The smartest investment I've made has been my college education. I attribute my success (thus far) to the incredible academic quality, inspiring community, and support of my alma mater.
The best investment I have ever made was in myself, by continuing to learn, advance my education and being willing to invest the time needed to keep my skills updated. Houses, money and things all come and go.. it's what's between the ears that will keep a person afloat when things get tough.
The best investment that I have made was buying a fixer upper to live in. It's still a work in progress but is transforming into a lovely little home. It's endured a lot of my learning as I go carpentry work but has rewarded me for each tiny success along the way.
The best investment I've ever made is the investment in my own body. Changing my lifestyle to include more exercise and healthier foods has been great. I have more energy and I'm way more productive.
I really need to prepare for an emergency situation, but I haven't. I have been prepared in earlier years, but after our last move this past January, I haven't gotten anything together again. Need to do that soon!
The smartest investment I made was buying a home with an office in it. I changed jobs within my company right before my first child was born. Not only is the work something I enjoy a lot more, but it also allows me to work from home. I'm now able to spend a lot of time with my wife and daughter while still be productive and provide. Yes, a home serves as another purpose other than work, but I love that it has also provided a place for me to work and still be a huge part of my family's life.
I belonged to a credit union in college, and there are things I definitely miss about it. I've moved a lot in the last year, though, and I can say that one nice thing about having an account with a big bank is not needing to worry about switching institutions every time I've changed homes.
Do you belong to a credit union or a bank? What do you prefer?
If people in your office usually all go out to eat, I think it can be great to get a brown-bagging companion. If you have someone else to eat with, it makes you more likely to keep doing it -- kind of like having a gym buddy.
Anybody have a brown-bag lunch you particularly love?
In my early 20s, living in South Africa, I took a gold Krugerrand given to me by my godfather for my 21st birthday, cashed it in and used it to buy a plane ticket to visit my best friend who had immigrated to Canada. I ended up staying, marrying him and we recently celebrated our 20th anniversary, and have two kids!
The smartest investment I've made was actually the warranties I've purchased over the years on electronics I buy. Being a generally clumsy person, I've learned never, ever to purchase anything expensive without getting a good two-year warranty. I've saved thousands, including the one time I accidentally spilled a gallon of laundry detergent into my computer!
My best investment was ensuring constant retirement investing from the time I got out of college. My wife and I started maxing out our IRA's, 401k, 403b, etc -- you name it, we put money into it. Now that we're older with more expenses (kids, college, cars) we don't have to put so much into retirement and can spend it now. In the meantime that wonderful friend Compounding Interest is doing it's thing for us.
The first investment I ever made was going to college, which made the biggest difference in my life. In my first year of employment I earned twice as much as I spent on my college.
I'd couple that investment with the $180 investment I made in my first black suit, which I wore to my first real career interview. I learned the value of appearance, the return on THAT is everlasting. I also later got an internship with that company and, consequently, earned the full-time job that earned me the return on my college investment mentioned before.
I like to believe that everything we do is an investment if we learn to think of it that way, and the returns are all around us if we learn to pay close enough attention.
The smartest investment I've ever made has been in the time I've spent reading books and blog posts on negotiating one's salary. That knowledge led me to some hefty salary increases fairly early in my career, which has allowed me to save more for my future.
My best investment has been my Kitchen Aid. It makes it easy to make all kinds of things from scratch where I would have spent more money buying them pre-made. It also helps keep our family healthier!
My investment might not be what HP is looking for. I ditched my car and got a bike. Zero emissions, low maintenance/repairs, no fuel costs (water is free), and it contributes to my health. Few investments save you money and keep you healthy. It was tough at first, certainly has its drawbacks, but when rush hour rolls around it's quite satisfying zipping by all those commuters burning money and not going anywhere :)
The best investment I've made is in my education. Even though it may not have landed me the job of my dreams (yet), I gained a lot of skills, and had a lot of experiences that made all that work worthwhile.
My best investment was staying home with my two kids when I got laid off from my job almost 15 years ago. I bought a computer and started doing medical transcription at home (yes, you can make money from it!). I could be flexible with my schedule and work when my kids did not need me and then be available for them and enjoy them while they were growing up.
