Greed Is Good: How To Shift Your Spending Mindset And Gift Yourself Investing

Unpopular opinion: Greed is good. Investing in your financial future is good.

In his address to Teldar Paper in the 1987 Wall Street, shareholder Gordon Gekko said: “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms—greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge—has marked the upward surge of mankind.”

This holiday season, people are spending serious dollars. In fact, the National Retail Federation predicts that Americans will spend upwards of $859 billion this year, marking the highest holiday retail sales in history. Americans are spending so much that a LendingTree survey suggests some 41 percent of people anticipate that they’ll dive right into debt this season.

Why? Most people are buying gifts—often material things. The next JBL speaker or some Apple Airpods or another Xbox or PS4 game. Gifts that are exciting to unwrap and use—until the next speaker or headphones or games come out.

A gift that’ll keep on giving? Investments.

Here’s how to shift your spending mindset to give yourself the gift of investing this year.

1. Investing is a gift that doesn’t stop at the holidays.

An investment isn’t something that’s only nice when it’s new and shiny. In fact, the older it gets, the shinier it can get, too. That’s because, the longer you leave your investments, the more money your money can make. That’s thanks to increased capital and compounded interest over time.

Investments may even be passed down for generations through inheritances. So whatever you earn, your family or future family can earn and so on. It’s a gift to yourself, as well as your future self and beneficiaries that doesn’t stop at the holidays.

2. Investing can provide another source of income.

Investing typically sees annual returns of about 10 percent. This offers you a lot more than a traditional savings account, where your money would likely be otherwise sitting. Why not empower yourself with the potential of a passive income if you could?

Just remember that it’s ideal to leave your investments for the long haul. Again, your money can earn more with time, which is why it’s not typically recommended that you dip into your investments too often or too early.

3. You can be flexible with your investments.

Arguably, you should get started investing as soon as possible with what you have, where you are. Because, ultimately, the longer your time horizon, the longer your money has to make up any potential losses through market fluctuations, and the longer you have to contribute to your funds that’ll benefit from compounded interest over time. 

While recurring deposits can make this simpler—and remove the emotion from your investment decisions—the reality is that not everyone can afford to invest at the same frequency or with the same amount all the time. For example, there may be periods when you can only manage to invest $100 a month, and other times you may have more wiggle room to invest a few thousand dollars.

Whatever the case, unlike splurging and spending on material things, you can tailor your investments to your circumstances and be flexible—and they’ll still be beneficial.

4. You don’t have to do the shopping around.

Forget doing the dirty work yourself. There aren’t enough hours in the day—especially around the holidays. You could kill hours in shopping malls, spending dollars you won’t get back. Or you could spend just a few minutes from the comfort of your own couch, investing dollars that could earn you even more.

When you invest with Q.ai, AI handles everything for you. It’s one-click investing and as simple as it gets. Whether you’re a seasoned vet or totally new to investing, Q.ai offers Investing Kits for everyone, as well as weekly rebalancing, features like downside protection, and online communities for support. 

Download Q.ai for iOS today for more great Q.ai content and access to over a dozen AI-powered investment strategies. Start with just $100. No fees or commissions.