Money Mondays: What Actually Is... Investing

Welcome To Money Mondays

This is for the woman who has been doing everything she was taught to do with money and still feels like she is not getting ahead. There is a reason for that and it has everything to do with the difference between saving money and investing. One you work really hard for and the other works hard for you. Very different and the difference is what stands betwee you being middle verses upper class. 

Not just what it is. But why it matters. And what to do about it.

Do You Feel Like..

You are following all the rules and it still is not working? We were taught that saving money is the smart thing to do, that responsible people build their savings account, that cash is king and nothing bad can happen if you just hold onto it. And a lot of people do exactly that. We have savings accounts, even a high yield savings account. We contribute to our 401k. We do not carry a lot of credit card debt. Following all the rules like good citizens and wondering how we're making in the six figures yet still living paycheck to paycheck.

The honest answer is that saving was never going to be enough on its own. Saving is not a wealth building strategy. It is a survival strategy dressed up as financial responsibility.

The Difference Between Saving and Investing

Saving is putting money somewhere safe so it doesn't disappear and if you run into any issues like a flat tire or need a new AC you have it covered. Saving is preservation. Savings are necessary but the they are not the key player that catapults you to a different income bracket. 

Investing is putting your money into something with the expectation that it will grow. Stocks, real estate, index funds, a business, it does not matter what the vehicle is just that you have a partner to do the work with. When you invest you are not just keeping your money safe, you are sending it to work.

Every dollar you save is sitting on your couch waiting for you to call for it. Every dollar you invest is an employee you hired once, paid once, and they clock in every single day without asking for a raise or benefits or recognition. Over time those employees start training other employees and those employees train more and suddenly you have an entire workforce generating income that has nothing to do with how many hours you personally worked that week. 

The Math That Will Change How You See This

If you put $10,000 in a savings account earning 0.5% interest and leave it there for 20 years you end up with about $11,000.

Twenty years later you have an extra thousand dollars to show for it. And because of inflation well that $11k has the buying power of about $5k.

Now take that same $10,000 and invest it in a diversified portfolio averaging 10% annually, which is the historical average of the stock market, and after 20 years you have $67,000.

The same money that sat there for 20 years and just lost value now amount 7xed in worth. The difference is not a hot stock tip or a finance degree or some secret that only rich people have access to. It is simply the decision to put your money somewhere that grows instead of somewhere that it sits.

The Secret the Upper Class Has Always Known

We were raised in a culture that celebrated saving and treated investing like something you did after you had already made it, like a luxury that came after you crossed some invisible threshold of financial stability. That framing is exactly what keeps most people in the middle class their entire lives. The upper class does not save their way to wealth. They invest early, they invest consistently, and they let compounding do the heavy lifting while everyone else is grinding harder trying to earn their way there.

Saving keeps you in a place of surviving. It keeps you in the mindset that money is scarce and must be protected. Investing shifts you into a completely different relationship with money, one where it is a tool that works for you and multiplies on your behalf and buys back the time you would otherwise have to keep selling.

We are living in a moment where this distinction matters more than it ever has. The housing market is brutal. The cost of groceries, insurance, childcare, everything has gone up and wages have not kept pace. Trying to save your way to financial freedom in this environment is like trying to fill a bathtub with the drain open. Your money needs to be multiplying faster than the cost of life is rising and the only way to make that happen is to invest it.

Hustle culture will tell you to earn more, work harder, take on another client, optimize your schedule, do more. Investing asks a different question entirely. What if instead of you doing more, your money did more? What if instead of selling another hour of your time, you put your money in a position where it generated returns while you slept, took a vacation, spent time with your kids, or just existed without being productive every single second?

That is what investing actually gives you. Not just returns. Time. Freedom. Options. The ability to make choices from a place of abundance instead of scarcity.

You deserve to be in your thriving era. Saving alone will never get you there.

You're an absolute queen. It is time to put your money to work.