The Best Investment You'll Ever Make
Author: Rev. Marie Jones

“The Best Investment You’ll Ever Make”

Every where you turn today, people are talking about stocks and trading and investments. What was once the domain of professional brokers has now even gone “fast-food,” as more and more people become do-it-yourself traders via the Internet. Many people are getting wealthy playing the stock market. Many more are losing their shirts.

But I’ll bet no one has ever found a better investment than the one I’m about to share with you now. This stock is so hot, it alone could create a rally on Wall Street. This stock is so hot, it often brings returns in the QUADRUPLE DIGITS! And I’m not afraid to share it with all of you because this stock is SO HOT, everyone who invests in it has the potential of becoming rich beyond his or her wildest dreams!

The best investment you’ll ever make is in… are you ready? YOU!

I’ll bet you thought I was going to say something like Nike or MP3.com or Apple Computers. No, the best investment you can ever make is in yourself, in your own talents and skills and abilities.

We live in a money-oriented, outer-directed society. Our focus is often so heavily on making more and acquiring more and investing more for our future, or for our children’s education, or retirement. In our race to accumulate more money and more things, often through outside sources, and find the financial security and freedom we long for, we often forget that we are sitting, literally, on the hottest stock we could ever possibly put money into.

OURSELVES!

Everything that we do for ourselves is an investment towards our future, whether it’s learning a new skill or brushing up on an old one; mastering a language, or starting an exercise program; eating healthier or meditating; practicing spiritual principles or making the effort to meet new people. Investing in ourselves is about finding the talents and gifts and abilities that lay dormant within us and putting them to work for us in a way that can bring us both financial and personal rewards.

If we want to succeed in life, we really must first learn how to succeed at being ourselves, the best selves we can be. Dolly Parton is quoted as saying, “To be successful, find out who you are, then do it on purpose.” What is it we love to do, what is it we believe in, what would make us hold our heads up taller, make us walk a little more confidently? Each of us has the potential to do and be whatever it is we dream of, if we can but put our minds and our hearts into it. By simply changing our thinking, we change our lives, and often those changes begin with simple things, such as taking a new class, or joining a church or professional organization.

Investing in yourself doesn’t always have to be serious. Sometimes, it can be taking yourself out to a movie or to get a relaxing massage. Or buying a book you’ve been dying to read and then actually taking the time to read it. Investing in our pleasure makes us happier people, and happier people make for a happier world. Who can argue with those kinds of returns?

The idea is to never stop growing, to keep increasing our self-worth, which in turn increases our net worth. We have at our fingertips so many resources for investing in ourselves – many of them are inexpensive, even free. Libraries, adult school classes, spiritual retreats, church classes, lectures, readings and seminars, Toastmasters and other clubs and professional organizations. Even hobbies and leisure time passions such as gardening and sailing can be considered an investment worth putting time and money into, especially if these activities reward us with peace of mind, better health and more beautiful surroundings.

Sometimes, even the smallest, most insignificant investment can pay us the highest dividends. I have a friend in L.A. who grew up in abject poverty. She led a very difficult life as a teenager, having to work from the age of 13 to help out the family. Once she was in her 20’s, she had worked herself into a promising job and was really laying the foundations for a successful future. But she would still not spend any money on herself.

One of the things she really wanted to do was have a French manicure. That’s the kind of manicure, for you male readers, that leaves the tip of the nail white. It’s a very glamorous look, and only costs about -25, depending on where you go. Yet this woman didn’t feel she was worth the frivolous expense, not when there were so many other pressing things she needed to invest her time and money in.

During one conversation I had with her, I told her that I believed that having a French manicure could be the biggest investment she could ever make in her future. She looked at me as if I were drooling and speaking in tongues, and didn’t really understand what I was telling her… until I finally talked her into getting one.

The day she got the manicure, the difference in her was amazing. That one investment transformed her. She used her hands more gracefully afterwards, held her head a little prouder, and walked a little taller, all because she had chosen to make a small, but crucial investment in her self-esteem. AND that simple French manicure served as a catalyst to even more improvements she would go on to make in her appearance, her dress habits and beyond, improvements that would help boost her confidence and land her a higher-paying job at a production company she had dreamed of working for.

That’s the power of compounded interest at work. Every investment we make in our own lives and in our dreams helps us to grow and expand beyond our current limitations, just like the interest on a mutual fund helps the initial deposit grow and expand. The more we invest, the more interest we earn, and the greater the rewards will be in all areas of our lives.

Many of us are so busy with jobs and family demands, we just about have time to get home from work and make a sandwich. Maybe call our accountant once a month to see how our money is doing, if we even have an accountant. After all, we’re doing OK, aren’t we? We’re surviving, aren’t we? I don’t know about you, but I want my life to be more than just DOING OK. Whether or not you believe in reincarnation, this is the only life you get RIGHT NOW, so why not make it the best it can be RIGHT NOW?

We tend to trust our financial advisors more than we trust our own inner advisors, our intuitive mind. We put more stock in the Dow Jones than in, well, in my case, MARIE JONES. We must stop the busyness of life and ask ourselves – WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ASSET I OWN? If you say your house, your car, or your stock portfolio, you are bound for disappointment, for those are things that can be taken away at any time. Author and Unity minister Joseph Murphy said, “Man’s greatest folly is in not realizing that the true riches are within himself already, if he could but just bring them forth.” This is the kind of self-investment I’m talking about, the kind that pays fabulous dividends.

The amount of undeveloped and wasted human potential on this planet is tragic. We seem so sure that our fortune lies somewhere outside of us, we forget everything we need is already within us, just waiting to be nurtured and released. Jerry Gillies, author of “Moneylove” says, “You are already your most valuable property, and investing in property improvement is the smartest move you can make in productively using your money and time.” We invest in repairing and remodeling our houses, why not our lives?

Imagine that you are a bank. In fact, you can call yourself “THE BANK OF YOU – Open 24 Hours.” Every coin or bill you deposit into your “account” is a positive action, a new skill, a developed talent, a self-empowering experience. The more you deposit, the more options and opportunities you create for yourself, building upon your own wealth the same way the money you put into your real bank account builds upon the investments and interests of the accumulated accounts of that particular institution.

Investing in the real stock market is important and something everyone should be thinking about, and you really can build future wealth for yourselves and your families. But don’t forget that life is lived in the now, and that by investing in yourself, you improve your nows, your laters and your distant futures. Who can afford NOT to invest in themselves, for isn’t that really all you have when all is said and done? Banks can close, companies can downsize and go bankrupt, and the stock market can crash tomorrow and not recover for months, maybe years.

But you are always a gold mine of treasures that never lose their worth. You are a bright, shining light that, as the Master Teacher Jesus stated, should not be “hidden under a bushel.” You are connected to an inexhaustible and unlimited resource of Universal wisdom from which new ideas and wonderful concepts continuously spring forth. Your talents, skills, passions and desires are fuel for success. Your creativity and ingenuity are blueprints for achievement. Your thoughts and how you choose to use them is really all that stands between you and the wealth and freedom you long to experience, the true wealth that comes from being in the flow and living a life filled with purpose and meaning.

All you need to do is put some time and money into the business of YOU. Take that risk now and make those investments, however big or small they may be. There’s no better time than the present to invest in YOU. And pass it on. This is one hot stock tip the whole world can benefit from.






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Rev. Marie Jones is the author of "Looking For God In All The Wrong Places" and over thirty inspirational gift books. She is a regular contributor to the Chicken Soup book series, and is an ordained New Thought minister. She holds a Master's Degree in Metaphysical Studies, is a licensed Pastoral Counselor, and lives in Southern California.

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