In the last post, we discussed about how great budgeting and personal finance software would benefit you by helping you manage your finances and even your investments. In this post, we’ll talk about investing in education, in order to keep upgrading YOU.
Crucial Investment #2: Continued Growth and Education
While getting an MBA would definitely be a feather in your cap, constantly learning and getting educated, continually, in your field is more than that. When I say that you need to continually grow and be educated in what you do, you don’t need to go out and secure a degree for yourself. All you really need to do is to find those opportunities to learn more and grab them.
Learning opportunities could be as close to you as the nearest bookstore, the nearest convention center in the local malls, or even your bedroom. Yes, webinars were hot, and if you want to keep growing, you shouldn’t care if the fad has passed. If the webinars offered seem relevant to your career or business, why not drop in and make the most out of free or affordable resources on the Web?
Here is an informal list of where you can find great ways to learn new things, or to at least add to what you know about your field of expertise:
- Through books that you can buy, either at your local bookstore, or online, via Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and even the eBook stores, like Amazon Kindle and the iPad Bookstore (iBook Store). There are even some titles that you can have for free. There are some websites that offer condensed versions of their products/books, so you can actually “Try before you buy” for some eBooks, and even paper books.
- Webinars were the rage around the Internet since last year. And while the hype has died down, they are still pretty much in existence, and you can still definitely learn more when you attend events like these.
- Alternatively, if you don’t want to attend webinars with interaction, especially if they charge very expensive fees, you may want to just watch tutorials and even lectures on YouTube. There are YouTube publishers who actually provide great, informative content. Videos on Revver.com are also pretty informative, maybe even more so than YouTube. If you even want to learn how to cook certain dishes, Revver.com may help you. But I digress. One great YouTuber that may help you learn how to watch the stock market is ShadowTrader. He actually gives tutorials and market updates. Maybe you may even get started investing in stocks thanks to his help!
- Podcasts: a lot of podcasts are available on iTunes, for free. Some are in radio show format, while others are in seminar, lecture or full speech format. The latter may prove more helpful. The topics range from short tips recordings, like “Quick and Dirty Tips,” magazine and news recordings, and even full academic lectures. Podcasts worth subscribing to, if you’re on the lookout for stock market, investing and personal finance resources, would include American Public Media’s “APM: Marketplace – After the Bell,” Slate Magazine’s “The Big Money Podcasts,” NYTimes.com’s “Your Money,” BusinessWeek’s “Mandel on Economics,” and others that are suggested in the personal finance and investment genre. Not only is this a treasure trove of ideas, the best part is that podcasts are FREE.
- While most people do not trust free content, in today’s Web 2.0 world, websites, especially the influential and high-authority ones, are now trustworthy sources of information. Need to learn how to cook meals in under 10 minutes? Just google it. Need to know how to mod your old laptops, google it, read it, and then work on your machines under the supervision of an expert. In like manner, you may want to start investing by learning more about the ins and outs of it. You may want to start a new business by researching about your chosen niche, as well. And while these resources are free, no one can deny how big a help these would be in getting you started in any endeavor.
- Courses and seminars are still great sources of continued education. While for some premium seminars, the kind that book authors and celebrity motivational speakers conduct, do charge a premium for their events, other seminars just charge a minimal fee. The premium seminars may be worth your time and money, however, and it could prove to be a great investment either way.
Continuously learning is more of an attitude and perspective towards life rather than the media you use to achieve that end. If you face life with the desire to keep learning, you are still investing in yourself and your career or business. This is definitely a worthy place to spend your resources: your time and money on. And with these investments, your career and business are sure to grow, because the knowledge you gain, when applied, translates to growth: building blocks towards the success you aim to achieve.
***
Coming Up: Last installment of this series, Use Great Stock Brokers – get started in investing!
Previously: Invest in Great Budgeting Software: Invest In Yourself Part 1
Want more? Here are great articles on how to budget, why you need a budget, making budgeting fun, among other personal finance topics.