“Invest three percent of your income in yourself (self-development) in order to guarantee your future.”
– Brian Tracy
I’m a huge fan of Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha.
He is one of the most successful investors of all time.
Today, we’re going over his best investment advice and also pinning down his best investment.
We can learn so much from him.
Studying his decisions can help anyone forge their own investment path.
Let’s jump into it!
1. The Best Investment You Can Make
What is the best investment you can make according to Warren Buffett?
Let’s look at his accomplishments.
He invested in American Express, Coca-Cola, and Geico.
He grew Berkshire Hathaway from a textile manufacturing group to the sixth largest company in the world.
The company has grown by 2.8 million percent.
A $10,000 investment would have turned into more than $280 million.
Those are unbelievable returns!
Einstein once said that the most powerful force in the universe is compound interest.
How do you get that ball rolling?
There’s a great book about Warren Buffett called The Snowball.
If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend it!
One of the things the book talks about is what Buffett thought was his best investment – and it’s not what you think.
He invested in all these amazing companies, but he didn’t think of any of them as his best investment.
According to Buffett, the number one investment you can make is in yourself.
2. How to Invest in Yourself
Investing in myself is how I grew my net worth 25x over the last five years.
But it’s not just my money that’s growing.
I’m also growing.
I’m reading books and learning.
You need to do these things too if you want to grow.
When you invest in your wealth, you’re working on your human capital.
If we’re not growing intellectually, if we don’t challenge ourselves, we can’t reach our full investment potential.
I don’t just do this financially; I also do it in my personal life.
I cold plunge almost every day.
After I emerge from that freezing water, I know nothing is impossible.
To really make good on that feeling, I do two things.
I call them the rocket fuel to grow net worth.
The first one is networking.
The second one is education.
I know those sound boring, but hear me out!
When you network, you go to an event and try to figure out how to add value to other people.
You need to show up with the right attitude.
If you show up and sit in the corner, that’s not helping anyone.
However, if you show up eager and willing to learn, you’ll have a much better experience.
Figure out what someone needs.
Is there any resource you can provide?
Can you introduce them to anyone?
Whenever I go to my local meetup in Pasadena, California, I always introduce people.
I try to be a connector.
I met a partner at a networking event and we ended up raising $15 million together.
At the time, I’d only raised $100,000.
In the process of uncovering needs, I was able to find a way to work with a successful person who had a need.
I helped them.
The second half of my rocket fuel is education.
When I talk about education, I particularly mean reading books.
My goal is to read around 80 books a year.
I want to learn as much as I can.
You can also supplement reading by watching videos.
One way I educate myself is by going to a lot of live conferences.
Those kinds of events double as great educational experiences and networking opportunities.
Whether you’re a passive investor or an active investor, you need to get around other people and find out what they’re doing.
You should also listen for the mistakes they’ve made.
I’ve made a lot of mistakes myself, even losing $70,000 in one day!
We learn a lot from stories of failure.
I learned that I’m not a good options trader.
Remember: Warren Buffett thought his best investment was in himself.
We can learn a lot from him and his philosophies.
But we can also learn a lot from his actions.
His actual best investment, aside from himself, can show us many of his core principles.
3. Warren’s Actual Best Investment
Warren Buffett’s best investment was American Express.
He started buying in the 1990s.
Since then, he’s had over a 3000% return.
That’s a huge return of 30x over 30 years!
The lesson with Warren Buffett is to study success.
Tony Robbins says that success leaves clues.
If somebody is successful, look at what they’re doing.
Look at their wins and also their losses.
It’s been said that a wise man learns from their own mistakes, but a genius will learn from the mistakes of others.
Learn from your own mistakes.
Reflect on what has worked and what hasn’t.
As an example, I have a friend who invested in a single family property in the Midwest.
Things didn’t exactly work out for him there.
He got a cheap property manager.
A couple of bad tenants trashed some of the units.
He walked away feeling like a failure.
But of course he wasn’t!
He learned from his mistakes.
My friend Rod Khleif says experiences you go through either can be labeled as success or you a seminar.
I’ve had my share of seminars.
We can grow from everything we go through in life.
Take the time to learn from others.
Invest in yourself!
You won’t regret it.
If you do it right, you will have financial success.
Now I want to hear from you!
Are you investing in yourself?
What steps are you taking?
Let us know in the comments.
Before you leave, make sure to check out our special report about inflation investing. It shares the best choices to invest during an inflationary environment.
If you are interested in investing with us, we are happy to answer any questions that you may have. Join our investment club today and we will be in touch.
Disclaimer: I am not your investment advisor. This is for educational purposes only. I am not giving specific advice on what you can do. I am simply giving my opinions.
