When I was growing up, whenever I went anywhere with my parents within a 45 mile radius of our home, we inevitably ran into someone we knew. And that meant we stopped and talked to a LOT of people. 

As a kid, this was super annoying. In my kid brain, there was a huge cost to running into people we knew and that cost was using up all of my patience and time! However, as an adult, I now realize that wasn’t a cost at all for my family. 

Time spent building relationships with the people in our community was an investment.

Having now spent the past fifteen years living in smaller communities, I appreciate the many benefits that come from investing your time and effort into relationships with the people around you. And like all good investments, they tend to compound more and more over time.

It helps to remember that one person’s cost is another person’s investment — and only you can decide which one it is for you personally.

So whether you’re evaluating the time and energy you put into relationships or how you choose to align your money with your values, try to look at your decision-making with your eyes wide open. Because what might be a cost to someone else could very well be the best investment you could make for yourself.