Growing up, my mom was strict. We had no junk food or soft drinks at home, weren’t allowed to play video games on weekdays, and our TV time was rationed. When I wanted weekday fun, I’d have to sneak out, take the elevator down from our condo unit, and play games with a classmate in another unit in the same building. And unlike most who grew up watching cartoons at 7 pm, all I remember are the ones past 9 pm, like The Angry Beavers and CatDog, since those were the only shows I could catch after finishing homework.

My mom was frugal. What you spend money on shows what you value, and my mom was no exception. I only got to buy toys about once a year and grew up with cellphones that were always a generation behind. I got my first smartphone in 2013, when the iPhone 5 was already out!

Yet, there was one exception to my mom’s budgeting: books. No matter how tight finances were, she maintained an unlimited budget for them. It didn’t have to be a birthday or Christmas. Anytime we wanted a book, we simply had to ask, and my mom would find a way to get it, no matter how limited her budget was.

My mom prioritized our education and skills, which was unusual in our community. She was surrounded by people who thought the number of hours worked was more important than being skilled at what you do. Many saw education as a waste of time and money, some even thinking that a person’s ability to earn decreases as they educate themselves since “book smarts reduce street smarts.”

Fortunately, my mom ignored these opinions, and history has proven her instincts right. Even if I didn’t like growing up under such a strict household as a kid, looking back, I’m glad I spent a good chunk of my childhood reading. Almost every skill I possess today, and almost every massive life problem I’ve solved—whether optimizing my college study habits, starting a business from scratch, or learning to invest—I owe to the mountain of books my mom bought me. Without those books, I simply wouldn't be the person I am today.

The most important financial advice I’ve ever received doesn’t come from financial gurus. It’s from my mom: Invest in yourself.

While this sounds like a self-help cliché, many don’t realize that empirical evidence strongly supports this advice. Investing in yourself—through education, skill development, or professional networking—is one of the safest, highest-return investments available. For context, stocks have returned around 10 percent annually over the past century. This pales in comparison to the returns you can get from investing in yourself.

The Asian Development Bank found that Filipino college graduates earn, on average, nearly 52 percent more than those without a college degree, and those with postgraduate degrees earn 20 percent more than people without one. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis found that the annualized returns from investing in college education range from approximately 13.5 percent to nearly 36 percent—much higher than most investments. And for business owners, Business Insider published a story about Steve Siebold, who interviewed 1,200 of the world’s richest people and found that almost all of them were readers. Steve got inspired to read more from these encounters and eventually became a millionaire himself.

The best part: Aside from making bigger returns, salaries from jobs and businesses also tend to be safer and more stable sources of income compared to stocks. Your salary isn’t as volatile as a stock chart, and you regularly get paid in liquid cash. Not only does upskilling ROI faster—it also gets you those huge returns in a much safer way compared to other investments like real estate, bonds, or the stock market.

While much investing revolves around optimizing stock portfolios and maximizing market returns, don’t overlook your most valuable asset: yourself. My mom understood this and raised children who love learning. It was a shrewd, long-term investment that returned huge dividends for us, her children.

To close with a thought from author Derek Sivers: "Mastery is the best goal because the rich can’t buy it, the impatient can’t rush it, the privileged can’t inherit it, and nobody can steal it. You can only earn it through hard work. Mastery is the ultimate status."

An investment in yourself, towards mastery, is an investment that no one can ever take away.

Belated happy Mother’s Day!

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Keith Lim is a personal finance writer and stock market investor. His insights can be found at keithblim.com.