When you clock thirty, one of the things you have to clearly define is how to invest your hard earned money in order to protect your future. Like one of my mentors usually say “old age is expensive and you have to prepare for it”.
One of the ways to prepare and protect your old age (or future) is through investment. However, what you are investing in also matters. There are several investment vehicles, and they can be grouped into three categories.
The first one is called paper assets. These are assets you don’t physically own, but are represented by a value of some type. Examples are stocks (shares), bonds (T-bills and fixed deposits) and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. While these paper assets can be good investments, some are very volatile and extremely risky. The ones that are less volatile have a very small returns on investment. The volatile ones, yield good returns. Whether less or highly volatile, paper assets are good for long term investment. And that is what your old age is about. To be honest, every individual must find a way to invest in paper assets of your choice, but if you must do, get adequate information before investing your money in any. There are tons of information about paper assets online, however, I always advise that you find an investment consultant to advise you accordingly.
The second investment vehicle is owning a business. Yes, business is a form of investment. For clarity, business is simply trading a product or service for money. Those who do these are mostly called entrepreneurs. The unfortunate thing about most entrepreneurs is that they are not prepared for the risk that comes with making a business profitable. And most of them lack the technical know-how required to make a business profitable. So, starting or operating a successful business, especially in a challenging clime, is like gambling, but very profitable if you are able to build an operational structure that controls the business. So, you can either choose to start your own business if you perceive yourself to be an entrepreneur with the right skills. If otherwise, you can invest in a structured business of a friend that has not gone public, and then watch the business grow. Either way, a business can be built to protect your future and old age.
The last on the list is real estate. Yes, real estate. This is simply investing in lands and properties. Except an economy be total destroyed through wars, land and properties are extremely secured and they appreciate in value. That is why every rich and successful person invests in land and properties. However, this secured kind of investment requires quite some capital. And in some cases, you have to wait for a very long time to get the returns on investment.
In conclusion, some school of thoughts advise that you should own the three types of investment. Some say one or two of them is okay for you. Here is my candid advise, stick to owning a piece of the earth, and you will never regret it.
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About the Author
Alfred Ijimakinwa is the CEO of Blue Earth Properties, a property flipping company that delivers high yield returns on investment. He currently make tons of his money from investing in property flipping alongside everyday investors like you. You can reach him: alfredijimakinwa@blueearthproperties.com.ng.