- Hey guys, Robert from The College Investor here.
I am super excited to share with you today,
10 zero cost ways to invest in yourself in the new year.
Now, New Year's resolutions are great,
but a key aspect of all New Year's resolutions
is that you are trying to make yourself better.
And part of making yourself better is investing in yourself.
Now you might have heard a lot of personalities
and people, finance people,
motivational coaches,
people like Tony Robbins,
those kind of people are always saying invest in yourself.
And then you also have other people like Ramit Sethi
whose out there saying you need to
invest in yourself with money,
you need to buy this course.
And when you start valuing yourself,
you will start being more successful in life.
Now, I don't think either approach is wrong,
but I also think there are a lot of free ways
that you can invest in yourself
if you wanna put in the effort.
So with free, you are investing your time
and your own self motivation into improving yourself.
And I think that is a huge way
to make a difference in yourself.
So I'm gonna share with you 10 zero cost
ways to do that this year.
And I'm gonna start off with one of my favorites
and that is take a free online course
and learn a new skill.
Now over the last couple of years,
top universities in this country like Yale and Harvard,
and MIT,
they've all been offering free courses online.
And I think that is so huge,
because you, whoever you are,
can just take a course from one of
the top professors and universities in this country
and make a huge difference in yourself.
So honestly, if you're looking to learn a new skill
or do something different,
take an online course and learn it.
It's funny because there's universities out there
that are online-only universities.
These universities are charging
you thousands and thousands of dollars every single year
to just take online courses.
But at the same time,
there are so many free online courses out there
that there is no reason that you should be paying
these companies to take online courses.
You can get that for free,
the same information that you would be getting taught.
Just take the course fro. MIT,
it's probably gonna be top quality
compared to what you're getting
at an online school that you're paying
thousands of dollars for.
The number two thing that I think
you should do to invest in yourself is to read a new book.
You can buy it,
you can check it out for free at the local library,
that's the free aspect,
you could download it,
heck, a lot of people make their books for free.
Google has a free book search.
So realize there a lot of ways to better yourself
and reading is a huge one.
One of the biggest internet personalities online right now
is Tai Lopez and he advocates reading all the time.
He says he reads like 10 to 12 books a month.
That's a lot for some people,
but if you can read one new book per month,
you can make a huge difference.
I'll show with you right now,
I am reading The Daily Stoic here.
Hopefully you can see it, with Ryan Holiday.
I think this is a awesome book to read
and that's my January focus.
But there's so many different books that you can read.
So I think you should take advantage of reading.
Reading is huge.
What if you're trying to make yourself
better in a fitness perspective?
Well, take advantage of free workout videos.
A lot of people are paying money for workout courses
or their paying money to get DVDs and stuff,
but the average cost of a gym membership
is like 50 bucks a month and over half,
almost two thirds go unused.
People go one or two times and they stop using them.
Have you ever been on Youtube lately?
If you are watching this video,
you're probably on Youtube.
So take advantage of all the free workouts
that are on Youtube and other video platforms
that you can use to get exercise
and have someone there telling you what to do.
Number four, eat healthier food.
So one of my New Year's resolutions,
and I shared it in my goals post,
is I'm trying to be below 190 all year long.
So you might not realize this,
but at my peak last year I was about 210 pounds.
Which is crazy for me,
it's the heaviest I've ever been.
And by eating healthier food
and using a free app called My Fitness Pal
and monitoring what food I've been eating,
I'm down to 190 as of January 15th.
So my goal is to stay at 190 or below
for the rest of the year.
And really an important part of that
is to eat healthier food and be mindful of what you eat.
I'm the first to tell you,
I still drink multiple beers per week
'cause I'm a beer guy and I love it.
But I also watch the other carbs I eat
and I really try to be mindful of what I get when I go out.
I try not to have too much dessert.
Basic stuff, but we kinda forget that.
And so if you're really trying to have a healthier you,
it starts with eating healthier as well.
Number five, start a side business.
So I'm a big advocate of earing more money
and if a financial goal is for you,
starting a side business is a great way to better yourself,
but at the same time earn some more money.
The cool thing with a lot of side businesses,
especially online,
is that you can start them for free.
You are just using your time.
And that time can go a long way
to earning you money down the line
and hopefully achieve a financial goal
if that's what you're looking for.
Number six is organize your home.
Scientists have linked clutter to an inability to focus,
an inability to get things done,
and even higher rates of depression and fatigue.
Especially among women more than men.
If you are looking to make a difference in your well being,
organizing your home is a great place to start.
Coming home to a clutter-free house
can make a big difference in your
personal mindset and well-being.
