How investing in yourself beats inflation

Good morning 😃🌞☀️ let’s get into it!

This is one of my articles where I ask ChatGPT how to go about doing something we would normally hear, but this time I asked it to explain in detail what to do to invest in myself. And it turned into this one awesome guide

The S&ME 500: Why Investing in Yourself Beats Every Inflation Hedge

Thesis: Markets can fall, currencies can weaken, and prices can soar—but the one asset that reliably outpaces inflation over a lifetime is your ability to create value. Alex Hormozi jokes about buying the “S&Me 500.” He’s right. A deliberately upgraded you compounds faster, pays dividends sooner, and never needs a brokerage account.

Why self-investment is the best inflation hedge

1) Pricing power lives in the person, not the product.

Inflation pushes input costs up. People with rare and valuable skills can raise rates, switch roles, or change what they sell. That’s pricing power—an ability to adjust your personal “price” in real time. Stocks and property eventually reprice; a skillset can reprice next week.

2) Compounds at will.

If you improve your core economic engine by ~20% per year (skill depth, speed, close rate, output quality), the Rule of 72 says you roughly double results in about 3.6 years. Two doublings in seven years is 4x. You can’t force the S&P 500 to compound on your timetable; you can train, ship, and iterate on yours.

3) Optionality scales while risk concentrates.

Skills create more doors: promotions, higher-ticket clients, productized services, better partnerships. With each upgrade, the downside stays capped at time and tuition, while the upside becomes unbounded.

4) Non-correlated to markets.

Recession, policy shifts, or rate hikes might hit portfolios. Yet sellers who can reduce churn, build distribution, and solve hard problems often gain market share during downturns. Your personal alpha can outrun macro beta.

5) Transferable and portable.

Tools, tactics, and even platforms change. The meta-skills—writing that converts, negotiating, distribution building, product sense, data literacy, design taste—travel with you across industries and decades.

A quick, concrete ROI lens

Before you spend on any course, coach, tool, or certification, write a one-line ROI hypothesis:

• Input: P2,500 sales training.

• Mechanism: Raise close rate from 15% to 25%.

• Baseline: 20 qualified leads/month at P1,000 profit per sale.

• Delta: From 3 sales/month to 5 sales/month = +2 sales = +P2,000/month.

• Payback: ~1.25 months.

• Year-one ROI: ~9.6x on P2,500.

If your hypothesis can’t be written or tested, don’t buy it.

Build your S&ME 500 like a portfolio

Think of yourself as an index of five compounding “funds.” Rebalance quarterly.

1) Skill Depth (the “earn more per hour” fund)

• Pick one money skill to push to top 10%: sales, offer design, analytics, editing, CAD, coding, motion, financial modeling.

• Weekly practice target: 5–10 deliberate hours with feedback loops.

2) Brand & Reputation (the “opportunity magnet” fund)

• Publish proof of work: short case studies, before/after reels, teardown threads, live demos.

• Tight positioning: one line that says who you help, with what, and the outcome.

3) Distribution (the “reduce customer acquisition cost” fund)

• Own at least one direct channel: newsletter, SMS list, private community.

• Turn content into leads: clear call-to-action, calendar link, or product page.

4) Tools & Automation (the “time dividend” fund)

• Buy tools that remove bottlenecks: faster laptop, better mic/camera, templates, automations.

• Rule of thumb: if a tool saves 30 minutes a week and you value your hour at P300, it’s “worth” P7,800/year. Price accordingly.

5) Health & Energy (the “performance floor” fund)

• Sleep, strength, mobility, sunlight.

• Nothing compounds if you’re exhausted.

What to fund first at different budgets

P0–P500

• Library and free MOOCs for a single bottleneck skill.

• Publish one useful post per week summarizing what you applied, not what you learned.

P500–P2,500

• Niche course or workshop with assignments and reviews.

• Starter stack: calendar + booking page, clean portfolio one-pager, simple CRM.

P2,500–P10,000

• Coach or mentor with audited results.

• Production upgrades that move quality from “good” to “premium” and shorten delivery time.

P10,000+

• Certification or immersive that opens a higher-ticket market.

• Delegation: editor, researcher, or VA to free up creator time for higher leverage work.

How self-investment beats inflation in practice

• Rate flexibility: When your output is measurably better, raising your price 10–30% doesn’t trigger the same pushback; buyers feel the delta.

• Mix shift: You can target clients or employers with healthier margins. Better segments absorb inflation better.

• Offer redesign: Bundle, productize, introduce retainers or success fees to link your income to outcomes, not hours.

• Speed to value: The faster you deliver, the higher your effective hourly rate—even if your sticker price holds.

A 90-day “S&ME 500” sprint

Weeks 1–2: Audit and thesis

• Map your current economic engine: offer, price, close rate, delivery time, retention, referrals.

• Choose one needle to drive for 90 days.

Weeks 3–4: Acquire one needle-moving skill

• Daily 60–90 minutes of deliberate practice with feedback.

• Ship two micro-projects that prove the skill.

Weeks 5–8: Distribution flywheel

• Publish twice weekly: one proof-of-work, one insight.

• Add a lead magnet and booking link. Track opt-ins and calls.

Weeks 9–12: Monetization and pricing

• Run three price tests or offer shapes (tiered, productized, retainer).

• Close five conversations; log objections; adjust copy and guarantees.

Metrics that show compounding

• Input metrics: practice hours, shipped artifacts, conversations started.

• Conversion metrics: response rate, booked calls, close rate.

• Economics: average order value, delivery time, profit per unit, retention.

• Equity metrics: referrals/month, waitlist size, inbound opportunities.

Review weekly. Reinvest where the slope is steep.

Risks and how to avoid them

• Course collecting vs. capability building: No more buys until the last buy produced a measurable lift.

• Shiny object churn: One skill, one channel, one offer—90 days.

• Burnout: Protect sleep and recovery like a deadline.

• Echo chambers: Seek critique from people who buy or build what you’re aiming to sell.

Closing

Inflation erodes money stored in yesterday’s value. Self-investment creates tomorrow’s value on demand. Build your S&ME 500 with the same discipline you’d bring to a financial portfolio: clear thesis, measured bets, ruthless reviews, and continuous reinvestment. Over a decade, that discipline outpaces any index because you’re not just holding assets—you’re becoming one.