By Dr Dave Schalow, PhD, CLU, ChFC, CFA, CFP

Financial Success | May 14, 2026

An investment in your own education can influence every other financial decision you make. Knowledge helps you evaluate opportunities, recognize risks, and develop skills you can use repeatedly.

That doesn't mean every course is worth its price. It means learning deserves the same thoughtful attention you would give any other use of your money and time.

KNOWLEDGE MAKES OTHER THINGS POSSIBLE

Understanding money can help you ask better questions before making an investment. Understanding sales can help you explain an offer. Understanding business operations can help you avoid an expensive mistake.

The value comes from what the knowledge allows you to do. A certificate on the wall is different from a skill you can apply.

ONE EXPERIENCE THAT CHANGED MY THINKING

I once paid $30,000 for four days of training on putting on a profitable seminar. That sounds like a tremendous amount of money—and it was. Three months later, my first seminar grossed $50,000 for the weekend.

Gross revenue isn't profit. Expenses and the training cost matter, and my result isn't a promise of what someone else will earn. The lesson I took from the experience was that useful knowledge could be applied again, rather than being consumed once and gone.

The important question wasn't simply what the training cost. It was whether I could use what I learned to create enough value to justify that cost.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT LEARNING FOR THE NEXT STEP

Before buying a program, identify the skill you need. “I want to be successful” is too broad. “I need to learn how to price this service” or “I need to understand the costs of this investment” gives you something concrete to evaluate.

Look at the instructor's relevant experience, the material covered, the time required, and the total cost. Compare alternatives. A library book, a focused conversation with an experienced professional, or an inexpensive class may be enough for the problem in front of you.

An expensive program isn't automatically better. A free resource isn't automatically useful. Fit matters.

TURN INFORMATION INTO A REPEATABLE SKILL

After learning something, decide how you will apply it. Write down one action, a date, and a way to judge whether it helped.

Practice the skill. Get feedback. Make adjustments. If you only collect books and courses without changing what you do, it will be difficult to benefit from them.

Education doesn't guarantee a financial return. But carefully chosen learning, followed by action, can improve the quality of your decisions and expand what you are capable of doing.

​Choose one useful skill for your next stage of progress, and begin putting it to work.