The way to think about decisions is the return on investment that a decision offers. Every decision matters, and the more you repeat the same decision the more that investment will make or break you.
Sometimes the best investments are the ones you don’t make. I can say over the years that I’ve made my fair share of bad investments. Gambling is something that is mostly a -EV decision unless you play poker with players who have a disadvantage against you. You would need to be self-honest about your game to decide if you are in a profitable spot. Gambling on any other game is a guaranteed loss in the long run. The law of large numbers is going to catch up to you no matter how well you play in any table game. Slot machines offer even worse returns than table games.
Thankfully I’ve been able to avoid gambling for months now. The return on that decision is the peace of mind of never having to worry about money again. I have been in recovery groups and one person was able to say that he got everything he wanted from gambling by stopping gambling.
Investing money into assets such as TFSA’s and RRSP’s in Canada are ways to get 5-10 percent of the money you put into the account on an annual basis. Meaning that if you invest for a 35 year period and put a high percentage of your income or even a medium percent in you would be able to have a million dollar net worth by then. Keep in mind a million dollars is going to have less purchasing power in that many years, but as long as your investments are beating inflation you aren’t losing money.
In the last few months I started a TFSA and have saved a fair amount for just a 4 month effort into saving money. The real challenge is maintaining that habit but it’s far better when your accounts are constantly growing. The reinforcement of the habit is doing the total opposite of gambling. Taking a sure-fire win instead of trying to win in a game where your destiny is losing is a far better habit change.
Now I don’t have any urges to gamble, I still play free poker games but that hasn’t been a trigger to play real money games or worse table games. One thing that recovering gamblers can do is ban themselves from the casinos and the online casinos. Once your fully set on recovery and you know there’s no turning back the urges disappear.
The worst habit in your life can often be enough to make all other aspects of life worse off. If you start by changing your worst habit, you’ll make dramatic improvements very quickly. I was an addicted gambler for 9 years, and the losses would have made a big difference if I was investing that money instead. Thankfully I still have 35 years of runway to make future good investments. In investing the game changes when you accumulate your first 100 grand. From there the compounding starts to make a very noticeable difference. With interest and continued contribution the sky is the limit.
Thinking about the life you want and the habits it would take to live that life allow you to get clear on which habits are worth putting effort in. I’ve also started to work out and am in the middle of quitting smoking, I have dramatically lowered the number the smokes I have. I want my physical health to improve so that I will live long enough to enjoy what life has to offer. Investing in health is key, you would rather be the oldest man in the gym than the youngest man in a nursing home. I have given thought to the consequences of smoking and want to change that direction.
To your success,
Angus