Saving money is not an end destination.

Rather it is the key that unlocks the door to investing, multiplying your ability to earn money.

This key concept deserves additional emphasis.

To accumulate money in a savings account, where the average interest rate is 0.1 percent, is missing an opportunity.

A savings account, that extends beyond a 6 month emergency fund, is where your money goes to collect dust.

When you think of investing you likely first think of the stock market.

However, there are a lot of good ways to invest that do not involve the stock market.

In fact, one of the 3 essential reads for your financial literacy education “The Last Safe Investment” makes the profound point that investing in yourself is the only safe investment.

You can invest in yourself by finding mentors, learning a new skill, starting your own company, etc.

It’s worth noting, 30% of workers in the U.S. are self employed but they make up nearly 80% of millionaires.

Although investing in yourself is one of the best options, it is not the only option.

Starting a businesses, giving a friend a loan, are also great ways to invest.

Investing in the stock market, and having a personal investment portfolio is something I’ve personally benefited from and would recomend.

The stock market is basically a store that sells ownership in companies that have “gone public”, commodities, etc.

There are numerous theories around how to maximize your dollar in the stock market.*

A basic level of investing is to invest in an index, which is a diversified security.

One of the most common indexes are the S&P 500.

The S&P 500 is a stock market index that measures the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States.

If you took $5 a day since January, 2000 to today and invested it into the S&P 500, you’d have invested $47,614.59 and a total return of $132,267.04.

That’s almost three times more than if you had had that money just sit in a savings account.

THREE TIMES!

It’s time to invest, start working smart, not hard.

*Elizabeth Beeli is not a registered investment, legal or tax advisor or a broker/dealer. All investment/financial opinions expressed by Elizabeth Beeli are from the personal research and personal experience and are intended as educational material.

Photo by Patrick Weissenberger on Unsplash.