get laid off and worry about your finances, you’re adding one crisis on top of another.

If you get sick and have to worry about being able to keep your job while trying to recover, you’re adding one crisis on top of another – making it more difficult to focus on healing.

Being financially independent will make you stronger in life and better equipped to handle the challenges life throws at you.

Reason No. 2: Being Able to Choose From the Top Shelf

When you are financially independent, you have more freedom to build the life of your dreams.

I don’t mean just material stuff like adding another designer bag to your wardrobe.

I’m talking about the big decisions in life and the experiences you can have:

Like resigning impromptu if your boss is pestering you.

Like taking a year off to travel around the globe.

Like deciding to have a child without having to google the cost of daycare.

Like exploring a hobby, even if it’s a bit extravagant.

Like pursuing an infatuation even if the person lives in another state or country.

Those kinds of choices. The truly important choices.

Reason No. 3: Being Able to Spend Time With Your Loved Ones

If you’re dependent on a salary, there will be situations where you’ll be at your desk wishing you were with your family instead.

Maybe your family is gathering for a celebration, and you can’t be there because work is calling.

It can be something negative you need to handle, but can’t.

When my mother died, I was spending most of my time at work.

The doctors turned off the machines that were feeding her because they said it was her wish. She had had a stroke, was unable to move much, but was conscious. We knew she only had a week left. She was dying slowly in a hospital bed.

Most of that week, I was at work. I came after work when I could.

It’s a week I can never have back.

If I had been financially independent, I would have had a choice.

Maybe I didn’t have to resign from my job, but I would have had more leverage and bargaining courage, knowing that i had the money to make it possible to resign. 

Reason No. 4: To Prevent Stress

You’re more inclined to get stressed if you worry about your finances.

That’s a fact.

If you know that you can always provide for yourself and your family no matter what happens, it’s easier to shrug when things don’t go your way. That’s what being financially independent means. 

It won’t bother you as much if your boss is giving you a hard time.

Sometimes small things become huge when something else is worrying you.

Parents who don’t feel safe financially have all blurted out stuff at their children like “Money doesn’t grow on trees” or “Are you insane? Do you know what that costs?”

That stops when you know with certainty that there is always enough money for you.

Isn’t that a wonderful thought?

Try saying it out loud: “There is always enough money for me/us.”

How does that feel?

Reason No. 5: Being Able to Provide for Your Family for Generations

Investing in stocks isn’t only about you.

It’s about your family. It’s about all the people you care about and the ones who haven’t been born yet.

You’re building wealth, and while you’re doing that, you’re building their future too.

You can make your children, nieces and nephews financially independent too.

You can do that in several ways.

You’re your children’s most important role model. If they see and hear you talk about investing, there is a higher likelihood that they’ll be responsible with their money too.

The other way is to invest for them.

I’ve opened savings accounts and retirement accounts for my two boys, and I actively invest the money on their behalf.

My boys are still small and there’s plenty of runway to make a modest amount of money become millions.

Their savings can really grow, and it will have a big impact on how their lives unfold.

Now what?

Are you ready to invest in stocks?

Are you ready to take charge and steer your finances towards becoming financially independent? Even really wealthy?

Sounds good.

Now you need more information about how to do it.

You’re in luck because next week I am hosting a free, live webinar called Five steps to financial freedom.

I only host a live webinar once or twice a year, so don’t miss out. Of course you can also download the e-book Free Yourself and learn more. A combination of the two is the best. You can download your free copy right here.

You can sign up for the webinar Five Steps to Financial Freedom which takes place Thursday September 21st at 6 pm UCT. You can sign up right here.

How Much Money Do You Need to Start Investing in Stocks?

How Much Money Do You Need to Start Investing in Stocks?

“How much money do I need before I can start investing in stocks?”

It is a simple question with a simple and quite logical answer, but it pops up again and again.

When the question comes up so often, there is a reason for it. It’s a mental barrier – not really a question.

If I give a rational answer to a psychological barrier, I’m failing you.

Because it’s really all about a myth and blockage: the idea that you need to be rich to get rich.

It’s a barrier that is preventing a lot of people from taking action.

And that’s the worst thing that can happen. If you don’t take action, you’ve lost before you even begin.

So let’s bust the myth that you need a lot of money to begin investing in stocks.

I’ll answer the question on a rational level first. Let’s look at the facts.

