The Olympics is where the world’s best athletes compete for gold medals for their countries. We can see so many superhuman actions which non-athletes (like us) can’t do.
There is a lot of lessons from the Olympics that can be applied to us when it comes to finance and investment.
1. Set a goal
If we ask every one of them whether they have a goal, surely they do. It’s not an easy task to stay disciplined, training every single day. What drives them? Their goal. It’s common for athletes to train for years prior to joining the Olympic team. They need to plan ahead to ensure that they are in their best form when competing, so that they can achieve their goal.
Likewise, saving and investing are also not easy. Especially when there are too many sales going around (7/7, 6/6, 5/5… temptations). Setting a savings goal like a home deposit or retirement fund will help you to plan ahead and train you to consistently save money.
2. Start early
It takes years of hard work to be the best. The earlier you start, the more time you have to practice and sharpen your skills. For example, the world’s best swimmer, Michael Phelps started swimming at the age of 8. At 15 years old, he became the youngest man on U.S. Olympic swim team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Same goes for investing – the earlier we start, the better it will be! The sooner we start with savings and investing, the more time we will have to reap the benefit of compounding. Sikit-sikit, lama-lama jadi bukit.
3. Plan ahead
An Olympian does not just magically appear out of thin air. Behind the athletes’ successes are years of dedicated hard work and a lot of planning and strategizing involved.
Likewise, investing success doesn’t happen overnight. Remember, investing is not a ‘get-rich-quick’ scheme. It always requires patience (lots of them) and dedicated planning to accomplish great things. Among others, athletes train to build stamina and strength. Let’s strive to build knowledge in our investing journey.
