Investing in Your Most Important Asset: You

The New Financial Realities: Personal Statement by Eleanor Blayney, CFP® Consumer Advocate for the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (CFP Board):

In the current financial crisis, we have learned that we can no longer afford to think about our personal finances as we did in the bubbly pre-recession days. There are new financial realities. To respond to these new realities and take control of our financial futures, we must re-examine some basic assumptions and consider some new approaches. Over the course of this series, we are looking at nine important financial strategies. This week: Investing in your most important asset, your human capital.

In today's unstable financial market, it's hard to know what are the right investments to make. Higher expected returns are often obtained only if we are willing to accept significant losses. But there is one high growth asset that you can invest in, that will almost always yield positive returns. That asset is you.

Do your homework: do you know what you are worth? What is your earning potential? What are the demands for your skills? Knowing your value will give you leverage when you need to ask for a raise, get a new job, and when you are negotiating a new position within your workplace. This is especially important in these trying financial times. Investing your time and money to get additional training or needed credentials can make you an indispensable employee or a sought-after candidate for a potential job.

It's extremely hard to pick the one stock that will make us wealthy. It's almost statistically impossible to win the lottery. Very few of us are guaranteed a fat inheritance. The reality is that the richest individuals are not lucky, but hard workers, willing to do what it takes to make themselves the best in their chosen markets and fields.

I'm Eleanor Blayney, as Consumer Advocate for CFP Board, I want you to remember to think of yourself as your most valuable asset. Invest in self-improvement, and your financial security will follow.

As you navigate through your personal finances, know that you are not alone. On behalf of CFP Board, and the more than 60,000 professionals who hold the CFP® marks, thank you for visiting CFP Board's Website. I wish you the best on your journey to a healthy financial future.

To view the new financial realities series, please visit http://www.cfp.net/learn/advocate.asp

Follow Eleanor on Twitter: http://twitter.com/EleanorBlayney

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About CFP Board:

The mission of Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. is to benefit the public by granting the CFP® certification and upholding it as the recognized standard of excellence for personal financial planning. The Board of Directors, in furthering CFP Board's mission, acts on behalf of the public, CFP® certificants and other stakeholders. CFP Board owns the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER(TM) and federally registered CFP (with flame design) in the U.S., which it awards to individuals who successfully complete CFP Board's initial and ongoing certification requirements. CFP Board currently authorizes more than 60,000 individuals to use these marks in the United States. For more about CFP Board, visit www.CFP.net.

CFP® - The Recognized Standard of Excellence in Personal Financial Planning

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