How Much Does a Share Cost?

You don’t need much. You can just buy a single stock – or even a fraction of a share.

A quick way to figure out how much a share in a specific company costs is by googling the name of the company plus the word “stock.”

You’ll see how much you need right there.

First of all, yes, it’s true that there are a few companies whose stocks are expensive.

Let’s start with one of my favorites:

Class A shares in Warren Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway are above 479,000 USD per share at the time of writing. But that’s no excuse either, because Warren Buffett created another class of shares for normal people like you and me. Class B shares in Berkshire Hathaway are just 319 USD at the time of writing. That’s manageable for most people, wouldn’t you say so?

Yes, there are other shares that cost more than most people’s rent.

Amazon is worth more than 3,000 USD, and Google is close to that level.

But these companies are the exceptions to the rule.

Most companies make stock splits if the stocks get too high because they actually want the retail investors to invest in them.

A stock split means that one share becomes several (typically four or five), and the price adjusts accordingly.

If shares in a company cost 1,000 USD before a split, and they convert each share into four shares, the stock price follows and becomes ¼ of the previous price. In this case, 250 USD after the split.

Apple made a stock split a few years back, and now the stock costs 164 USD.

What about cost of investing, then? Does it make sense to buy one share? Isn’t the fee going to be too high for that kind of trade?

How much does it cost in fees to buy the stock?

Not a lot. Typically around 1-3 USD per trade. So that’s not an excuse either.

In other words, you can easily begin investing for less than 200 USD per month.

What About ETFs?

It’s the same.

You can just buy one share at the time. Most ETFs trade well below 500 USD.

When looking at funds, the most important thing is to choose one with a passive management style – in other words, a so-called index fund. It’s also important to make sure that the expense ratio is low, preferably below 0.10. 

You can look ETFs up on one of the databases like Morningstar.com.

It’s best to have an idea of which index you want it to match before you look it up because there are a lot of ETFs out there. Choose the index and then go with one of the big and trusted fund managers, such as iShares or Vanguard.

Don’t make it too complicated.

Fractional Shares Break Another Barrier

If you really want to invest in Google or Amazon but have less than what one share costs, it’s still possible with fractional shares.

You can invest as little as 5 dollars at a time.

Some of the bigger US platforms have begun offering fractions of shares.

It’s possible with Charles Schwab or Robinhood, among others.

A Lower Price Doesn’t Mean It’s Cheap

Maybe you think that a share for 122 USD is cheaper than a share in another company trading above 3,000 USD.

Slow down, buddy.

You need to think of the company as pizza, divided into different pieces for the owners.

They can be so many sizes and so many different cuts.

One pizza can be divided into two pieces, each costing 50 USD, while the other pizza is divided into ten pieces, each costing 10 USD – and both examples add up to 100 USD per pizza. One pizza may be the size of a teacup, while the other may be as big as NASA’s runway.

We can never judge a stock by the mere price alone. You have to look at the values inside the company to judge it.

We need to assess what kind of company we are dealing with and find out how many pieces it’s divided into.

Fortunately, you can learn a lot more about this in my e-book here.

Get Rid of the Tripwire

I’ve given a rational answer. At a rational level, there is no excuse.

Now let’s look at the psychological barrier.

The reason so many people ask this question is because they think you have to have a lot of money to be able to invest in the stock market.

It’s one of these things they’ve heard.

Your grandmother might have said something like that.

Just like your elementary school teacher always mumbled that stock market investing was very “risky” because that’s what she heard from her grandpa who lost money in 1929.

None of them had stock market experience when offering you unsolicited advice, so they were gifting you their own barriers, like hot turds in wrapping paper.

Do you want to inherit other people’s limiting beliefs? Or figure out what works?

The main point here is that there’s no excuse not to get started. In fact, it’s important to get started as early as possible, as there are two compounding forces at work.

First of all, your money compounds, meaning it will grow exponentially over time when the money you make is reinvested and begins making money too.

The second force is your experience and knowledge. When you begin to research funds and companies, your ability to make good decisions will compound too.

When you get real experience with the stock market, you’ll find that the mental stumbling blocks disappear because you now KNOW that you can easily invest without having a fortune.

You now KNOW that it’s not so risky, if you know what you’re doing and follow a method. 

It’s important  – even with just a little money – to get the experience that’s worth a lot in the long run.

