The 0-10% Investment Scale: How much do you invest in yourself?

Find Your Superpower Newsletter 125

Read time: 6 minutes

Topics covered: Personal development, career investment, Brand Builder Mastermind enrolling for Jan 2026

For most career professionals reading this, your biggest wealth generator isn’t your S&P500 investment portfolio or your house, and definitely not your investment in Dogecoin.

It is your ability to earn over your career.

If you look after your lifetime earning potential, everything else you want will follow.

You’ve probably watched YouTube videos and read books on investing in property or stocks.

But how much time have you spent learning how to invest in yourself?

That’s what this newsletter is here to change.

0% Investment: Career Danger

I’ve worked with many accomplished professionals who have never spent a dollar on their self-development. Never hired a coach. Never once tried therapy.

They treat themselves and their families to Japan trips, sure.

But invest in themselves? Nah.

And then they look around wondering why their peers are racing ahead: speaking at conferences, winning top awards, featured on industry lists, sitting on boards.

Why them? Why not me?

Let me tell you a secret: These "rockstars" didn’t do it alone. They had help. They invested in not one, not two, not three, sometimes 5-10 different strategists along the way.

Oh yes, your company will do their best to help you help yourself.

For years, I was a passive consumer. I may even have blamed my employer for their selection of coaches and workshops. (Talk about entitlement, much?)

Often, I resented being "forced" to attend a workshop that ate into my working hours.

Oh boy, oh boy! If young Juliana only knew what old Juliana is paying to attend such workshops, she would have sat upright and taken copious notes.

3% Investment: Treading Water

Even if you decide to start investing in yourself, here’s what most professionals do: they spend just enough to stay afloat.

Your employability is based on your domain knowledge, skills and experience accumulated over your career lifetime. Like any assets, they depreciate without maintenance.

Just to stay relevant in the age of AI, you need to spend around 3% of your annual income on yourself.

• Earning $100,000? Invest $3,000.
• Company profit $1,000,000? Reinvest $30,000 in team training.

This can include books, online courses, industry conferences, association memberships, or 2-3 day in-person workshops.

What I am saying here applies as well to interns and fresh grads, not just mid-career to senior executives. In fact, the law of compounding means early-career investments yield exponentially higher returns.

At 3%, you’re simply treading water. The inherent risks of the AI era require more than 3%.

5-7% Investment: Real Change

Want a promotion? A significant career pivot?

Want to go from worker bee to leadership material?

You need to double down: 5-7% of your income.

Earning $100,000? That’s $5,000-$7,000 annually.

Most professionals cannot assign dollar value to emotional intelligence, communication, leadership, public speaking and networking skills.

Because they don’t see a direct ROI, so they don’t know how to quantify it. They may even assume these skills can be learned spontaneously (or that they already possess these skills).

Spoiler alert: the folks who seem to have the most soft skills most likely received copious amounts of training and practice over the years.

For my analytical readers: you may try to quantify everything (which I completely understand as a former scientist), but soft skills are much harder to measure, which is exactly why most left-brained professionals skip investing in them.

At this level, you unlock more powerful options for growth: 1:1 coaching, 1:1 therapy, or a VIP mastermind community.

This level of investment requires not just money, but time, often 3-5 hours weekly of non-work time.

Quality coaching ranges from $300-$800 per hour. That’s why many join mastermind communities to access group coaching for a fraction of the cost.

For context, my signature 12-month Brand Builder Mastermind, with 50+ workshops per year (weekly!), offers a chockful of value I deliver to my Mastermind members at a fraction of the investment of a 1:1 coaching client.

My 1:1 coaching rate is currently US$1,000 per hour, which makes the 12-month membership an exceptional value.

I need to remind you that the opportunity cost of not investing in your 30s and 40s will haunt you in your 50s and 60s.

A strong professional coach could fix your career mindset and strategy (or lack thereof) in a few sessions and unlock 30-50% more lifetime earnings.

Just as you say you are the domain expert in law or finance or HR, someone else is a career or branding strategy expert whose job is to make you the best version of yourself.

10% Investment: Powerful Growth

If your ambitions far exceed your current reality and job scope...

If your earnings have stagnated despite years of experience and effort...

If your peers have all become superstars while you’re still an individual contributor...

If you feel like you’re going to be displaced in the AI era thanks to new technology...

It’s time to consider a 10% investment.

I’m an aggressive self-investor. I currently invest 10% of my annual income AND company dividends in personal growth. Unequivocally, this strategy has paid off handsomely. It has been my best investment apart from what I invest in my kids.

Since 2020, when I started investing seriously in my personal development through posting on LinkedIn and learning from top coaches, my earnings have increased significantly every year.

My report card: I’ve now launched a mastermind, run an agency with government and academic clients, grown my Instagram and LinkedIn accounts to around 110K followers each, and launched an international speaking and coaching career. I have even created my first AI chatbot, ChanGPT.ai, which has gotten rave reviews from users.

People constantly ask me how my execution and implementation has been so quick and sustained.

My secret? I simply outspend you in personal development.

I find experts and stack them in my corner.

It really isn’t rocket science, trust your rocketship captain on that.

Get experts in your corner.

Does the math work out?

Let’s run a simple exercise comparing two mid-career professionals, both earning $100,000 annually.

Person A: 5% annual self-investment, 10% annual salary growth

• After 10 years: $259,000 annual salary
• Total earnings: $1,593,742

Person B: 0% annual self-investment, 3% annual salary growth

• After 10 years: $134,000 annual salary
• Total earnings: $1,150,000

Difference: $443,742

But it’s never just about money, is it?

During those 10 years, Person A also gained:

• 15-20 speaking engagements at industry conferences (vs. Person B’s 0-2)
• 3-5 industry awards and features in trade publications
• 2-3 board seats or committee leadership roles
• 10-15 mentees who credit them for career breakthroughs
• A professional network 5x larger with C-suite connections
• 8-12 unsolicited job offers and headhunter approaches annually
• Executive presence that commands $50K-100K higher salary offers
• A personal brand that generates non-stop inbound DMs for coffees and deal flow

How do you put a dollar value on a life well spent?

How do you price a career well played?

I’ll tell you: It’s simply priceless.

Each investment opens a new dimension of you

Investing in yourself allows you to become a better version of yourself. Each new version attracts a different caliber of mentors, friends, collaborators, and opportunities.

New you = new opportunities = new life.

When you invest in yourself, your mindset changes from scarcity to abundance, you start to see new possibilities, and you even start to believe this could be your reality.

If this analysis resonates with your strategic thinking, you’re exactly the professional I work with in my VIP Brand Builder Mastermind.

Our 12-month virtual program, which starts on 1 January 2026, gives you access to 50+ workshops (weekly!) with industry experts, a community of 200+ growth-minded professionals, and frameworks to build a powerful personal brand that drives measurable results.

We focus on four pillars that every executive needs to work on:

1. Build a powerful brand
2. Speak more confidently
3. Write more persuasively
4. Monetize your expertise

Our first 2026 cohort enrollment is now open, but we limit membership to maintain program and community quality.

Enroll in the Brand Builder Mastermind during the super early-bird phase to get a US$200 discount until 18 November. Please read testimonials here.

If you are a 0% self-investor, that strategy may no longer be viable in the AI era. Let’s make it 3%.

Your rocketship captain,
Juliana 🚀

PS: Please don’t be a 0% self-investor in 2026. You don’t have to join my curated programs, but do something.