# Investing in the Status Quo By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2023-06-03 There are many situations where understanding the time value of money is very important. Within your personal life, it's essential to know about interest rates concerning credit cards, mortgage loans, and investing, as well as the compounding impact of inflation for retirement planning. Within the corporate world, it's vital to understand holding costs, depreciation of assets, and how to perform net present value calculations when comparing alternatives with different returns over time. When it comes to value, nothing remains the same. This primarily drives the economy, and getting ahead hinges on estimating what will be worth more in the future. All of the time value of money calculations and investing advice amount to nothing more than some version of planting seeds today so we can harvest the crops in 6 months. The challenge is guessing what will be worth more in the future. Is it gold or water? Is it company A or company B? Is it education or defense? What will we find if we extend our understanding of time and value to less tangible things like progress? The value of ideas does change over time. It was once a good idea to put lead in gasoline because it burned better. We now know it was giving us lead poisoning. What ideas are you willing to invest in? Which ones will be worth more tomorrow? Refraining from investing in new ideas is a direct investment in the status quo. Are the status quo ideas of today going to be worth more tomorrow? Or is there something new that will be worth much more? The return on new ideas may be much higher, but the risks are also much greater. However, rarely will new ideas cause you to go bankrupt. #### Related Items [[Status Quo]] [[Economics]] [[Interest Rates]] [[Time]] [[Value]] [[Money]] [[Change]] [[Progress]]