Guest Post: Why you should consider investing first, then work on that business idea next

Below is my husband's second installment on his series of entries on personal finance. I tell you, I have never seen anyone as passionate as him when it comes to spreading the benefits of investing and securing one's future. He says it's his personal advocacy. He gets nothing out of it but he takes pleasure in knowing that he can possibly influence at least one person out there to be more financially savvy. We are not yet 100% financially secure but I must say our family is on our way there by having my husband as our leader. I admire his tenacity and passion beyond words. And I am willing to follow him to the ends of the world (insert cheesy Valentines song here haha). Okay enough of my nonsense and let's get on with pure logic and genius. Go ahead, I promise it will be worth you time.

Note: to read his first entry on stock investing click here.

Guest Post:

Pursuing a side income entails a lot of time and effort.  Of course capital is also needed, but if you have a regular job then that should no longer be an issue.  Anyway, I know of one which only entails time.  That is by investing.  But more on that later.

As you may have known already, side income can be obtained ultimately in three ways

• Working extra

• Putting up a business

• Investing

By working extra, you can work overtime, put up an online store, get into real estate and connect buyers to sellers, provide service to others, etc.  What is common among these examples is that the extra income comes only if you provide extra time and extra effort.

By putting up a business, you painstakingly setup, fine-tune, and run a system of business processes.  After some time, even if you do not provide extra time and effort, the side income still comes.  That is because after all the initial hard work you have done to set the business up, it is now self-sustaining.  

By investing, you only need a capital.  You only need to set aside a portion of your income and put that portion in an investment vehicle.

Now here is the kicker: which one among the three above-mentioned items can you setup right away with the least amount of effort?  If today is a Friday, which one can have you all set by Monday?

Say you decide to put up an online store.  You will have to setup the website, procure the items that you will sell, and market your product.  That’s it and you are done.  But afterwards, you will still have to spend extra time and exert extra effort in dealing with buyer queries, settlement of payments, and logistics solutions to deliver your product.  There is a constant additional time and effort involved.

Setting up a self-sustaining business is similar to the example above, but on a much grander scale. It will entail a lot of toil initially, but if you stick to it and put your focus on it, the harvest will be abundant.  It will run and sell itself on its own even with only minimal supervision.  I think only a select few people who are gifted with business savvy or are gifted with good selling skills can pull this through.   

Investing is easier.  You will just have to go to an investment company, fill out a form, submit the filled-out form with the requirements, and then deposit the initial investment.  That’s it.  No extra work after that.  You will just need to wait it out and monitor your investments every once in a while.

Working extra or putting up a business requires a lot of selling while investing requires no selling but a lot of time.  According to one newsletter from my subscription to Bo Sanchez' Truly Rich Club (link here), investing will make you richer later (like in ten years), but selling will make you richer sooner than later (five years).

In my opinion, you can get started now with investing.  Like, RIGHT ABOUT NOW.  It is the basic-level in securing your future.  Can you set-up a business as fast as that?  I hope you won't, as you need to carefully plan it.


Running a business is intermediate level.  So I think it is important to first have the basics in place.  Getting an insurance is a form of investment.  You can also invest in the stock market (How?  Click here).  With that already set-up, that is when you can think of other ways how to earn by working on that business idea you may have been cultivating in your mind all this time.