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Most investing returns fizzle far beneath our expectations.  When we most want our money to generate cash flow, we end up flatlining, or even losing money. The prosperity and confidence we'd hoped for elude us, leaving us more anxious and uncertain instead. Could it be that we have our sights on the wrong target?  Let's take a look at investing from a cash flow perspective to untangle the confusion and bring you investing clarity.

You need to understand why this investing performance failure occurs, in order to overcome it, get your money working for you, and create the financial peace and prosperity you desire.

This segment on investing tells you how.

Table of contentsWhere Cash Flow Investing Fits into the Cash Flow SystemWhy Investing Is the Finale and the Catalyst of SavingSaving and Investing, Better TogetherWhat Is Investing?How Is Investing Different from Saving?The Purpose of Investing: Two Types of GrowthA Word to the Wise: The Ultimate Goal of All Investing Is Cash FlowHere’s an Example:Accumulation-Based InvestingCash-Flow InvestingCash-Flow Investing Accelerates Financial FreedomCash Flow Investing Increases Net WorthA Closer Look at Your Financial StatementsIn ConclusionUp NextThe 7-Part Saving and Investing SeriesTake Action

Where Cash Flow Investing Fits into the Cash Flow System

We love cash flow.  Cash flow today is the stepping stone for cash flow tomorrow. In the Cash Flow System, you first increase cash flow by keeping more of the money you make.  Then you protect your money.  Finally, you increase and make more.

Investing is part of stage 3.  Building a cash-flowing asset portfolio of real estate and business accelerates time and money freedom.

Why Investing Is the Finale and the Catalyst of Saving

This article fits into a larger series on saving and investing.

We’ve explored the WHY, HOW, and WHAT of a successful savings strategy.  We gave clear guidelines on how to create the habit of paying yourself first to build an Emergency/Opportunity Fund that’s safe, liquid and growing.  We distinguished savings from investing and discussed the quality of various financial vehicles in fulfilling the role of savings.

But the discussion on savings wouldn’t be complete without a framework for what to do with your savings.  Instead of leaving savings to accumulate slowly over time, we want to put those dollars to work in opportunities to accelerate financial freedom.

Putting our capital to work to earn a return is precisely the role of investing.

Saving and Investing, Better Together

You don’t save forever without the objective of putting the dollars to work.  But you can’t put dollars to work until you’ve built them up first.

And then, once you’ve invested and are earning dollars with your dollars, how do you continue your savings habit which was the foundation for your success in the first place?

Saving and investing go hand-in-hand, like the chicken and the egg.  Which came first, no one knows, but each continues to support and perpetuate the other.

Saving well will give you more money to invest.  And investing well will, in turn, give you more money to save.

Both are equally important.  Saving and investing maximize your whole personal economy, if you get them working together.

To top off this series on savings, we’ll now bring investing into the crosshairs.  This article will explore the WHAT and WHY of investing.

Let’s key in on the finer points of investing to answer further:

What are opportunities?What is investing?How is investing different from saving?What are the end goals of investing?How do investments change my financial life and create financial freedom?

Investing is much larger than the steps of a deal, investment returns, or the best stocks today.  If you camp out in the HOW and WHAT but miss the WHY and the principles, you can end up way off track, losing money,