Shortly after moving into my home I invested in a set of quality knives and pots and pans. Then I took a series of cooking lessons to teach me the basics about preparing food. Since that time I have reduced the number of meals eaten away from home to less than a few each month. Even better, my husband and I now love to cook meals together, so it's not just about saving money, but also about enjoying our time. It's fun to scour recipes, shop for groceries and ultimately make a meal standing alongside one another. If we hadn't invested in quality equipment I can say without a doubt that we would not have changed our eating habits.
It's a strange one, but the smartest investment I've made is my investment of time in my education. I attended a college that was a little loose on instruction and strong on personal enrichment. What that meant was that I would only get out of the experience what I put into it. Despite working almost full time throughout school, I used most of my free time to not only work with a variety of technologies but build a work ethic and an open mind in approaching problems.
By far, the best investment I have made is my college education! It may have taken a little longer than I had planned, but the proudest day of my life, outside of the births of my three sons, is earning that Bachelor's degree at 41 years old! An excellent teachable moment to my sons.
My best investment (so far) was my decision to hire a personal trainer. I was 100 pounds overweight and had no clue how to exercise efficiently. Working with a trainer, I shed the weight and learned how to keep it off effectively.
The smartest investment I've made is getting my masters degree. I'm a librarian, and without a masters, you CANNOT get a professional job. By figuring out what I wanted to do early in my college career, and by doing well enough to earn an assistantship and grant while I was in grad school, I not only was able to get into my dream career as early as possible, I was able to get out of two years of grad school with only a reasonable amount of debt.
The smartest investment I've ever made has been my decision to complete a post-baccalaureate premedical program in order to apply for medical school and try for my dream career.
The smartest investment I ever made is in a computer that I built from scratch. I learned the ins and outs of every part of a PC. I also learned that no matter how difficult the task, I tend to stick to directions very well. Since I have built the computer, I have been very quick to upgrade the existing computers for my family and friends. Because of my investment, I am currently enrolled in the "Applied Information Technology" graduate program at my school.
The smartest investment I've made has been my college education. I attribute my success (thus far) to the incredible academic quality, inspiring community, and support of my alma mater.
The best investment I have ever made was in myself, by continuing to learn, advance my education and being willing to invest the time needed to keep my skills updated. Houses, money and things all come and go.. it's what's between the ears that will keep a person afloat when things get tough.
The best investment that I have made was buying a fixer upper to live in. It's still a work in progress but is transforming into a lovely little home. It's endured a lot of my learning as I go carpentry work but has rewarded me for each tiny success along the way.
The best investment I've ever made is the investment in my own body. Changing my lifestyle to include more exercise and healthier foods has been great. I have more energy and I'm way more productive.
I really need to prepare for an emergency situation, but I haven't. I have been prepared in earlier years, but after our last move this past January, I haven't gotten anything together again. Need to do that soon!
The smartest investment I made was buying a home with an office in it. I changed jobs within my company right before my first child was born. Not only is the work something I enjoy a lot more, but it also allows me to work from home. I'm now able to spend a lot of time with my wife and daughter while still be productive and provide. Yes, a home serves as another purpose other than work, but I love that it has also provided a place for me to work and still be a huge part of my family's life.
I belonged to a credit union in college, and there are things I definitely miss about it. I've moved a lot in the last year, though, and I can say that one nice thing about having an account with a big bank is not needing to worry about switching institutions every time I've changed homes.
Do you belong to a credit union or a bank? What do you prefer?
If people in your office usually all go out to eat, I think it can be great to get a brown-bagging companion. If you have someone else to eat with, it makes you more likely to keep doing it -- kind of like having a gym buddy.
Anybody have a brown-bag lunch you particularly love?
In my early 20s, living in South Africa, I took a gold Krugerrand given to me by my godfather for my 21st birthday, cashed it in and used it to buy a plane ticket to visit my best friend who had immigrated to Canada. I ended up staying, marrying him and we recently celebrated our 20th anniversary, and have two kids!
My best investment was a college education; chemical engineering.
The pay I have now beats what I could have done without it.
