I came to the UK about four years ago, along with a few friends who arrived around the same time. About a year ago I realised something: they had tens of thousands saved in the bank. They'd been working in bars and restaurants, often double shifts, and they'd put away a serious amount of money.
For a while, I felt bad about myself. I didn't have that kind of money.
Then I realised something
I'm actually really glad I didn't. While they spent all their hours working full shifts and then more shifts, I was doing something different. I volunteered for a non-profit, I stayed home and worked on my online teaching, and I poured time into studying. I came out with the first distinction degree of my life, something I'm genuinely proud of, because I'd never been a strong student before.
I'm not putting my friends down at all. They've got good jobs and they did well. But a lot of that work is tied to a place, an hour traded for a wage.
I was saving too. Just something else.
It wasn't that I wasn't saving up. I was. I was just saving up a different kind of thing: intangible assets. The brand. The skills. The knowledge. The experience.
At some point it clicked. These assets aren't reflected in a bank account, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. They compound. They keep paying you back, long after the hours are spent.
The takeaway
They saved cash. I saved compound interest on myself. Both are real, but only one keeps growing. Don't get distracted by what only pays today.