To ask what your best investment in yourself has been?

[HeyItsPickleRick]

Come on mumsnet, creep my lifestyle!

Inspired by the personal stylist post - I’m wondering what is the best thing you’ve bought for yourself?

Mine has 100% been my peloton and all the dumbbells. First exercise I’ve ever stuck to!

@HWI Aye whit? Course I’m proud I went to uni. First in family to do so. Significantly changed my life
Redistribution and taxation pays for education, so me the bus driver et al we all pay in
I pay higher rate tax and now I contribute financially

My investment in my career is time,effort,courses and cpd that
I pay for. To maintain skills and competence

I work in a role that the bus driver (or anyone else) is the recipient of advice and treatment I provide for free.

A personal trainer

Hypnotherapy - helped me stop drinking, stop smoking, leave my gaslighting bf, gave me the courage to start my own business, - the list goes on ❤️

Therapy

They don't just hand you the degree, Hwi. And better paid jobs mean paying more tax.

But most jobs, even "better" ones, don't actually "need" a degree. It's just become normalised as a basic requirement for screening, rather than a genuine need. Lots of jobs/professions that are now "degree entry" never used to need a degree - A levels were usually good enough for most professions and a good set of O levels was usually good enough for most office jobs. Far too many jobs/employers have instigated "degree requirement" solely for applicant screening which is not good for the country as it excludes lots of perfectly able applicants, who for whatever reasons didn't go to Uni or get a degree.

Laser eye surgery, a Dyson airwrap and a smart watch to watch to achieve 10,000 steps a day. Love the post about the standing desk!!! Would love one of those!!!

Full body check at the Mole Clinic. Saw an odd looking freckle. I have lots so as a "worried well" did not want to bother the GP. It was a melanoma, luckily still in situ. It was out within a week. The consultant said I would have been dead within two years.

I now go back every six months. The nurse is looking at skin day in day out, so has much more practice than a GP, as well as up0 top date equipment. I pay for a dental hygienist. I pay for this.

Some of us with AI have overlap bits of other AI but not enough to give a secondary disease, plus as times go on we get new AI diseases. Complicated disease to diagnose lots on support groups on FB from an information point of view really helpful. Also AI are mainly women which allows medics the chance to dismiss us.

Exercise classes. Cost around $700 a month but worth every penny. Fitter and healthier at 35 than I was at 25.

Giving up booze. Wish I’d done it decades ago! I’m a bazillion times happier and healthier now I don’t drink (& I didn’t drink wild amounts).

Persisting and then paying privately (cost around £1500) to have my daughter diagnosed (aged 8) with Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) & Autism, after the NHS said she couldn't be autistic as she could make eye contact & she had friends! The diagnosis helped us to understand her behaviour at a younger age & we could then support her through primary & secondary school when she really struggled & when some teachers didn't understand PDA & how it presents. The diagnosis changed our lives as it made total sense regarding her behaviour & communication style, and we've been able to support her to understand why she struggles with some things. She's become so insightful, which is reassuring to see.

For me, knowing I need to & then being able to access coaching & counselling for issues in my working life. I was working with both a coach & a counsellor for work reasons when we were all put at risk of redundancy. Both helped me to navigate through it and to change jobs to something more in line with my values & that I find more satisfying.

Fabulous, uplifting thread @HeyItsPickleRick

TEETH WHITENING!! I am a full on evangelist when it comes to teeth whitening. It makes you much more attractive and people can’t put their finger on what you’ve done. It gave me so much confidence as well so that plays into it.

On the cheaper end, a silk bonnet. Hair is way less frizzy. Kids and DP take the piss but I have the shiniest most beautiful hair in the house so I don’t care.

Breast uplift post children (not implants) nothing no gym/diet can restore post pregnancy/feeding boobs only surgery.

Can I ask what differences did you find once you had recovered from surgery?
I am so frustrated by working my core and feeling I am engaging them well but when I stand up my abdomen looks like it falls forward from just under my ribs. I find it makes all my clothes look like the fit really badly (I know this is a first world problem but it really annoys me!).

@Catsandcannedbeans I'd love to have my teeth whitened (though just a tiny bit so they still look like real teeth) but I've got a crown and I read somewhere that you can't then have it done. Is that true?

Also learning to be okay with treating myself after kids. For ages after DD was born I didn’t get my nails done and stuff like that, felt bad spending on myself…. Then she played with a cardboard box for basically a whole week until it feel apart and I realised you know what she doesn’t need pricy stuff and went and got my nails done. It’s not really an investment as such but a realisation.

@LillyPJ I’m not sure as I don’t have a crown but when I had it done I had to get the chip on my tooth done again to match my new colour. I think you’d just need it replaced to match the colour but I’m not a dentist. It’s worth asking next time you go.

Spot on - an investment in me by the state (in me, too, so no criticism here). Just call a spade a spade. To clear up any misunderstanding, try to strike up a convo with a US citizen (not from the projects) and try to drop in how 'your going to uni was YOUR investment in your future' and see how quickly this US citizen will gasp in disbelief.

A good night's sleep 😊

Can't believe you can't interpret a simple statement - MY investment is what I invest. University fees even how are highly subsidised for domestic students - therefore domestic students can't say 'my investment' or they can say 'my partial investment'. International students in UK can say 'my investment'.

Maybe people here don't have to invest financially in university education as much as they do in the US but it's certainly a big investment in time and energy for everyone - which is just as important and often more difficult than the money part.

Another one for therapy. I was a chronic people pleaser before which affected all my relationships, including the type of man I married. Divorced, defended my corner to get a decent financial settlement, NC with my family and gradually moved away from bad friendships. My life could not be more different.

Once you see things as they really are and not on autopilot from crappy childhood, you can't unsee it. It has been worth every penny.

The investment is the time and massive effort it takes. The sacrifice of earning in the time it takes.

IVF
Weight loss surgery
Divorce
Boob job
(in that order)

They are really good at the Mole Clinic. I grew up under the ozone layer hole so see them every year. The nurses know their stuff.