Investing for Life

Dear David,”The best way for ordinary people to make money is through hard work,” says Jason, my church friend. He is absolutely right! I am educated. I can think, teach and write (or so I thought). I can create spreadsheets that others understand. Hey, I’m a living, breathing asset! In fact, a couple of years ago, your mom and I did some back-of-the-envelope calculations to figure out how wealthy we could be if we both worked. It didn’t look promising. Our calculations showed that even if we worked our butts off, neither of us would be able to afford an early retirement. What about saving more? We did think of that. The trouble is that even if we don’t spend too much, there wasn’t much more that we could squeeze out of our pay cheque. Besides, I’m always mindful that inflation is running neck to neck with the interest on my bank account. Subtract inflation, and we are left with next to nothing. What’s my point? If you want to be wealthy, working and saving hard aren’t the best way to achieve your goal. You and I need to invest…