Invest Wisely

It may be a surprise to you if I were to tell you that we (you and I) make investment decisions daily – we don’t have to be a player in the stock market to make investment decisions.

Don’t believe me? Just think of what you had to do today.

Most likely, you woke up to the sound of your alarm clock – that reliable bedside gadget that greets you each morning with a loud jarring noise or, preferably, with some soothing sounds to ease you into your day. It was a tiny but necessary investment and, in addition to the cash you had to spend, you probably had to invest some time to test the ring tones on a number of alarm clocks before you found the one that you liked.

Having rubbed the last bit of sleep from your eyes, you headed for the showers and invested time in prepping your body for the day. You took care of your oral health, the way your hair looks, and, if you like to deepen the mystique, the ‘je ne sais quoi’ or the ‘something in the air’ about you, your daily routine ended with your dabbing on some cologne, after shave or eau de toilette.

Your decision on the clothes you wore was likely influenced by your knowledge of the type of meetings or occasions you have on your schedule for the day. If a meeting or an occasion was important enough, you would choose to put on an outfit with matching accessories – an ensemble that would make a statement - for which you had invested a handsome amount of money and set aside for just such events.

I think you get the drift. We are always investing – consciously or subconsciously – and if we think of our daily actions as such, we would most likely be smarter about our choices because we would be forced to think about the payback.

Investing in a healthy, balanced daily diet will yield us years of good health and fewer visits to the doctors for all kinds of preventable ills. Investing in our continuing education and awareness of the changes in the world around us will keep us one step ahead of our competitors and prepare us for the challenges ahead. Investing time with family, friends, colleagues and social networks (religious, professional, etc.) will enrich our lives together and our ability to interact and react, and to accept each other, warts and all. Investing in cleaning up and keeping our environment healthy will allow us and future generations to live and breathe on this earth for many, many more years. Investing in teaching love and respect for ourselves and for others who are less fortunate and in need of a helping hand will help counter the actions of those who chose to teach fear, hate and bigotry, perpetuating wars and needless killing.

If we learned anything in 2008, it is clear that we cannot afford to sit idly and quietly, and hope that the near collapse of the financial, insurance, auto and other industries due to weakened controls and accountability will not happen again. As investors in the many companies that the government has bailed out (whether or not we were for it), we have a duty to require of those in whom we have put our trust to give a clear accounting of their actions and results. Our economy, our country and our future depend on us being wise investors.

When I was in my early teens, I had a plain looking poster that had an image of an apple with a good chunk bitten off the top right corner. Beneath the picture were the words “Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life”. It conjures up the image of Adam and Eve taking a bite from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and forever lost their innocence. I think that sums it up nicely – what we chose to do today will have a bearing on the rest of our lives and the lives of those around us.

As we head into the New Year, it is my hope that we can and we will think of our decisions and actions as investments in the future and that we will do so wisely. We all had a bite of that bitter fruit in 2008 and we are no longer innocent.