In the last post we began discussing about how money can buy happiness. We started of with Investing in Yourself. By improving mind body and spirit, you devolope this skills, strength and perspective to get more out of life.
The next sage is investing in others.
Investing in Others
As you could see from the quotes in my resent post You Get What You Give, fulfillment, success and happiness come from giving to others. We can have all the knowledge in the world, but if we have no one to share it with, if we are all alone then the knowledge is almost worthless.
Investing in your relationships with others is one of the keys to generating the great returns in happiness. Keep in mind when reading the following ideas that it is not just about spending money on others, it is only an investment when the money spent is done with the proper intention.
There are three areas in investing in others:
Investing in your family and friend.
- Cards and thoughtful presents.
-  Take the time to remember a birthday, special occasion, or even a get well card.
- Buy gifts that show you think about the person and care enough to buy something that you know they will appreciate.
- Buy you children gifts “just because”.
- little toys, books or sweets that show you were thinking of them that day
- Buy your spouse gifts”just because”.
- Men buy your wife flowers, chocolates, or anything else they like.
- Women buy your husband little presents based on his likes; sports, gardening, outdoors, politics, etc.
- When invited to a somones house bring a nice bottle of wine, flowers, game, etc.
- Have annual family gatherings.
- Eat, play, share, laugh and cry.
Investing in your community.
- Sponsor and Volunteer at community events (plays, sport team, educations, community beautification).
- Hire the neighbors kid to cut the grass.
- Be a big brother or sister. Though this is a volunteer project, treat the kids as if they were your own sibling. Take them to movies, baseball games, birthday presents. Make them feel like a family member and you will change their lives.
- Find people who are in need in your community and give charity.
- By donating money.
- By investing in them to build a business or learn a skill.
Investing in humanity.
If you don’t have a charity account I highly suggest setting one up. Set aside 10% (Tithing) of your money to give to those in need and to support worthy causes. Giving charity is one of the greatest investment, it is a constant reminder that no matter how much money I am making and no matter how focused I am on myself, I need to direct a percentage of my efforts to others, to care about all of humanity.
Once you have set aside charity, look for opportunities to give it away:
- Online donations.
- Kids Selling Chocolate.
- International rescue efforts.
- Save the environment
- Help people in third world countries.
- Support higher learning
To caveats. You don’t have to give large sums and don’t be mindless in your giving.
When I hear about something that I can give towards and there is an online donation, I go online and donate $5. Though it may not seem like much, there are thousands of people giving those small donations and they add up. By giving that little donation I connect myself to something much bigger.
If there are causes that you really want to give to then go ahead.
Happiness is on its way
Throug investing in yourself – mind, body and spirit – and investing in others by giving of your time and resources you open channels that bring success, prosperity and happiness into your live. As you can see the money itself does not buy the happiness, it is the directing of money towards endevors whose devidends have the power to bring life long happiness.
Have a great weekend filled with happiness,
Rob Moshe
