14 Best Ways to Invest in Yourself (That You Can Start Today)

You’ve got a great job, bought a house, and diligently saved for retirement, so now is a great time to think about how you want to focus on yourself and grow as a person. Investing in yourself means more than opening retirement accounts and calculating how much you’ll need for the future (although that’s important too).

Investing in yourself means learning, growing, and elevating your self-awareness. This way, you can be the best version of yourself every single day. How do you make this happen? It starts with taking a look at your daily habits and routines and assessing what’s working and what isn’t.

Then, it involves setting a plan for achieving your goals in small, bite-sized chunks. Change can be scary, but investing in yourself is so important. These are the best ways to invest in yourself.

How To Invest In Yourself

You matter. To be your best for others, the first step is to invest in yourself. Here are some great ways to take care of yourself.

1. Set Your Goals

If you haven’t set goals for yourself, take the time to do this now. Think about what you’d like to accomplish for the year and then segment the goals based on the category, such as finances, travel, career, and self-development.

If that’s too complicated, just create a list of three to five simple goals. Make sure you keep track of those goals and check in weekly or monthly. Set it in your Google calendar if you think you’ll forget.

2. Learn Something New About Your Industry

There’s nothing worse than feeling stagnant in your career or business, especially if you’ve been in the same industry for a while.

Be intentional about learning something new related to your line of work. (Even if it doesn’t, that’s OK too!)

Some free or inexpensive resources include:

Books (visit your local library and rent books for free)
Podcasts
In-depth blog posts
Webinars
YouTube videos
Local meetups

3. Focus on Your Health

Whenever I talk to people about the foods they regularly eat, most say they need to cut out carbs or exercise a lot more. I’m not saying those things can’t be done, but for some reason, people seem to think these are temporary things they can do to lose weight.

Diet and exercise are lifestyle changes that need to be incorporated into daily routines. Getting healthy now may mean you experience fewer problems later in life. If you had to focus on one aspect to get healthy, start with the foods you eat.

Here are quick and simple ways to get healthier:

Replace sugary sodas and juices with water and stop drinking your calories
Replace sugary or salty packaged snacks with fresh fruit
Walk and take the stairs every chance you get
Eat more protein in the morning

Cook healthy meals at home and prepare them for the week to set yourself up for success (and save money in the process!).

Make sure to take breaks. You can even get paid for walking.

4. Schedule Regular Breaks and Downtime

Working hard and being productive need to be balanced with moments of rest and taking breaks.

There’s a reason why you feel frazzled or mentally exhausted by the end of the day. If you’re not taking a full break, you’re not giving your brain time to rest and refuel.

It helps to step away from the office, go for a brisk walk, and soak up some vitamin D in the sun.

5. Hire a Coach

I highly recommend getting one if you have some extra funds to spare on a coach. One of my best investments was hiring a business coach for six months.

Some big takeaways included how to set up your own business and how to effectively manage multiple clients. I also learned to be more aware of what I was doing wrong when pitching to new clients.

My coach taught me that I needed strong structure and procedures so I could do the least amount of work on tasks I disliked and gravitate towards the things I enjoyed.

Even if you don’t have a business, a business coach can help you focus on work-related issues. Perhaps you’re having a difficult time juggling projects, or you’re not getting along with your team and need an outsider’s perspective.

A coach can guide you through how to communicate more effectively and arm you with the right mental tools to better handle situations that may arise. You don’t have to get a business coach — all kinds of coaches can help you improve and overcome challenging situations.

A coach can provide unique support and insight to help build self-awareness so you’re more mindful and conscious.

6. Hire a Financial Advisor

Perhaps this is the year you want to make lots of financial improvements in your life. Maybe you’re ready to purchase a house or pay off your debt, but aren’t sure what the next tangible steps are.

A financial advisor clarifies how to do this by examining your finances and income with you. Then, a plan is created with you so you can realistically achieve your goals.

Just like a coach, however, a financial advisor doesn’t work for free, so if this isn’t realistic for your budget, don’t worry. There are plenty of free online resources you can use to understand what your financial situation looks like.

If you are not quite ready for a planner, use a free app to help you get an overview of your spending, income, and debt.

7. Use Financial Apps to Save and Invest

If you like using apps to check on things, why not use a financial app? Here are a few we found easy to use.

Betterment

You can roll your 401(k) over to Betterment. It is easy to understand and has nice automation features.

Betterment aggregates your other brokerage/retirement accounts so you can see a complete picture of your savings. It’s free to use, so sign up with Betterment to start improving your finances.

Micro-Investing Apps

How did we ever live without these wonderful micro-investing apps? Financial apps automate your investments and throw them into a long-term savings fund for you.

These apps automatically invest small amounts of change in your bank account.

