Investments

 There are two important parameters to consider when it comes to investing of any kind: resources and time.  How much emotion, work, and assets must you allocate to the investment?  And how much time will it take to see certain milestones, and how will you know the investment is paying off?  As a teacher, I'm in the business of investing in people.  What kind of resources and support will someone need to get to where they want to go, and how much time will that take them and you?

Even though everyone is worth investing into, some people are better investments than others.  Some show constant, linear progress, while some others boom like stocks when they split.  It's hard to predict which stocks will boom or bust, and when or if they will.  Even those "blue chip" stocks which show proven growth potential and performance can, one day, be sent into a downward spiral.

They say in finance that you should choose stocks that you like and can stand behind.  So that even if the stock rises or falls, you can still feel good about investing in something you believe in.  I find that is nowhere more true than with people.  If you love someone's spirit and heart, you'll be able to look past flaws, bad days, and the occasional breakdown.  At the end of the day, you know they are a beautiful person and they are trying the best that they can with the resources they have available to them.

Even so, being able to stand behind what they stand for doesn't change the fact that they may be a bad investment, no matter how much you want to root them on.  At some point, the resources and/or time that you've invested have to be called into question and accounted for.  Do you still want to sink in the same amount of resources that you used to?  Is that wise?  And how much more time do you want to spend investing before you have a clear answer that this is not something you should be investing in?  What's the cutoff?

Sometimes, we get caught in a sunk cost fallacy, where we feel that we have to continue investing in something because of how deeply invested we already are.  We must find clarity in realizing that what is lost is already lost and make our decisions based on what the next right move is, going forward, not making decisions based on past regrets.

Other times, we may disregard potential because we may not be able to make the proper investment of time to benefit from its full performance potential.  Instead, we choose an investment that has slightly less shine, only because it's further along in its growth, has some attractive qualities, and although it doesn't have the growth potential of a volatile newcomer, it's steady and predictable.  When does investing become gambling?  And are they ever not the same thing?

As a teacher, I know that even if I only had one day to spend inspiring and motivating a student, it would be time and energy well spent.  For even one poignant moment can stay etched into their memory forever.  And students, whether young or old, beginning or advanced, require and demand the attention and care that loving support can provide.  But where does that leave the teacher?  I suppose the answer is that they are left with a string of memories of those whose lives they have touched and the knowledge that they have made a difference.

At the end of the day, maybe the point of investing isn't to have the actual shares of stock that are irrefutable records of having made wise decisions.  Maybe stocks are meant to come into our lives just as fast as they leave, to be bought and sold, and leave a string of memories of how we've interacted with the world at different vantage points in our lives.  Maybe we, ourselves, are the wise investment, and we are collecting our own supporters who will cheer us on whether our own stock is booming or goes bust?