bluntmoney.com

While stretching yourself thin financially is not a good idea, stretching yourself so that you grow intellectually and skill-wise is. Often improving your skills and knowledge translates directly or indirectly into an increased bank balance. And that is a good thing.

What are you some things you could do to improve yourself, that will also likely improve your financial situation?

The first answer that pops to mind is often going back to school. This can be a great idea if you can afford it (or if someone else is paying for it) and you’re going to school with a specific, achievable purpose in mind. (As opposed to going back to school because you can’t find a job or aren’t sure what you want to do next.)

But going back to school is not the only option. There are little things you can do every day, at no cost, that can result in significant changes.

First, resolve to learn something new every day. That could mean spending 15 minutes reading about how mutual funds work, taking an online course on how to code for the iPhone, or going down to the library and picking a random non-fiction book off the shelf. It could be anything at all that strikes your fancy that you see value in.

For example, my husband and I are about to take some classes to learn to scuba dive. At first glance that seems like an expensive proposition (and it is!) without much practical application, but a closer look implies there will likely be other benefits to it as well. For example, we aim to live at least part of the year in Hawaii someday. Maybe my husband could lead dives there. Maybe we’ll meet some people with similar interests in the classes, and that will spark ideas we hadn’t thought of.

You just never know. As another example, I learned German in high school. My parents suggested that Spanish might be a better option, living in the southwest. (And who knows, it might have been.) But I’ve ended up getting several jobs specifically because of the things I did due to learning German. Who would have thought that?

The point is that when you learn things, you grow. And when you grow, your income opportunities increase. What kinds of things have you done that were a stretch for you? How did they turn out?

• Review: Boys are Dogs by Leslie Margolis by Captain Lyaf Yarr Title: Boys are Dogs Author: Leslie Margolis Page Count: 195 Format: Hardback Grade Reading Level: Ages 9-12 Summary: Annabelle is going...
• One Of The Reasons I Wrote Solstice Surrender (Not the Obvious, Either) by Tracy Cooper-Posey, guest blogger and author of Solstice Surrender. I was sitting staring out the front windows this morning, looking at the winter landscape...
• Planning For Retirement Late in Life Not all of us have had the luxury of spending the last 20 years to secure our financial future. Most of the time, through no...