Acorns
Robinhood

Using a site like Acorns or Robinhood for a few years with an initial investment of $20 can turn into thousands. You can then use that money to fund an IRA.

If you’re still using your big bank’s 0.01 percent interest savings account, it’s time to open a high-interest savings account with at least a 1 percent interest rate. Online savings accounts are usually free (no monthly fees) and are great for goal-oriented savings through opening sub-accounts.

To illustrate, your main savings account can be your emergency fund, but you could also have more accounts under that main savings account.

I use sub-accounts for the big-ticket items I will spend money on. This helps me to actually spend less (which helps my overall budget) because I know I need to save for these things, which include:

Snowboarding trips
Car maintenance or repairs
Holiday gifts, donations
Dinner/happy hours/eating out

The top places to get an online savings accounts include:

Raisin (Highest Rates)
Ally Bank
CIT Bank

These savings accounts will typically earn you 1 percent or higher, so move your money over and start some sub-accounts.

9. Learn a New Skill That You Can Apply to Your Job

How many moments have you stopped to wish you knew how to do XYZ at your job so you can quickly get it done?

If I had a dollar for every time I wished I knew how to use Photoshop better, I’d be rich. Obviously, I’m not a graphic designer, but having this skill under my belt could help push projects along faster and make my life a lot easier.

Becoming an expert in Photoshop isn’t realistic for me. So, I’ve done the next best thing and I trained myself to become fairly good at using Canva, which is a web-based software program. I spent time practicing, but also Googled and watched some YouTube videos to move the process along even faster.

Take a look at your job and what new skill you could learn to get projects completed faster.

You don’t necessarily need to enroll in a class or spend money when there are so many free online ways to learn how to do something. The following are my favorite resources that can help you learn how to do something more effectively.

Khan Academy
YouTube
Pinterest

10. Earn Extra Money

Earning money on the side can help you do things like pay off credit card debt and save faster.

Deacon, the founder of Well Kept Wallet, paid off $52,000 of debt in 18 months, and one of his side jobs was delivering pizza.

If you’re not earning a side income, now is the time to start the wheels turning!

There are so many resources you can use to start earning money. If the whole idea of earning a side income intimidates you, start with something easy, like listing an extra room in your house on Airbnb.

Other ideas include:

Tutoring kids
Driving with Uber or Lyft
Delivering food for Uber Eats
Selling your unwanted stuff (see below)

11. Let Go of Your Junk

Having a space that’s clean and organized is actually investing in yourself because you’re taking the time to have your space reflect your mind.

When you have a clutter-free space to come home to, it’s easier to relax, think, be creative, and enjoy your home.

These are some great apps to earn extra money from getting rid of the stuff you no longer want or need.

Decluttr: An app that helps you clean out your unwanted DVDs, CDs, and electronics
OfferUp: An app that enables you to sell just about anything
Bookscouter: A Website that will buy your used books

12. Update Your LinkedIn Profile

I don’t live and die by social media, but I do think it’s unavoidable in today’s digital landscape to have a pictureless, empty LinkedIn profile. If your previous roles aren’t fully detailed, take the time to get that done.

It only takes 10 minutes, and it can help attract new recruiters to your profile if you’re looking for a new job.

Ask a former colleague or manager to write a recommendation for you. Write one up and send it to them for approval, so all they have to do is copy and paste it to your page.

13. Start Journaling

Journaling has huge mental and physical benefits, including improving your IQ, boosting memory, and sparking creativity.

It helps you take a step back and look at your daily habits, challenges, and things you’d like to achieve. It allows you to be more mindful of what you could be doing better.

Writing down your thoughts is not only therapeutic but also allows you to dump them out and let them go. I have been journaling for years and find that it helps me control the inner voice always waiting and wanting to be heard.

Journaling can be done in 5-10 minutes each day and should focus on prompts, so you’re not just writing mindlessly.

Some specific prompts include:

Challenges you experienced
Write about one thing you learned
Jot down something you could’ve done better
Name 2-3 things you’re grateful for
What’s the most important task you would like to accomplish or have accomplished?

14. Meditate for 5-10 Minutes Each Day

Meditation has proven scientific benefits for your brain. Besides helping you to calm the mind of all the noise it experiences each day, meditation can help you:

Reduce stress
Improve concentration
Increase self-awareness
Improves cardiovascular and immune health

I’ve been meditating every single day for almost two years, and it’s changed my life. The two biggest benefits are being able to concentrate on the moment and increased ability to stay focused.

It takes five to ten minutes a day. Meditating a few times throughout the day is nice, especially in stressful moments.

Summary

Investing in yourself means you want to do better and experience growth in your life. Whether you want to get healthy, learn to meditate, or start journaling, the point is to concentrate on yourself so you can be the best version of you.

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