CD
The smartest investment I've made was actually the warranties I've purchased over the years on electronics I buy. Being a generally clumsy person, I've learned never, ever to purchase anything expensive without getting a good two-year warranty. I've saved thousands, including the one time I accidentally spilled a gallon of laundry detergent into my computer!
My best investment was ensuring constant retirement investing from the time I got out of college. My wife and I started maxing out our IRA's, 401k, 403b, etc -- you name it, we put money into it. Now that we're older with more expenses (kids, college, cars) we don't have to put so much into retirement and can spend it now. In the meantime that wonderful friend Compounding Interest is doing it's thing for us.
Eric
The first investment I ever made was going to college, which made the biggest difference in my life. In my first year of employment I earned twice as much as I spent on my college.
I'd couple that investment with the $180 investment I made in my first black suit, which I wore to my first real career interview. I learned the value of appearance, the return on THAT is everlasting. I also later got an internship with that company and, consequently, earned the full-time job that earned me the return on my college investment mentioned before.
I like to believe that everything we do is an investment if we learn to think of it that way, and the returns are all around us if we learn to pay close enough attention.
The smartest investment I've ever made has been in the time I've spent reading books and blog posts on negotiating one's salary. That knowledge led me to some hefty salary increases fairly early in my career, which has allowed me to save more for my future.
My best investment has been my Kitchen Aid. It makes it easy to make all kinds of things from scratch where I would have spent more money buying them pre-made. It also helps keep our family healthier!
My investment might not be what HP is looking for. I ditched my car and got a bike. Zero emissions, low maintenance/repairs, no fuel costs (water is free), and it contributes to my health. Few investments save you money and keep you healthy. It was tough at first, certainly has its drawbacks, but when rush hour rolls around it's quite satisfying zipping by all those commuters burning money and not going anywhere :)
The best investment I've made is in my education. Even though it may not have landed me the job of my dreams (yet), I gained a lot of skills, and had a lot of experiences that made all that work worthwhile.
My best investment was staying home with my two kids when I got laid off from my job almost 15 years ago. I bought a computer and started doing medical transcription at home (yes, you can make money from it!). I could be flexible with my schedule and work when my kids did not need me and then be available for them and enjoy them while they were growing up.
Shortly after moving into my home I invested in a set of quality knives and pots and pans. Then I took a series of cooking lessons to teach me the basics about preparing food. Since that time I have reduced the number of meals eaten away from home to less than a few each month. Even better, my husband and I now love to cook meals together, so it's not just about saving money, but also about enjoying our time. It's fun to scour recipes, shop for groceries and ultimately make a meal standing alongside one another. If we hadn't invested in quality equipment I can say without a doubt that we would not have changed our eating habits.
It's a strange one, but the smartest investment I've made is my investment of time in my education. I attended a college that was a little loose on instruction and strong on personal enrichment. What that meant was that I would only get out of the experience what I put into it. Despite working almost full time throughout school, I used most of my free time to not only work with a variety of technologies but build a work ethic and an open mind in approaching problems.
By far, the best investment I have made is my college education! It may have taken a little longer than I had planned, but the proudest day of my life, outside of the births of my three sons, is earning that Bachelor's degree at 41 years old! An excellent teachable moment to my sons.
My best investment (so far) was my decision to hire a personal trainer. I was 100 pounds overweight and had no clue how to exercise efficiently. Working with a trainer, I shed the weight and learned how to keep it off effectively.
The smartest investment I've made is getting my masters degree. I'm a librarian, and without a masters, you CANNOT get a professional job. By figuring out what I wanted to do early in my college career, and by doing well enough to earn an assistantship and grant while I was in grad school, I not only was able to get into my dream career as early as possible, I was able to get out of two years of grad school with only a reasonable amount of debt.
The smartest investment I've ever made has been my decision to complete a post-baccalaureate premedical program in order to apply for medical school and try for my dream career.
The smartest investment I ever made is in a computer that I built from scratch. I learned the ins and outs of every part of a PC. I also learned that no matter how difficult the task, I tend to stick to directions very well. Since I have built the computer, I have been very quick to upgrade the existing computers for my family and friends. Because of my investment, I am currently enrolled in the "Applied Information Technology" graduate program at my school.