Best Way to Invest 5000 Dollars: A Step-by-Step Financial Plan

What is the best way to invest 5000 dollars? This is one of the most common questions that I get on my Instagram stories. It’s a reoccurring question for two key reasons:

It’s the amount of money people have saved up and are ready to deploy.
It’s the amount of money people aren’t scared to part with.

If you only have $5,000 to invest, there’s a surprising answer as to what you should invest in. If you only have $5,000 to deploy, the one thing you should be investing into at this point in your wealth building process is…you.

What is Money?

What is money? It took me years to figure this answer out and to really understand it. It also took a successful mentor to reveal it to me.

So, what is money, really? Money is a scarce, in-demand resource.

To get more of it, you have to make yourself into a scarce, in-demand resource, because people will only trade their money for things of equal or greater value.

The reason that you only have $5,000 to invest is that you aren’t yet commanding a high income within the marketplace. You aren’t commanding a high income, because you’re not yet a scarce, in-demand resource.

Therefore, you can’t trade your skills for other scarce, in-demand resources (money).

If, and only if, you make yourself more valuable to others will you be paid more than you are right now. That’s how our marketplace works. It’s very simple: you are paid in proportion to what you are worth.

Thus, if you only have $5,000 to invest, the first and only thing you need to invest in is yourself.

Thankfully, we’re now live in the Information Age, so the ability to acquire scarce, in-demand skills is literally at your fingertips and you can either do it for free (via YouTube, articles, and podcasts) or for a small investment (via digital courses, events, and books).

Increase Income First, Invest Second

When you are paid more, then you can save more (dramatically more). And, when you save more, you’ll have a whole lot more to invest. In my opinion, when you reach approximately $25,000 – $50,000 in savings, you’ve proven that you can effectively collect money.

Thus, you’ve earned the right to turn your attention to external investments, such as investing in real estate, peer-to-peer lending, tax liens, or other income-producing opportunities.

At this dollar value, you’ve also proven that you can control your costs and collect money well in excess of your requirements to live.

If you’re going to be financially free, you have to stop thinking about your bank account 5 days from now and starting thinking about how you want it to look 5 or 10 years from now.

If you’re going to be financially free, then you’ve got to learn to treat your life like a business.

With a business, there is the total (gross) money that comes in, then there is money that you spend (invest) to grow the business, and over time these investments create a return-on-investment (ROI).

With a business, you would starve it of growth if you tried to take every cent out of it. This is what most small business owners do and it’s why most small businesses fail.

In contrast, successful companies know that success depends on reinvesting some of the profits back into the business.

When you treat yourself as a business, you commit to growing your income earning potential by acquiring increasingly valuable skill sets.

Thus, when you produce money or get paid by an employer, you should immediately re-invest some of it into making yourself more valuable, so that over time, you’ll achieve an ROI.

You simply can’t save your way to financial abundance. Despite what your parents and teachers taught you, that is financial contraction. It is financial defense.

Investing some of your money into creating new income-producing opportunities for yourself is the most direct and rapid path to wealth. Whenever you meet someone who created wealth quickly, this is what they have done. This is financial offense and it’s how you want to play the game.

How to Increase Your Income?

Alright, if you believe me that you need to become more valuable in order to earn more money, the question then becomes, how do you do this?

Unfortunately, school isn’t a great way to get paid a premium within the marketplace, because in school, everyone with the same degree learns the same skills. That means your skills are a commodity.

In contrast, to become a scarce, in-demand resource that the marketplace wants, needs, and will reward with a big paycheck, you’re going to need to stack new skills on top of what you were taught in school.

If you’ve only been able to collect $5,000 to date (and not $50,000 or $500,000), then you’ll need to invest your early earnings into self education, including books, digital courses, live trainings, and mentorship. I’d encourage you to budget at least 5 to 10 % of your total income to this each year—and the more, the better.

Most likely, your parents taught you to conserve money, not to spend it to create abundance and financial freedom. However, to become financially free, you have got to learn to let go of scarcity and start making investments into yourself.

At first, your investments will be small, like $50 or $100, but with time, these investments will grow. That is when wealth will become a self-propagating cycle for you.

Each investment into yourself will make you more valuable, and each time you become more valuable, you will have more money to invest back into yourself, your skill sets, your connections, and eventually, income-producing assets that put even more money into your bank account.

If you’re ready to bump up your income, here are six skills that you can teach yourself immediately to have higher earning potential.