Your Financial Journey: Finding Your Personal Motivation to Invest
August 14, 2023Everyone possesses a unique set of values that can serve as a sturdy foundation for their investment journey. Understanding why you want to invest is one of the best ways to motivate, act, and stay on track with your investment goals. Finding your inner motivation to invest is not just about growing your wealth – it’s a personal journey of aligning your portfolio with what you care about most in life.
Here’s how to tap into your personal investment motivation.
Motivate: Connect with your values
Put away the investment allocation charts and return to the basics by asking yourself, “What are my essential values?”
Values are basic and fundamental beliefs that guide or motivate attitudes or actions. They help us determine what is important to us.
Create a short list of values. Here are 10 values pulled from James Clear’s robust list of values to help you brainstorm your own list:
1. Adventure
2. Balance
3. Community
4. Creativity
5. Curiosity
6. Fairness
7. Faith
8. Humor
9. Inner Harmony
10. Justice
Seems overly simplistic? Bear with us. These bare-bones values will come in handy. When navigating tough decisions, it’s important to keep in mind the simplest truths to remain focused.
Act: Bring your values into reality
After you’ve made a list of values, bring your values into action by:
1. Creating goals that reflect your values
2. Crafting a financial plan that supports your goals
Imagine a person who is fueled by her values of “adventure,” “curiosity,” and “quality time with family.” To continue living life in accordance with her values, she may create a goal: take at least one international family vacation the following year.
To achieve her short-term travel goal, she will need investments that will likely look much different than those in her retirement account. Rather than investing in the stock market, she may choose a relatively lower-risk short-term saving strategy, such as a high-yield savings account, CDs, or bonds (read about the differences between CDs and bonds here).
It takes strategy to select which goals to pursue and investment strategies to select, but you’re up to the challenge! Whether you craft your own portfolio, work with a financial professional, or both, you are capable of aligning your financial plan with your values.
Stay on Track: Keep your investments in line with your goals
Staying on track with your goals starts with proactive decision making. One strong proactive step is to automate your savings or investments. This means establishing routine transfers to your savings or investment accounts. In some cases, you can also have these funds automatically invested for you.
If you are transferring funds manually and you find that you’re falling off track, take a beat to reevaluate and recommit.
To reevaluate, check your digital paper trail. For example, if you find that your monthly spending leaves little left over to contribute to your savings or investment accounts, check your credit card or bank statements.
To recommit, return to your values. Is one value being prioritized at too great expense compared to the others? Is “fun” eclipsing “health”? Is “adventure” overshadowing “education”?
Remember that, like the rest of us, you are human. Achieving perfect balance and “doing it all” is just not possible. Our values help guide us, but they don’t make us superhuman. Reconnecting and recommitting to our values and goals is a continual process.
Celebrate your successes, both big and small
Whatever steps you’ve taken to align your finances with your values, it’s a win. When you’re celebrating your successes, we’ll be right there celebrating with you.