Don’t forget to download my e-book Free Yourself where you’ll learn to invest as one of the best – super charge yourself through the plateaus. You can download it here.

The Biggest Mistake Many New Value Investors Make

The Biggest Mistake Many New Value Investors Make

You have become a dedicated value investor, and now you want to get started at the actual investing.

You have seen the light.

You understand that it’s about buying shares when they are undervalued on the stock market and selling them when they are overvalued (or keeping them).

Congratulations. That’s actually an important milestone.

Maybe the concept seems obvious to you, but for many it’s not that obvious.

A lot of people never get it.

Most people think – and this is the dominant mindset in the market – that stocks always have the “right” price.

Most people believe the market is efficient. They believe that since all (or almost all) information is out there, all data is priced into the stock by the efficient machine called the market. Based on this, the logical conclusion is that whatever price the market decided to place on a stock is the right price.

There’s just one flaw in that line of thinking.

The market is not a perfect machine.

The market is made up of people making tons of decisions, and people are driven by emotions.

It’s about as efficient as a crowd at the town square. One moment throwing rotten eggs and the next moment throwing flowers.

People are driven by all sorts of emotions, including fear and greed, which are the dominant emotions in the stock market.

Prices sometimes fall below a logical level because people get scared out of their wits, and other times prices soar above any logical level because they get caught up in greed and don’t want to miss out.

Not all people get the idea behind value investing.

Warren Buffett said value investing is like buying a dollar for 50 cents. He also said that some people catch the idea right away, while others don’t.

If someone doesn’t get it, you can explain it for days on end, but they will never understand it (according to Warren Buffett).

In other words, you’re one of the chosen who get it – and that’s not something to take for granted.

Be grateful for that.

The Big Value Trap

So what’s the mistake that lots of newbie value investors make?

I believe they haven’t completely let go of the idea that the market is efficient. They basically believe that it’s effective… but that it occasionally slips.

When they see a stock dip, they immediately assume it’s on sale.

You often hear people say something like “stocks are on sale” when the major indices fall 2%. Then they buy left and right without looking into what they’re buying shares in.

But what if the dollar that Warren Buffett talks about has been pumped up by greed for 12 years and has become $10? Is it on sale for $9? Not at all.

Some people use the term “falling knife.”

A falling knife is when stocks in a company are in steep decline but have much longer to fall before they stabilize.

If you try to catch a falling knife, you’ll cut your hand open. It’s a bloody mess.  You have to wait for the knife to hit the floor.

You can also imagine that you’re jumping onto a roller coaster just as it’s twenty inches from the top and twenty feet from the bottom.

This picture is a little less bloody, but it describes the – uncomfortable – feeling in your gut when you buy something that keeps falling.

You can’t count on the rolling coaster going up again… and then it’s money you’ll never get back.

How to Avoid the Trap

So what can you do to avoid these value traps and falling knives?

It’s a bit like the annoying doctor who tells you there is no way around it: you need to exercise and eat vegetables.

No pill can fix it.

Maybe that’s not so bad.

For many of us, exercising and eating fresh vegetables is an enjoyable part of our lifestyle. The same with investing.

What does this mean in stock language?

It means that there is no quick fix where you can just look at a chart on your screen and expect to know that something is cheap because the stock price has fallen.

The first thing you have to figure out is whether it’s broken or not.

You don’t want to invest in something that’s going into chapter 11.

You have to look at the reality of the company. You have to go through a checklist and ask some critical questions so you are sure you’re buying stocks in a healthy company with a good team of managers and strong products that can compete in the market.

Once you’ve figured that out, you can look at the numbers to see what it’s really worth.

It may sound difficult, but it is not.

There are pretty simple calculations that anyone can learn and that are easy enough to do on the back of a napkin.

If you want to learn more about that, download my free e-book here.

Don’t forget to download my e-book Free Yourself where you’ll learn about check list and simple value calculations. You can download it here.

Crush the Excuses Keeping You From Investing in the Stock Market

Crush the Excuses Keeping You From Investing in the Stock Market

Are you outside the stock market despite wanting to be in it?

Maybe you’re suffering from the very common disease called “bad excuses.”

Read this list of the five most common bad excuses and find out how to cure them.

Excuses grow like weeds in your mind, and you need to pull them out so they don’t strangle your budding courage.

It’s about pulling them up by the root as soon as you spot them.

How do you do that?

