@MichaelClark put in another context where my suggested definition is more clear... would you argue that investing in a child's education isn't an investment

it's an indirect relationship

but when dealing with financial value, you can attribute financial value back to a lot since money is itself just a representation of effort exchanged for things we want or need

and that value exists whether moving through money or moving through barter

it's really looking for taking an expenditure of resources to get more value than those resources were, but that value can take many different shapes

@scottbb - thays no fun! Let US close it as off topic :-P

@MichaelClark Ah! I see!

I suppose my definition of invest would probably be "the expenditure of resources to attempt to achieve a net growth in value over time"