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Analysis
Why do we create wealth?
Mike Dobbie April 2007 
It's easy to get caught up in the hype of investing. There's the scramble for information, monitoring share and unit prices, trying to discern the nuances behind every Reserve Bank statement on the economy, watching the performance of the markets. Management of your investments requires constant vigilance and occasional frantic activity.
But perhaps, now and again, you should stop to smell the roses, to reconsider what you want to achieve from all this effort.
Our focus is wealth creation. We invest to prepare for a comfortable retirement, or to gain security, comfort and happiness. It's a natural human activity.
And in recent years, we've begun to talk openly about our investment pursuits. At a weekend barbeque, we'll talk about real estate moves, renovations, tree- and sea-changes, and apartments versus homes. At dinner parties we can talk about hot stocks, small chips and blue chips, and whether there's any run left in the All Ordinaries and the Chinese economy.
Investing can be exhausting, time consuming and rewarding. But do you find there's still something lacking?
Regularly, our letterboxes are deluged with entreaties to give to charities. Charities are working hard to develop innovative ways to encourage people to give. Overseas aid agencies offer you the chance to buy a piglet for a small village, pay for a water bore to be dug, and "sponsoring" a child remains a popular option for many Australians.
The concept of charity, of giving part of your wealth to help others, is not new. The virtue of doing good deeds, sharing wealth or giving alms to those less fortunate is a cornerstone of many religions.
But despite this, the problems and poverty of many countries seem insurmountable. Take Afghanistan. Afghans under the age of 28 have never known a single day of peace. Much of the capital Kabul was devastated by years of civil war - a product of the power vacuum after the Soviets left in 1989. Kabul still has no reliable power supply, the water table is polluted, and the pot-holed roads turn to mud in winter and dust in summer. Innocent civilians are victims of sudden, violent terrorist attacks.
In Afghanistan, GDP per capita is $US800 (in Australia, it's $US32, 900). Infant mortality rate is 160 deaths per 1000 live births (in Australia the rate is 4.6 births per 1000). Life expectancy is 43 years (Australia - 80 years). Literacy, defined as those over the age of 15 that can read and write, is 51 per cent for males and 21 per cent for females based on 1999 data (in Australia it's 99 per cent for both sexes). Of the 4 million refugees living outside the country in October 2001 (just before the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent overthrow of the Taliban), some 2.3 million have returned to restart their lives. The lack of private industry, proper infrastructure and the flood of returning refugees mean the unemployment rate is estimated at 40 per cent but it is probably much higher.
That's just one country crying out for help. It won't take us seconds to name a dozen others devastated by war, natural disaster and disease. Certainly, governments and aid agencies are funding projects to assist these countries with mixed results. But perhaps, in the hurly burly of investing, we should devote time to consider what we could do to help by utilising some of the wealth we are creating in a charitable project.
Philanthropy can be just as much a part of an investment portfolio as any investment asset classes. We just need to step back from the frenzy to consider what could be achieved if we set aside something, even a small something, to aid others.
It's a small and simple thing to do but the reward for others, and for our own understanding of what we are really "worth", is often richer than we can imagine.
Whatever your views, you can discuss this article - or any of Mike's articles - on our message board Your 2 Cents, in the Analysis section.
Mike Dobbie is the former Managing Editor of Shares Magazine. He was the Deputy Editor of Personal Investor magazine, Editor of Qantas - The Australian Way, National Managing Editor of business titles with Text Media and a BRW sharemarket journalist.
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