Invest In Yourself

I thought it would be more useful to write about something that’s been on my mind lately. The front image for this post is from Home Depot, but I’m sure a lot of people can relate to the situation behind it.

This past weekend, my automated garage door malfunctioned so badly that the anchor point holding the motor actually tore out of the wall. The door became completely stuck and unusable.

I’ve never worked on an automated garage door before, so my first instinct was to call a handyman. But with 2026 inflation being what it is, the guy wanted $500 just to show up—and that was only because it was the weekend. I really didn’t want to pay that, so I turned to YouTube to teach myself how the system works.

Within about half an hour, I understood why the door operator failed and decided to try fixing it myself.

Right Tools
I won’t pretend I have no experience fixing things. After years of living in a house, you naturally pick up some understanding of wear and tear on basic hardware. Doors are usually simple—every once in a while they just need some WD‑40 on the hinges or latches.

A garage door follows the same idea, but with heavier use over the years, the anchor points had worn down. The spring tension was slightly off, and the motor ended up misaligning when pulling the door upward.

With a few power tools and some new brackets, I reset the connection between the motor and the door. It took me almost half a day since it was my first time working on this kind of equipment, but I eventually got the automated door working again.

Looking back, the obvious truth is that I was trying to save money and needed the fix immediately. But over the years, I’ve built up enough experience—and collected the right tools—to troubleshoot things like motors and door mechanisms. None of that happened overnight, and even though it took time and effort, it was absolutely worth it.

If I had paid someone to fix it, the end result would have been the same. But by investing my own time and energy, I gained more knowledge and kept my money in my pocket. In short, it’s often wiser to invest in yourself rather than relying solely on money to solve every problem.

Thanks for reading this post.