Investing in Life

In my high school sophomore math class, I remember learning about compounding interest. It seemed totally boring to me, until we got to the word problems. The problem asked about what the difference would be in how much money someone would have if they started saving when they were 18 vs 20, and I was floored. The difference was so huge. That year I started saving money.

The concept of investing is a good way to illustrate something in life that is hard to explain. So hard, in fact, that we don't usually notice it -- and if we do notice it, we don't understand it.

The way we live our lives is an investment in our future, and in our happiness. It's not as obvious as our financial investments, It's not like we get a statement in the mail every month, and there is no annual taxes to force us to look at how we've done this year.

Like investments, the good that we do now is not just put away and buried in the ground. It is an investment, and it grows and has returns. When we do nice things, it makes the people around us happy, and it promotes the behavior. Often times, this results in more happiness in your own life.

In this same metaphor, there is also debt. Doing mean things is like spending our money. And we can easily spend too much and go into debt. Like with card debt, we have to pay interest on what we owe, and what we have doesn't do as far because we're too far in the whole, and are busy just trying to break even. When we build a mean world around us, and we try to start being happy, you will be brought down by the mean nature of the world you've created. It's not like you can just start being happy, and the world will change. You need to keep working at it for quite some time before you break even and can start saving.

Moral of the story? Start promoting happiness now. Don't wait till you are older. If you build a bad world, you have to live in it, but if you build a happy world, it will hold you up even when you feel down for a little bit. Help to build a world that will help you live happily!