Bad excuses are just phrases and stories that we tell ourselves, so the easiest thing is to tell yourself a new story.

Here are five of the most common excuses – and the way to get over them:

1. “I can’t figure it out.”

Repeat after me: “I can do it.”

Another phrase you can say is, “I’ve never tried that before, so I can probably do it.” That’s a Pippi Longstocking quote, by the way.

This excuse is very common among women.  

I hope that by being public about my story, I can give other women courage to invest.

The good news is, you don’t have to be the strongest girl in the world like Pippi or possess any other superpowers or supernatural abilities. You don’t even need a particularly high IQ. And you definitely don’t have to be a man. The stock market doesn’t care about sex, color, race, IQ, or whether you have children or not.

This is really good news, because there is a level playing field.

You need a calm approach and a dose of patience to make it work for you.

Just remember, there are a lot of people who want investing to look complicated because they have an interest in you believing it’s difficult.

The entire financial sector would like to sell you their products.

When you think it is difficult and complicated, it’s easier for them to sell you some expensive products.

2. “I’m too old / it’s too late.”

Instead, tell yourself:  “I have the right age and experience to start investing.”

It’s never too late. Never.

There was a German lady who started investing in stocks at an advanced age (after she turned 60). She became rich by value investing, and she also became famous (in Germany) for her strategy when she was in her 70s. You can try searching for her. Her name is Beate Sander, and she is referred to as “Börsenexpertin” and “Millionärin.”

And by the way, Warren Buffett and his partner Charlie Munger are both over 90, and they’re still very active investors.

3: “I’m too young and too inexperienced.”

Say: “This is the best time for me to start investing. I’ll learn and grow.”

I invest my 5- and 8-year-old boys’ savings. I tell them what they own so that they can learn from it. They’re already learning little by little about value investing.

If you’re reading this blog, you are definitely older than my kids.

I always get so excited when very young people contact me. I think about how much their money can grow. If you’re young, you can really take advantage of the effect of compounding.

Even a little bit of savings can turn into a fortune if you have the time and patience.

The excuse of being too young is probably also related to the perception that you first have to spend all your money on studies, homes, weddings, and future children before you invest.

But this is not an either-or decision. You can invest 100 dollars a month as your life develops and you study, get married, and have children. No, I’m not going to mention any cafe lattes. You can have your coffee. You’ll figure out where you want to save – or grow your income.

4: “I don’t know which platform I should use.”

Repeat after me: “Money loves speed, and I make quick decisions about small things.”

Just pick a platform.

You can open accounts and deposits in as many banks as you want, and it’s not like you’re forced to pick only one and stick with that.

Why not just start with your own bank and get some investing experience there? You can always open another account somewhere else.

In the vast majority of cases, the fees will not mean much because as a value investor you don’t trade that often.

Each platform has introductory videos that can get you started, but to be completely honest, I’ve never watched any of them myself. Most platforms are as intuitive as online banking.

If you are afraid of pressing the wrong button and losing a lot of money in a mysterious black hole on the platform, start with a small amount and give it a try. You’ll be more comfortable with the experience.

5: “It’s too risky.”

Repeat after me: “I seek knowledge and invest with a solid strategy.”

The truth is that you learn and build knowledge, and that makes it less risky.

It’s only risky to invest if you don’t learn along the way how to select companies or funds, or if you don’t do some basic research about what you’re buying stocks in.

Unfortunately, most private investors pick stocks at random.

Many beginners buy shares in a company because they heard it mentioned in a podcast or because someone brought it up at a dinner party. Dude, that’s not research.

But not you, because you read this blog post every week (right?).

You’re already smarter than most private investors out there.

Obviously, you’ll research before investing, and you know what to look for because you’ve read my e-book Free Yourself, which you can download right here.

How to Set Up Your Investing Practice

How to Set Up Your Investing Practice

I once read a blog post that changed my life.

It was about running and maintaining the new exercise habit.

According to the blogger, all you had to do was put on the running shoes first thing in the morning.

In fact, he said you should sleep with the running shoes right next to your bed.

That was the key to your success as a runner.

Just that. So simple.

Now you’re probably wondering what this has to do with investing?

I’ll get to that. First, I just need to explain what’s so important about that simple piece of advice.

When we have to implement and maintain habits, it’s rarely the main action itself that’s difficult. It’s often all the preparation stuff around it.

