Have you ever thought about how much you have invested in yourself over the years? This thought actually came to me, especially since I had a realization of wanting to invest in my own self-development more after investing most of my money into investment & my other business. Prior to starting my blog, I struggled for a couple of years to get out of debt & was working hard towards my own self-development by learning about finance and investment. That knowledge did not come free & I had to allocate some of my money by buying books & also taking some courses to enhance my knowledge.
Those were my initial stage of learning about personal finance & investment and I later switched some of my self-development funds into investing. Years go by & the focus on my self-development in investing was not as aggressive as before. Looking back at my expenses in 2017, I spent RM840.60 on books while in 2018, I spent RM1335.74 on books alone. 2019 onwards, my spending on books reduced to less than 3 digits annually. My other expenses on online learning also shifted where I spent RM551.04 in 2019 & in 2020 & 2021, my expenses for online learning hit 4 digits.
Over the years, I have been switching my self-development focus into different segments depending on where is my priority or what stage I am in my life. When I was in debt, I focus mainly on personal finance & investment. When I started to invest heavily, I focus my learning into advance investing. As I start to build my blog, I shifted some of my focus to web development & digital marketing to enhance my blog. That knowledge proved to be handy when I started my second business called Black Belt Tape. When I took over a coaching role after my coach left, I also invested a lot in my knowledge development in BJJ. It is a nonstop learning process for me that I have subconsciously invested in.
The last round where I did aggressively put myself in strict learning was during that 5-7 years period of someone that has high debt into a blogger where I am actually addicted to enhancing my knowledge in personal finance & investing. I was quite obsessed with it during that point & it eventually became less aggressive. Now, I realised I have the same obsession in me, especially as a BJJ coach where I want to be the best version of myself as a coach. It gave me a realization that in order to be a better version of myself as a coach, I have to enhance my knowledge in terms of technique, coaching skills & also understanding of the human body better. Therefore, I am currently investing in a coaching program & BJJ instructionals in order for me to be a better version of myself. This year alone, I have invested almost RM2,500 to enhance my skills.
If you ask me if this amount of money is worth it to spend, it really depends on what your true focus is. I personally would rather spend my money on my self-development than spend it on shopping, luxury goods, or drinking with friends. I believe that we are our greatest asset & we should always focus on our self-development in order to be a better version of ourselves. Learning is a never-ending journey and you are never too young or too old to learn something new.
OSS!
You can also check out my latest YouTube video on How To Invest Like Warren Buffett:
