“Invest in yourself” is more than just a sales pitch used by self-help “gurus” that want to sell you a £500 course. It’s also the main effort of my 2021 financial campaign plan. Here are some free or cheap ways to invest in yourself that anyone can do today.
- Begin a simple exercise routine – live longer, give yourself more time to do what you want to do, be able to do it for longer as you get older.
- Raise your finance game by reading – you can get most books ordered through your local library and there are some good personal finance books I strongly recommend. Free your mind.
- Fall down the right YouTube rabbit holes – reading too tiring? Put procrastination to your advantage with educational YouTube videos.
- Learn to cook – you need to eat anyway, right?
- Learn how to code – Fancy starting a side hustle? Maybe a career change is on the cards? I got you.
- Learn a language with Duolingo.
- Read this blog! Just kidding (not kidding).
I’ve tried out all of these things but if you have any suggestions for things that I haven’t tried, leave them in the comments section below. I’ll try them out then add to this list.
Invest in your fitness with a simple exercise routine
Cardiovascular fitness has been inversely associated with all [presumably natural?] causes of mortality, according to a study of 122,007 participants. That means that being fitter will increase your life expectancy. The study also found that there was “no upper limit“, which pretty much means that there’s always room for improvement.
Working for the man until you’re too frail to enjoy anything is 20th century thinking. Becoming financially independent while being fit enough to go on adventures is the new cool.
I said this. SierraWhiskyMike is very wise.
There are some great budget fitness options for the financial independence campaigner. I’ve used the gym group, which cost me around £15.99 a month. I now use kettlebells, dumbbells and road running to keep fit, but you don’t necessarily need to pay any money if you don’t want to. If you’re looking to train for free, the One Hundred Pushups programme is something anyone can attempt at home. [I’ve never actually achieved these 100 press-ups but I’ve had reasonable strength results from following this programme before.] If you don’t like press-ups, the same programme offers alternatives for sit-ups, squats, pull-ups and dips.
I can also recommend Jeff Cavalier ATHLEAN-X .COM (watch a few of his videos and you’ll get that joke). I’ve included one of his home workout videos below for inspiration.
Free your mind: raise your finance game with books. Invest in your brain!
Knowledge is like ammunition: the more you have, the better armed you are on this financial independence campaign. Why wouldn’t you want to know more?
Books are the cheapest and easiest way to do this. If you visit the recommended resources section, you’ll see a string of books that I’ll recommend to anyone. As this blog matures, I’ll get some reviews of the books that I’ve found most helpful on my financial independence campaign.
The great thing about this investment is that you can do it for free. Public libraries may have fallen out of fashion, but Rich Dad Poor Dad was still on the shelves in Southampton Central Library when I last checked. For the price of a walk to town, you could start building up your ammunition/knowledge stockpile.
If that doesn’t work, almost every personal finance book ever is on Amazon Kindle.
If you genuinely know nothing about investing and finance, I strongly recommend How To Own The World. This is an affiliate link on Amazon, so if you buy it I get some of Jeff Bezos’ pension fund. You might be able to get your librarian to order it in on the next purchase list. My library has a suggestion to purchase scheme. Raise your game and those around you! You never know who might borrow it after you and start their own financial independence campaign.
Invest in yourself the lazy way – fall down the right YouTube rabbit holes
If anyone under the age of 50 tries to tell me that they’ve never fallen down a YouTube rabbit hole, I’m going to call them a liar. The YouTube algorithms are pretty much designed to take advantage of our laziness and need for constant stimulation. Fortunately, you can use this to your advantage.
The content on the platform is starting to mature and that means better quality content. If you make sure to fall down the right (read: educational) rabbit holes, you can take full advantage.
My favourite YouTube channels at the moment are:
- Money Unshackled. Two guys who talk about investing and now (finally!) admit that they’re on their own financial independence campaign.
- Pensioncraft. Aimed originally at maximising your pension, Ramin’s channel talks about investment markets in quite high levels of detail. If you get over the basics of investing, check this channel out.
- Economics Explained. If teachers were this charismatic in school, I’d have learned a lot more the first time. An Aussie economist explains weird phenomenon in an accessible and fun way. His Pokemon Card video is my personal favourite but they’re all pretty good for big-picture stuff.
- Panda Boss. Anna is working towards financial independence through the stock market, but unlike many she picks her own shares. It’s not quite my strategy but it’s good to get some ideas.
- The Humble Penny. Ken and Mary run The Humble Penny blog and have built a “Financial Joy Academy”. The target audience is beginners and people who just want to get started. Very accessible content from an engaging presenter.
- Coin Bureau. I dabble in crypto with side hustle money (so sue me!). If you’re considering the plunge into the weird world of magic internet money, you could do a lot worse than binge watch this channel. Guy goes into a lot of detail, is open about his own portfolio and tells you what to be aware of without trying to sell you cryptoassets. The only crypto YouTuber I would trust with anything more important than a teaspoon.
- The Swedish Investor. Doesn’t actually steer you towards stocks, surprisingly. Instead, the Swedish Investor reads a lot of personal finance books so you don’t have to, then gives 15 minute summaries. I’m a fan. Great background viewing/ listening while cooking dinner.
Speaking of…
Invest in yourself – learn to cook and save a fortune
Learning to cook is the single most awesome skill I’ve learned ever. Yes, even better than investing and writing lengthy blog posts. When your food tastes good, ready meals just don’t cut it anymore and you can go a lot longer between takeaways. The better you get at it, the fewer processed or prepared ingredients you need, which makes shopping cheaper. Learning to cook also means that you can make cheaper stuff taste fun, which is important. I couldn’t live on chips for every week…
To give you an indication of how cheap: I feed my partner and I on less than £150 a month, including the odd beer or wine. I did have it down to £100 a month but food prices are definitely inflating since Brexit/ Covid/ Any Other Excuse. This week’s food cost £32 and we eat pretty well.
I found an old (2018) article from Forbes which claims that cooking from scratch is on average 1/3rd of the cost of cooking from a kit. I can believe it! As I’ve gotten better at cooking, I’ve learned to make cheap veggie meals that don’t taste like rabbit food, which saves me a bit of money during the week. Our food budget has declined by about £100 since I first got into cooking seriously, even accounting for recent price rises, and we definitely eat like kings.
Invest in yourself and your taste buds: learn to cook. You can thank me later.
Invest in your future – learn how to code
Coding isn’t for everyone, so if you want to skip this section I won’t be too upset.
For you brave readers who are sticking around, you’ve probably realised that coding is the future. The robot and digital revolution is well underway. Learning to code now, even if you completely suck at it (I know I do!) will help you at least understand why our future robot overlords act the way they do.
Good news is that you can learn to code for free or for very little money. I’ve studied a bit through the Odin Project to learn html and CSS coding (i.e. making the internet work), which has been brilliant so far. I’ve also used Free Code Camp to get to grips with the basics and swear by their html and CSS / website basics module.
I don’t know if coding is in my future. I’ve managed to get access to a course on coding in Python, which is a functional coding language (i.e. it makes stuff talk to other stuff and do things). Maybe it will prove useful one day. Even if it doesn’t, I’m grateful that I can now understand how the internet works. This site is built on WordPress, but with the knowledge I’ve gained I’ve become more confident in using embed links and getting it indexed properly with Google, which the WordPress plugins didn’t necessarily get right first time.
If you believe that the future is automated and want to get on the right side of the impending robot uprising, you could do a lot worse than start with some free coding courses!
Learn a language with Duolingo
A post from pre-pandemic times on Save the Student claimed that learning a second language could add thousands of pounds to your income. This seems to be backed up by the stats reported on Yahoo! Finance.
I strongly recommend the free mobile phone app and website Duolingo. I don’t know if I’ll ever get fluent in Spanish and my Polish is just awful, but I’ve found that learning the basic greetings and pleasantries has opened doors for me when I’ve travelled with work.
The app is free with adverts (ugh… there used to be fewer of them, but I guess the developers need money). I haven’t paid for the premium ad-free version, but to be honest I don’t think the usability has been restricted. The app turns language learning into a game and I’m impressed by the varieties on offer. Do you have 5 minutes to kill waiting for something? That’s prime Duolingo time, right there!
Investing in your skills for free? Potential payout if you master it? Why not!
Read this blog
Learn from my mistakes and open your mind to new options… well, sort of!
Do you think I’ve missed something out? Tell me!
You can leave a comment (below) or fill in this handy web form right here. If it’s a good suggestion, I’ll try it out and add it to the list.
