The One Thing You Need to Invest In (2021)

"What should I be investing in?" - This is the number one question I get asked when people find out that I'm a qualified financial adviser

!SPOILER ALERT!

The answer to this question is not as convoluted as most people think. For the vast majority of people, there is one thing you should be investing in, ahead of anything else...

You need to be investing in your most valuable asset.

And for 99% of the people watching this video, your most valuable asset is... YOU, and your ability to turn your TIME and SKILLS into future INCOME.

You need to be investing in yourself just like you would any other asset.

If you bought a rental property and you wanted to increase the income from it, what would you do? You'd probably give it a lick of paint, change the furnishings or build an extension. Well, the exact same thing goes for you; adding skills to your portfolio will increase your value and result in you getting PAID MORE.

And if done correctly, you can generate far FAR higher returns than investing in the stock market.

Investing in yourself and developing your skills will be the most crucial factor is your career. Just think, for most of you watching this video, in your teens and twenties, the job that you'll be doing when your fifty does not even EXIST YET. The job I currently do (Product Manager) didn't even exist when I left school, and that was only 10 years ago!

And the only way you can prepare yourself for this type of career is to learn how to learn and be continually investing in yourself.

But before you do, you need to be aware of two things:

1) Your Age

The younger you are when you invest, the greater effect it's going to have on your lifetime earnings.

2) You need to do your research

Not all skills will produce the same return. If you're training to be a doctor or a dentist you can be pretty confident of what you're earning potential will be. Therefore it's easy to rationalise the upfront investment. If you're taking a course in Bonsai tree Husbandry... you get the idea.

It can be hard to identify what skills are likely to produce a good return. So my advice would be this, get off the internet and start talking to people. The only people that are qualified tell you what skills you'll need are the people that are already where you want to be.

DO NOT RELY ON THE ADVICE OF A COURSE PROVIDER OR UNIVERSITY

You'll get the best advice from talking to strangers, and by far the best way to do this is LinkedIn. The best tactic I've found is to connect with people who've been working for 5-10 years, they're tenured enough to know their industry really well, but they're not likely to have had many requests for help before. In fact, most of them will be honoured that someone values their opinion so highly.

If you can't find people within your network on LinkedIn, sign yourself up for a LinkedIn premium trial, it'll allow you to send 20 Inmail messages to people outside of your network, and I can guarantee you'll get a few hits off that. You can cancel it at the end of the trail, but personally, when I'm looking for a job, a LinkedIn premium subscription can be a really powerful tool. And again you should be looking at that monthly membership fee as an investment.

Honestly, YOU ARE YOUR MOST VALUABLE ASSET, and you need to start treating yourself like you would any other type of investment.

But it doesn't stop professional skills; you've also got to look after your health. I mean you're not going to earn anything if you're unfit, so remember to invest in yourself both physically and mentally, it all adds up.

And just as an ending note, if you do genuinely need some help and you are interested in getting into tech or wealth management, please feel free to get in touch, I'd be more than happy to help.

DISCLAIMER:
This channel is for education purposes only and does not constitute financial advice - James is not responsible for investment actions taken by viewers. Please seek out a regulated advisor if you require assistance (whilst James is a financial adviser, he does not provide advice through this Youtube Channel, which is not affiliated with his employer).

James Shack™ property of James Shackell
Copyright © James Shackell 2020. All rights reserved.
The author asserts their moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this channel and any video published on it.

[timelston]

So true! I started an information systems degree at age 43 and got my first software engineering job at age 46. An investment of $63K in myself at that age has produced a $1.3 million portfolio at age 59, not counting home equity and living expense since then. I had nothing at age 40. Had I started earlier it would have been better, but I'm glad I finally let life knock some sense into me before it was too late.

[Radictor]

I think it's more than skill. It's also confidence & motivation as well as comittment to a job. How much time do you want to commute. How many hours per day do you want to work. All factor into a decision on the type of job you take and also how much you get paid.

[MANUFANAKADAGOAT]

OMG, YouTube suggested me one of your videos about Vanguard lifestrategy fund, and here I am stuck for more than 2hours. Great content. Keep it up. Please make a video for beginners like myself in their mid 30s, how much they should invest monthly to get a sum of 500, 000 by mid 40s.

[Jboy]

I love your videos, James. Very insightful and educative.

[logwhitley]

Don't forget people learn at different speeds and sometimes it worth targeting towards a realistic goal, one step at a time

[FISHGOMOO]

Great video, and one that I think a lot of people my age need to listen to. They seem to be stuck in the mentality that their employers should just give them a pay rise. The world doesn't work like that anymore. If you want a pay rise, take the skills you've picked up and go to someone that will give you that salary.

The whole myth of job swapping looking bad is no longer a thing. People want the top talent and are willing to pay for it, if your skills are in demand.

[eddied]

Hi James - a great video about a subject that's not talked about enough. I will share this with others. Loved the bloopers at the end - a little humour to finish. Keep up the good work.

[harrytinika]

Really helpful stuff thanks mate keep it up

[Falney]

Software Engineer here... Seeing how hard and how much work becoming skilled at art is, I have no idea why graphics designers are so poorly paid compared to us.

[alexmuller]

Important ISA question: will you be taxed on capital gain from old ISAs? Let’s assume we save 20, 000£ into an ISA in the tax year 2020/2021 and then leave it alone and let it grow for 100 years…will the future capital gains made from this old ISA count towards my future annual allowances or is any capital gained from old ISAs protected forever (assuming laws remain the same)…? Thanks so much for claryfiying!

[chrislozeau]

Hey James, loving your videos! You mentioned you were doing a video editing course - do you have one to recommend? Your video edits are great. Thanks!

[robertpearce-bailey]

Hi James, great content, your videos have given me the push to finally start building an investment portfolio and I'm looking at taking a diploma to become a financial advisor. Do you have any recommendations for reading or other resources to help give me a headstart. Keep up the good work mate

[mimomimovich]

Hi
I love most of your videos.
I'm getting more and more motivated to actually invest in me and my future. Thank you for that.
Is there any way to contact you for a personal advice but but also being more private so I can be more specific.

[peterpanci]

Hi I am new to investing, can you advise me in wich platform to jnvest? Vanguard or free-trade or something else
Many thanks

[johnristheanswer]

I`m enjoying your vids since finding you, however, why do you constantly use American references eg $27.16 average salary and graphs the same. Why not use UK average salary since you are British ?

[oumuamua]

Hi James which platform is the best for buying individual stocks I would like to use my Isa for this, my current 2021 Isa is with vanguard but I'm disappointed I can't buy individual companies on the UK platform I'm using t212 for individual stocks ATM but don't really want to set up my 2022 Isa with them my main investment would still be my index fund but there's a few companies I'm super bullish on and would like to do some lump some investing and leave in there for 5 plus years

[stevefox]

Haha I was that Graphic Designer now I'm a UX designer

[vidvidbiker]

Come on, keep this UK orientated. Don't talk in Dollars or US average salary etc.. The world is US centric enough, keep it UK based re examples and use the ££££!. Been enjoying your videos to date but you let yourself down in this one.