It can seem so overwhelming to get stuff done. But often it really just requires five seconds of bravery. Which is the time it takes to get those running shoes on.

In other words, the biggest obstacle is getting the running gear on. Once it’s on, it’s so simple to run a few steps. Once you’ve run some steps, you might as well run a bit longer.

You won’t run if you’re wearing stilettos or Italian leather shoes.

If you want to run, you need to place those running shoes in a strategic location so it becomes a habit for you to choose them in the morning.

That’s all you have to do.

When I read this, it dawned on me that this piece of advice can be applied to almost everything else in life.

I implemented it in my eating habits. I had decided I wanted to drink fresh veggie juice every morning.

It was usually never a problem to drink the juice. It tasted good.

The biggest obstacle was getting the juicer ready and peeling the vegetables.

Sometimes small changes can make the difference.

For me, it made a big difference that I – after reading about running shoes by the bed – chose to place the juicer in a central place in the kitchen, where it was more accessible and ready to be used.

Now we come to the part about investing.

The point here is that you need to place whatever stuff you need to do your investment practice in a central location in your life.

So what are “running shoes” equivalent to in the investing world? It’s the space where you do your research and do the actual trading.

You need to prioritize creating a specific space where you can do the work.

If you always have that space set up, there is a greater chance that you’ll get it done.

In this blog post, I’ll give you my five tips to creating that space – even if you can’t set up a home office.

1. Create a Permanent Place in Your Home or Office

In the ideal world, you would have an office where you could research companies and read news.

Having a nice office with all the material you need to read and think and trade is a bit like having the juicer standing on the counter so you get right to it.

But a lot of people don’t have enough space for a home office.

You can still create a place that you know is your designated investing space.

If you’re going to sit at the dining table, choose a place other than the one where you usually eat. In this way, you can physically feel what role you’re entering when you sit down. 

I did that for years.

I would eat on one side of the table where I was facing my kids and had my back to the kitchen.

When the kids were asleep, I would clear the table and sit on the other side of the table, where I was physically a bit removed from entering the kitchen. I was now in my investing and working “seat.”

I would advise you to have your investing stuff ready in a box so you can quickly pull it out and set it up. That’s the next best thing to having an office.

2. Keep Your Investing Space Tidy and Clean

Clutter is unmade decisions.

Clutter can be things you haven’t decided whether to act on, like an invitation. Or it can be things that you don’t really know where they go. That’s also unmade decision because you haven’t decided where it should be, and it ends up being moved from one table to another.

If you surround yourself with a lot of tiny unmade decisions when you have to make big decisions, you will have a hard time focusing on what’s essential.

3. Make Sure It’s Comfortable

Yes, it sounds simple, but many people forget about the details.

You need to make sure that it’s physically comfortable to sit there.

Are your feet grounded? Do you sit up straight in the chair? Is the table the right height? How does it feel to sit down? Do you feel joy in your body, or do you prefer to avoid sitting there?

What are you looking at? A wall? Or a view?

If possible, position yourself so that you’re looking at something nice. You should either face a window or look into some kind of space. Never position yourself facing a wall.

If you’re sitting at a seat at the dining table, you want to invest in a proper office chair instead of a dining chair with a hard seat.

The little things can make a big difference in the long run.

4. Think About What You Need and How You Move

I once asked my maid where she wanted some hooks to be placed. It was fascinating observing her make the decision.

I watched her mime the movements she did when doing dishes and cleaning before she responded. She tried several spots and shook her head before choosing the right one.

She wanted the hooks exactly where she would naturally stand when she needed to use a tea towel or a rag or some oven mitts.

If there is something you need to use often, e.g., a notebook, a pen, a calculator, or some investment books, make sure it’s within reach.

It’s annoying to have to look for things or get up to get them when you’re in the flow.

5. Place Something That Inspires You In Front of You

Yoga and meditation schools often have a picture of a distant guru in India hanging on the wall.

Why? Because it’s inspiring and motivating.

It reminds them of the philosophy behind the movements they make.

You want to find something similar. Choose something that makes sense to you.

What should that be?

Ask yourself: Why do you invest? Who or what motivates you? What got you started?

Some might want a “guru” like Warren Buffett or Charlie Munger framed on the wall.

For me, my children are my biggest inspiration. I want to be bigger, better, stronger, kinder, and wealthier for them.

I like placing either a picture of them or a drawing made by them within view.

