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Be Willing To Spend on Improving Yourself

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By Rena

Preamble...

This post was actually sparked by me trying to decide whether to print out some articles which I found useful. It was a long article, and the amount of ink and paper required will be substantial. (Many would say print in office, but I don't. I draw a thick line between work and personal.) Eventually, I thought to myself:
- Is the article useful to me?
- What do I use the printer for?

Honestly, the printer is mainly used to print tuition stuff. Since I am willing to spend on kids, why shouldn't I spend on myself. What's more, reading the article is going to be highly beneficial to me. As such, off I went to print the hundred over page article.

Investing in Resources on Self- Improvement

I am believe in spending on myself for self- improvement.


When I was a student, I was a stingy person, not willing to buy most stuff. But I spend my pocket money willingly on assessment books, because I believe, that's the only way to become richer (includes mentally). You know, the thoughts of doing well for exams, and get a good job was ingrained in me when I was young.

The richest man in Asia, Mr. Li Ka Shing thinks the same too. You can find out more from his advice here.

Past expenditure are mainly on books. I also bought a NOOK  to read ebooks when I was living in Los Angeles for a period of time (for work). [Though as a side note, Kindle will be more useful for people living out of the USA.] Books that I mainly read are personal finance books, and psychology books.

These are some of the great books that I will definitely recommend:

1. The Millionaire Next Door


This book blowed my old idea of how the rich behaves, and its definition of the wealthy, as those who are great accumulators, not their lifestyle. If you are earning a lot, but yet reading an extravagant life now, I strongly recommend this book.

2. The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing - Pat Dorsey

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A lot of the investing books that I read are just fluff, they boost your morale, telling you that you can do it, but lack in the HOW TO DO IT.

This book is really good, it gives the rules they recommend, with examples at the back, to further reinforce what they have said.

3. Secrets of Millionaire Investors




This is a really simple to read book, that can be accomplished in a single day. It's also easy to understand. What's more, it is written by Singaporeans, hence for Singaporeans like me, it is in the same context. But even if you are overseas, the basics are there. In fact, after reading secrets of millionaire investors and the five rules of successful stock investing, I come to realize that many basics for value investing is about similar.

Apart from books

There are many great resources apart from books that I will recommend. 

For personal finance, I recommend reading the following blogs:
- TheFinance.sg - a compilation of articles from various personal finance blogs
- The Motley Fool - I particularly like articles where they compare the pros and cons of adding a stock to your investment portfolio

For overall self- improvement and lifestyle, I read the following blogs:
- personalexcellence.co - in fact I even bought an online course "How to Build a Passive Income" from this blog at US$197 (my largest one- time investment on resources to date)
- Mr Money Mustache - I like his lifestyle, having a simple lifestyle, save and invest, so as to be the financially free and happy. 

For free courses from Universities around the world:

To learn basic programming, my favourite is:
- W3schools - where you learn the programming useful for web development (e.g. html, javascript, etc.)

But there's a problem with just investing in resources on improving yourself...

I have read countless investing books. But the problem is, I am not investing in stocks at all. I invest currently, only in bonds.

I have taken the how to build a passive income course, which costs a whooping US$197 (even more expensive than the NOOK I bought). But I have not started on trying to build a passive income.

We can spend countless amount of money on resources, but as long as we do not make use of what we have learn, and try it out (i.e. experience!), it's useless.

Ms. CEO's New Business Department

In my previous post, I talked about wanting to build new businesses to supplement my day job income, with an aim to earn $4800 per month in side income (or $57,600 per year). 

While brainstorming on what new business to do, I realized that since graduation, I have picked up a number of skills (through my day job, and also through reading), but I have not put what I've learnt into good use. I have simply not put all that I have learnt into practice!

So while we are willing to spend time and money on resources to improve ourselves, we would also need to spend effort to apply what we have learnt (through real actions), and accumulate experience!



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