I borrowed this book from the library a few weeks back called Property vs Shares: Discover your knockout investment strategy.
To be honest I haven’t read it. I confess I’m a serial book stalker at the library and I admit I have a problem. I will borrow about 10 books at a time and there is no way I will actually get through them before they are due back.
But getting back to the book, which one is better, property or shares? And which one should you be investing in?
The truth is I have no idea which one is better for you. I invest in both. I have a couple of investment properties and I also invest in a low-cost index fund.
I invested in property first as I had a burning desire to own property and know at the end of the day I had somewhere to live.
When it comes to investing, the vehicle you choose in my opinion is subjective. Some people will swear by property, or on the other hand it will be shares. Some people don’t invest in either and choose to put all the money into growing a business that generates income.
I also often hear people talking about, it’s not how much you earn but what you do with the money. Which, I agree with to a point. But let’s face it. It’s a lot easier to save money and invest when you are on a high income, but in the same breathe, if you’re a spender and don’t have good money habits it doesn’t matter how much you earn you will never have enough because you spend it all!
What is the number one thing I invest in and think you should too?
Myself.
Yep that’s right.
And there are two things specifically- my mind and my education.
Everything we do as humans is motivated by how we feel. We will avoid doing something to avoid feeling a negative emotion. Think public speaking. It generates so much fear in many people as they can’t stand the thought of feeling humiliated or embarrassed. Likewise we will gravitate towards doing things because we want to feel a positive emotion. Hugging our kids, eating ice cream, sex, socialising with friends you get the idea.
Here is the point the very very important point. Pull over, grab a pen, hear this because this information can literally change your life.
Circumstances happen okay. We can’t control them. Maybe you grew up in a wealthy family, maybe you grew up in a poor family. You can’t control that. What we can control which, many people don’t realise is how we choose to think about circumstances. The way we think about our circumstances determines how we feel about it.
How we feel will determine how we act. How we act or rather the action we take, determines the results we create in our life.
For example you might have grown up in a family that never talks about money. This is not bad, it’s not good it just is. Your thought about money is for example “I don’t talk about money” or “it’s not polite to talk about money’.
Now if you think it is bad or wrong to talk about money you are not going to talk about it because you don’t want to feel embarrassed or uncouth or whatever feeling that brings up for you.
The action you take is you never talk about money. The result you create in your live is that maybe you don’t have much because you have never discussed a raise at work or found out about how you could invest it. This could be something that you have never consciously thought about. Yet, this is the result you are creating in your life.
On the other hand, maybe, you have thoughts like ‘I’m great with money’. Or “I’m curious about investing”. These kinds of thoughts are going to create a different result for you.
Our mind and the way we think is so powerful. We all having this crazy powerful ‘machine’ in our head. This isn’t woo woo. This is science. Our brain creates new pathways in our brain when we learn something new. It’s so amazing because what this means is, we can actually change our brain. We can change our thoughts and we can change the results we create in our life. And I’m not just talking about money, I’m talking about our mental health and wellbeing. The way we think has a huge impact on this but this podcast is about money so I will keep the focus to that.
In light of this I think when it comes to investing our money to get a return on our investment, learning how to manage your mind and education are the two most important thing you should be investing in.
If you have a scarcity mindset, I don’t have enough, it’s not enough money, it doesn’t matter how much you earn. You will never have enough money. Your points of reference will just change. When you were young maybe you thought 'I wish I just had enough money to buy a car', and in your mind the idea of any car was amazing, like an old Datson with only AM radio, and then you get older, earn more money and the goal posts change. Now you just wish you had enough for the latest Audi. You are still in a scarcity mindset. Nothing has changed. You are repeating the same patterns and thoughts in your brain.
Believe me I have lived it!
Make investing in learning how to manage your mind your number one priority and everything else will flow from there. No joke there are so many books about this now. I particularly love Mindset by Carol Dweck and Grit by Angela Duckworth. I will put a link in the show notes. Our thoughts are so important and the way we think about money determines how much we have. Truly.
But I don’t mean, you can just think you have $100000 and suddenly just like that it’s in your hand. I mean maybe you have a thought like I am going to make $100000 in income this year. You have to actually believe it to make it happen. Because if what you really think is, I could never make that kind of money. You are not going to create it, but if you believe it; your actions will align with making that happen.
Maybe you ask for a raise or change jobs. Maybe you start a side hustle or business. The point is if you believe it, your brain is going to look for ways to create it. If you believe rich people are greedy or horrible people, your brain is going to help you not become that, right?
So much of the action we take are on default because of the way we think. When we take the time to become aware of our thinking it puts us in an incredibly powerful position to then choose deliberately what we want to create. Having a coach, a life coach is really helpful for this and that is why I have one and invest in one.
Education is number 2.
Education is such a board term, education in what?
I’m not just talking about go and get a university degree. I’m talking about investing in education that will get you a return on your investment.
This is something I think is too often over looked. We are conditioned to believe that we go to school. We graduate and then we go to university. Sure if you want to be an accountant or nurse or teacher and you can earn back the money you invested in your university degree that make sense.
Our world is changing and it is changing fast. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying you shouldn’t go to university but I think you should be assessing the return you are going to get for your investment.
Anything is possible these days. With the advancement of technology, we have SO MUCH information at our figure tips. Therefore, anything you want to do or achieve for your life is possible if you have the right mindset. But you have to go out and educate yourself. If you want to run a business, educate yourself about business. What to be a property investor. Go and do a property investing course or get reading.
But again, it goes back to mindset, right? Because if you believe you are not good with money you are probably not actively doing things with money that help you create more money. Personally, I have invested a lot of money on education that helps me make money. A teaching degree, property investing courses, online courses and lots of books. I’m now investing in myself, in the form of training to learn a new skill, to open up new work opportunities for myself.
You are in charge of what you create in your life. I love investing in property and shares and think they are both a great long-term investment strategy for my retirement but right now in the present moment I think the most important thing to invest in is my mind and education because I believe that this is the foundation for everything else.
Are you investing in your mind, are you investing in your education and capacity to make money? If not, I encourage you to do this.
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