Currently, I have framed a drawing that my oldest son made when he was around two. It’s a peculiar drawing of me, and it reminds me that my kids are always observing me, and that they’re constantly judging the whole world based on what they see me doing.

That’s one important reason for doing “the right thing”.

The right thing in this context is to invest conscientiously, long-term, and with calm and patience.

What values ​​would you like to implement in your investments? Who or what inspires you to be that person?

In my e-book Free Yourself you can learn about investing in the stock market the way Warren Buffett does it. You can download it here.

What Happens if You Never Start Investing?

What Happens if You Never Start Investing?

It always surprises me that so many people are sitting on the sidelines of the stock market.

They want to start investing in stocks, and they participate in various Facebook groups, listen to investment podcasts, and read relevant blog posts… but they don’t buy any stocks.

How come?

They are so ready. It’s just a push of a button.

It’s probably the same reasons that prevent us from doing many other things in life.

It’s the fear that something might go wrong.

This is where people might tell you to ask yourself what’s the worst that can happen.

I think you need to ask another question.

You need to ask yourself:

“What if I never start investing in stocks? What happens then?”

Because that’s what you should really be afraid of.

I’ll try to answer that question in this blog post:

1. You’re Missing Out on a Future Fortune

The first answer is that you’re missing out on the fortune that your savings could grow into.

The other day I read about someone who had invested $50,000 over five years and made it grow into around $200,000.

I know another woman who has gradually invested all her savings since she graduated from college, and over a decade she built a portfolio of more than $2 million.

No inheritance, no money from a house or divorce. Just savings from a pretty average academic job and the magic of compounding over a decade.

So this is the first thing that will happen if you don’t start investing: you miss out on becoming a self-made millionaire.

2. Your Future

The second answer is that you’re missing out on the future you could create for yourself and your loved ones with the fortune you’re not building.

Money isn’t just money. Money is another possible future. Money is plenty of choices. Money is freedom to live a life of your choosing. 

Maybe your goal is to work less.

Maybe your goal is to make sure your children are financially safe in the future. To create generational wealth.

Maybe your goal is to be able to move to another region or country and create a new lifestyle.

Or maybe your goal is a mix of all the above: moving to another country, having the time freedom to enjoy it while feeling sure that your family is financially safe now and in the future.

I recently moved to Portugal with my two small boys. I have the freedom to work whenever I want and take breaks whenever I want. After moving, I took three months off to give us time to get settled in a new place.

I can give my family a lifestyle that most people can only dream of. Over the summer, my boys, aged 5 and 8, have learned to swim, ride a horse, play tennis, and sail. If I hadn’t invested in stocks, this wouldn’t have been possible.

3. You’ll Probably Spend the Money

If you keep your savings in cash in an account ready to spend, you’ll most likely do exactly that: spend it.

The biggest danger to your savings is spontaneous and unnecessary consumption.

Cash is too easy to use, and most people will start buying stuff and experiences they don’t really want or need, like home decor stuff or weekend getaways they are too tired to enjoy. They’ll buy it just because they can.

4. Negative Interest Rates and Inflation Also Eat Up Your Money

Even if you have the discipline to leave your savings in your account alone without spending it, your money will still slowly trickle away.

In this current market, there are negative interest rates (at least in parts of Europe), and that eats up some of your money.

Not to mention inflation will also take a serious slice of the pie.

Did you know that with an inflation rate of 4%, your money will only be worth half of that in 18 years?

Let’s say you’ve saved $100,000. It will shrink to a value of $50,000 after 18 years.What will that do to your child’s savings for a future education?

5. You Lose Confidence in Yourself

The problem with wanting to do something and not acting on it is simple:

It erodes your self-confidence.

It’s important that we do the things that we set out to do so that we can continue to trust ourselves.

If you had a friend who didn’t show up for an appointment, what would you think the next time you considered inviting him for dinner?

You might think that he probably wouldn’t show up anyway.

Maybe you wouldn’t even feel like inviting him.

Do you want that kind of a relationship with yourself?

When you want to do something and you know it’s the right thing to do, then do it. Keep your word – to others and to yourself.

Otherwise, you are undermining yourself.

Familiarize yourself with investing – read the blog posts, listen to the podcasts, take an investing course – and then get down to doing it.

Obviously, you are also going to read my e-book Free Yourself, which you can download right here.