The Connection Between Health and Finance
Financial and personal health are more connected than you may think. Conscientiousness is a personality trait that people who have good financial habits and people who have good health habits share. The Journal of Psychological Science reports:
If you find yourself neglecting to save for retirement, take an honest look at your physical health as well. If one is out of order, it’s likely that the other also needs maintenance.
Here are a few ways health and finance are connected:
1. Budgeting for a Healthy Lifestyle Helps Your Pocketbook
Healthy eating impacts your body as well as your wallet. Think about it: Eating out or eating fast-food is not only unhealthy, but also expensive. According to the USDA, a family of four eating moderately at home will spend about $245 per week on food, which is half of what they’d spend eating at restaurants.
People who eat out on a regular basis are also less likely to be conscientious about planning their grocery store trips or plan their retirement savings strategy. Budgeting your spending and setting goals can help you on both fronts. Healthy food at a lesser expense means you can get the best of both worlds.
2. Increased Energy for Sound Body, Mind and Savings
Regular exercise promotes endorphins and increased energy for your body and your brain. This helps boost cognitive ability and a better memory to help promote good decision-making for diligent financial planning and portfolio management. In addition, exercising helps you connect with your body and can improve your confidence to better reach goals and minimize temptation. Marguerita Cheng, CFP and CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth, comments:
“Just as there may be stress-eating, there may be stress-spending. Exercise helps with this. Exercise can improve confidence, which can help people make more informed decisions and take the meaningful actions necessary to reach their goals.”
Regular exercise all promotes a healthy body to keep you strong to prevent illness and injury. When you’re healthy, you have less medical bills.
3. Working Longer and Enjoying a More Fulfilling Career
A healthy lifestyle and exercising also promotes working longer. If you’re healthy, you have the opportunity to work longer or even take on a second job after retirement. Retirement today is not that of a generation ago as most people don’t have a company pension, company-paid health care or assured Social Security. Today you need to be more proactive to plan for retirement and be diligent about investing.
According to a study from the Families and Work Institute, many people are working past age 65 and many seniors are staying in or are returning to the workforce because they “want to earn more money to retire more comfortably,” or because they believe they “would be bored not working.” The additional income will help not only build a bigger nest egg but will also provide some stimulating social interaction and new skills in the process.
Ways to Be Proactive About Your Future Health and Finances
A healthy life promotes a wealthy lifestyle. People who value their future selves enough to regularly put money aside in a nest egg are more likely to also make healthier choices in the present to improve their health in the future.
This seems like an obvious assumption, but it’s now supported by hard evidence.
Planning to be healthy is very similar to planning to be wealthy as you have to be conscientious and have the incredible forethought to achieve goals. If you start planning to:
- Eat healthily
- Exercise
- Get eight hours of sleep a night
- Have pre-planned meals on a regular basis
You’re setting yourself up for good health habits that also translate into the financial world.