These Things Are Worth the Premium

Not every stock is a penny stock. You can do small investments and perhaps do well over time. But when you are ready to do some real business, you are going to have to purchase some real stocks. Think about when you were a kid playing Monopoly. The $50 property was like dipping a toe in the water. But if you wanted to win, you were eventually going to have to buy Boardwalk. Some people are so risk-averse, they can’t bring themselves to invest even when it is Monopoly money.

In some ways, everything you do in life is an investment. You can invest time and talent as well as money. Not everything into which you pour your attention turns out to be a good investment. It is also important to recognize that you are working with limited resources. You can only draw so many breaths in a lifetime. You can only read so many books. You only have so many weekends. After eating and sleeping and working, you only have so much time you can spend with family. Some things you do will cost you more than others. Since none of us are made of money, we have to be mindful of how we invest what we have. For those things that demand a premium, we have to be sure they are worth it. Here are a few things that almost always are:

Insurance

There are three major ways of determining the premium you will pay for insurance:

1. Buy the minimum amount of insurance on offer.

2. Figure out exactly how much insurance you need.

3. Buy as much as you can afford regardless of what you think you need.

The first method is madness. You could end up paying premiums and not have enough coverage when you finally need it. The second way to determine your premium makes more sense than the first because at least you will have put some thought into your needs and the reason why you are getting insurance in the first place.

The third method is the best way to ensure that you leave nothing to chance. If you are always maxing out your payments based on what you can afford, you will always get the maximum possible return on your investment when you finally need it. Whole life insurance is one of those few products you can buy where you get what you pay for. More is worth it if you can afford it.

Marketing

There are several content marketing approaches luxury brands should consider. What they should never consider is not marketing at all. Your brand is never so big that it sells itself. You are never so popular that you don’t need to worry about losing market share. There is a reason why Coke, McDonald’s, and Apple have such large marketing budgets while remaining among the most successful companies in the world.

When things start getting a little rough, some businesses slash the marketing budget. They do that because they never understood or appreciated what marketing was doing for them. Slashing the budget too much during the bad times ensures that you will never survive to see the good times again. While it is true that not all marketing is created equally, the solution is not to cut back on marketing, but to double down on good marketing. When done right, marketing is worth the premium for the good stuff.

One Good Suit

Covid has made us all sweat pants connoisseurs. But there will come a time when you will need to put on something that means business. And when you do, what you wear is going to matter a lot. Whether man or woman, one of the best ways to ensure you don’t get the job is by showing up in an ill-fitting suit. In many ways, a cheap suit is worse than no suit. You just as well do the real flex of showing up in jeans. You won’t need it every day. But when a suit of clothes counts, pay the premium.

None of us are made of money. We have to be very careful about how we spend it. If you have to account for every penny you invest, you will not have to apologize for paying a premium for insurance, marketing, and at least one good suit.