Investing for Eternity | John H. Groberg | 1982

Never will our time or efforts be better rewarded than when they are spent in service and kindness. This kind of investing for eternity should be our aim.

This speech was given on June 15, 1982.

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"My dear brothers and sisters, BYU means a lot to our family. When our oldest daughter recently graduated from here, she became the fifth consecutive generation to hold a degree from BYU, joining her mother and father, her grandmother, her great-grandmother, and her great-great-grandfather who served for many years as the president of BYU. I love and appreciate this institution and hope you do as well.

I ask for your faith and prayers that what is said today will be spiritually edifying to all.

Wise Investing
This morning I would like to speak about the importance of wise investing. I remember hearing that one wise investment is worth a lifetime of work. In terms of dollar returns I’m sure that could be proven true. Who hasn’t heard of putting $1000 in IBM many years ago and coming out with a million dollars of value some years later? Who hasn’t had their financial salivary glands whetted by such thoughts or similar stories of getting into another Xerox “on the ground floor”? Why don’t we do it? Well, we don’t know or we don’t act or more likely the company we choose goes bankrupt and we lose it all. I have often heard the joke (and sometimes feel it’s true) that, if you want to make a lot of money in the stock market, just watch what I do and then do just the opposite.

Sometimes we don’t listen to others or don’t trust them. I remember a man once telling me to buy a certain stock. I ignored him, and it tripled in a few months. But then there is the other side. How many bought silver at $30 or $40 or $50, and it’s now selling at $6, or gold at $800, and it’s now at $300? We all know of the uncertainties of the commodities market.

Some say, “But there is well-located real estate. It is always a sure investment.” Yes, unless the zoning changes or the taxes increase or the neighborhood shifts or growth stops or floods or wars come. I remember many years ago hearing that Beirut, Lebanon, was the best and safest place in the world to invest in real estate. How would you like to have some there today?

I am sure you get the point that, although there is a place for wise investment in terms of physical things, generally any investment of this nature is largely at the mercy of forces beyond our control—for example, the death or defection of a key executive or salesman, the patenting of a new invention that replaces our company’s product, the sudden increase in the price of oil, the unexpected shift in interest rates, the fraud or embezzlement of a trusted partner, or the precipitous rise or fall of the stock market.

With this much uncertainty in investing in physical things, why are we even talking about it? Well, obviously I have not come here to visit with you about investing in physical things. I use it merely by way of contrast. You have a great business school and many experienced professors to teach you the correct principles of this type of investing; but, along with all the preparation they give you, they will always add, “Remember, there is a certain degree of risk in all investments”—all physical investments, that is.

No-Risk Investments
What would you say, then, if I told you I know of some investments that have no risk whatsoever and pay handsome returns on a continuing basis? You would say, “Well, they can’t be physical investments,” and you would be right. I speak, of course, of investments of time—spiritual investments—investments in character, investments in obedience, investments in service, investments in kindness, and so forth.

The Lord has told us,

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. [Matthew 6:19-20]

We live in a day of great uncertainty as far as physical investments go, but I am convinced that that uncertainty will continue to increase. Remember the statement in the Book of Mormon that says, “And behold, the time cometh that he curseth your riches, that they become slippery, that ye cannot hold them” (Helaman 13:31)..."

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