Everyone wants their very own money tree. Financial problems would be so much easier to solve if you could just pick money off a tree and pay whatever needs to be paid. Well, I’m here to tell you that you do have the power to do this. All it takes is a little bit of disposable income, a plan, and time.
By keeping such a magnificent type of fauna alive and at your disposal, you’ll reap the rewards of the harvest for a good long time. The key is to plant the moeny-seeds. In layman’s terms, you have to start investing your money. Then you have to consistently continue to invest your money. The sooner your money-seeds are planted, the sooner they will grow into an orchard of money trees. And who wouldn’t like an orchard filled with money trees?
Planting Seeds Leads to an Orchard
Each time I invest a portion of my paycheque, I’m planting seeds. They’re simply money-seeds, or atleast that’s how I like to think of them. They’re deposited to my portfolio account so that I can buy more units in my exchange-traded funds. Those ETFs are on the dividend re-investment plan. When the ETFs pay me dividends and capital gains, those monies are automatically re-invested into more units of the same ETFs. This creates a perpetually growing dividend-and-capital-gains-paying cycle.
I liken this cycle to the growth of the tree. In other words, my money tree gets bigger and bigger each month as my dividends and capital gains are re-invested.
When I retire, I can let the cycle continue to grow month-in-month-out, or I can stop the cycle by cancelling the DRIP. The dividends and capital gains will still be paid out every single month. Instead of being re-invested, they’ll go towards making my retirement just a wee bit more comfortable. You know – flying first/business class on my travels, monthly massages, grocery-shopping without scrutinizing the prices, whatever little extras my heart desires…
Money I Didn’t Have to Sweat For
Planting money-seeds leads me to earning money that I didn’t have to work for. Dividends and capital gains are passive income. Once I’ve laboured to earn the money-seeds, my labour stops once I’ve invested them. Thirty years ago, I opened my first RRSP and invested my contribution. That investment is still generating money for me… and I haven’t had to lift a finger.
Most of us work hard for our money. In colloquial terms, we have to sweat for it. Some of us have to bleed for it. Wouldn’t it be nice to earn money the easiest, legal way possible? Can you imagine having money just flow to you every single month?
There is a way to do it, and it’s called investing. You put in the work up-front and invest part of every paycheque that you earn. The third step is to sit back and watch the money roll in.
I will be very honest with you. Dividend investing takes a very long time, unless you have 5-figure sums to invest every month. If you do it long enough, you’ll be earning amounts every month like this Anonymous Fellow. In the interests of transparency, I’m willing to admit that it’s taken me 12 years to get to an annual dividend amount that would sustain my current lifestyle. However, I’m an amateur dividend investor. Had I made smarter choices way back when, then I would be in a much better situations. No sense dwelling on it now because I cannot go back and change things.
What I can do is give you some suggestions of people to learn from if you have any interest in learning how to plant a money tree for yourself:
And I’m sure there are many others out there. These are just the people whose stories I’ve followed for the past few years. They’re teachers. They’re transparent. They’re honest about the challenges they’ve faced and the mistakes they’ve made. I’ve learned a lot from them and I wish they’d bee around when I started my own investment journey. But since I’m almost older than the internet, I won’t blame myself too, too much for not having found them sooner.
Choices Have Consequences
We’re all old enough to know that there are consequences for everything we do… and don’t do. It’s no different with investing. If you invest consistently & profitably, for a decent period of time, you’ll have a nice cushion of cash waiting for you in the future. Planting your money tree today is one of the very best things you can do for Future You.
It’s always a good idea to choose yourself. Unless you’re a child, you’re the only one responsible for identifying what you want from you life and how to make your dreams a reality. Doing so will take some planning, a fair amount of time, and definitely a little bit of money. And as one dream made real, you’ll be able to set your sights on make another one come true. In the words of Ramit Sethi, you need to know how to build your Rich Life.
And if you choose not to invest, well… then you’ll have to depend on the kindness of strangers, your family & friends, or a job for the rest of your life. You’ll need money until the day you die. Pretending otherwise is foolish and short-sighted. At the end of the day, it’s better to take control now and take the steps necessary to build up a cash cushion that will keep Future You fed, warm, and happy. And don’t you want that for Future You?