So really keep that in mind as you think
if you're coming home and you're not feeling
the sense of ah relief,
maybe it has to do with your home organization.
Number seven is starting a budget.
So if you're not having that ah sense of relief
and it's not clutter,
maybe it's your money.
Maybe you just are stressed about making money,
saving money,
and how that all equals out at the end of the month.
Well that is why it is so important to have a budget
if you are not good with your spending and your earning
and just knowing where everything is.
So two of my favorite tools available
are Mint and Personal Capital,
those are both free online tools
and they also have great apps for your phone
that can help you keep track
of your income and your expenses.
But there's also a lot of free tools out there.
You could do spreadsheets,
you could do software,
there's a lot of different options you could do
to start a budget and stick to it.
But the important part is that you have to stick to it
so that you can have money at the end of the month.
Number eight is networking.
Contact one new person per month.
That old saying goes your network is your net worth
and it's huge.
I didn't realize that when I
first started The College Investor.
I honestly didn't talk to anyone for a couple years
and it really significantly held back my business.
There was so many other bloggers
and online personalities I could have reached out to,
but I didn't.
But you know what,
at the two year mark I started to.
And since then,
I've made it a big point to talk to other bloggers,
connect with them.
'cause they're not enemies,
other people in your network aren't trying to get you.
There is enough everything out there
for everybody to be successful.
And a rising tide rises all boats in the harbor,
you might have heard that phrase before.
So having a great network will honestly
build your net worth over time.
Number nine is make a get out of debt plan.
So maybe if 2017 your New Year's resolution
is to get out of debt,
well to invest in yourself you need to to make a solid plan.
So that's great that you wrote that down
as a New Year's resolution,
but what does your plan look like?
So I have a bunch of free tools on the blog
at thecollegeinvestor.com that you can get
a plan to get out of debt this year.
And we talked about it in one of our last videos,
how to pay off $10,000 worth of debt in one year.
It's completely possible,
I've done it,
many other people have done it,
but it's just about having a plan.
Finally, number 10 is goal setting.
And I'm talking about weekly goal setting.
So if you want to invest in yourself,
if you don't write it down or put it on a calendar
or put it on a wall or whatever,
you're not gonna do it.
I know you're not gonna do it
and you know you're not gonna do it.
So honestly, if you wanna get something done this year,
whether it's paying of debt,
whether it's earning more money,
whether it is being better about your fitness,
reading a book,
whatever it happens to be,
write it down.
Write your goal down on a calendar,
on your Facebook page,
on their wall,
put it on your fridge,
but set that goal and make it public.
And that's how you can invest in yourself
and actually achieve what you're talking about.
So hopefully those 10 ways to show you
how you can invest in yourself for free
and you realize they don't cost any money,
you don't have to pay a job coach,
you don't have to pay a motivational speaker,
attend a seminar,
you can start doing those 10 things right now.
And make huge strides in yourself to make a difference.
Alright guys, now we're gonna jump into
one of my favorite parts of this show,
which we just kicked off last time is reader questions.
(light guitar music)
The question I have today,
I'm gonna stick to one because I don't want
these videos to get too long,
and this one is from Joseph Idoqwu.
And Joseph asked,
what is the best business to start as a student?
Well Joseph, that's hard,
because best means something different to everybody.
And as a student you have a different
set of constraints than normal people.
Because you're going to classes,
your class schedule changes every semester
and so it's hard to sometimes start a business.
But that's why whatever business
you start needs to be flexible.
I'm a huge fan of online businesses,
because you can do it online, whenever, wherever.
So that could be a blog,
that could be an online course,
that could be a program.
Another thing you could do as a student is tutor.
Maybe you can tutor someone in math or science
or english, whatever it happens to be
that you are a subject expert in.
There's always selling stuff.
You can make something in your dorm room or your apartment
and you could sell it.
When I went through college,
I went to estate sales on the weekends
and I sold stuff that I found on Ebay.
So honestly, if you realize that there's
a lot of things that you could do...
(phone vibrates)
(sighs)
If you realize there's a lot of things
that you could do to make money
and you can do that by selling,
you could do that by creating a website,
you could do that by whatever it happens to be.
You can honestly go a long way
to starting an online business.
Alright guys, hopefully that answers your question Jacob,
or Joseph,
and hopefully everyone else got to realize
some value out of that one as well
and some food for thought about
what's the best business to start as a student.
Alright guys, thank you so much for tuning in.
I really appreciate it.
And I look forward to seeing you on the website.
If you like what we're doing here,
please leave a comment or a review.
It goes a long way to sharing the value
that this show has to offer.
Alright guys, thank you very much
and I will look forward to seeing you next time.