How is health wealth?
You’ve heard the saying Health is Wealth. But, how is health wealth? Traditionally, the saying implies that your health is more valuable than the things you can buy with money. This saying is often accompanied by a story of a scrooge like man that prioritized amassing his wealth and all of sudden being struck with some sort of illness to the point where he realizes that all of his money is worth nothing in the face of death. The issue with this story is that it doesn’t encourage you to be financially responsible in the pursuit of better health. Meaning you can be a person that goes to Equinox gym, shop at wholefoods, and have hired several personal trainers, dieticians, and therapists but be completely broke in the process. With that said, there has to be some sort of balance, but overall I would agree that health is indeed wealth. Pursing better health in a financially responsible way can save you even more money.
The Cost of unhealthy habits
According to the researchers working with the Disease Control Priorities Network, the three most common preventable causes of death in the population of the United States are smoking, high blood pressure, and being overweight. The annual costs of being overweight is roughly $4,879 for an obese woman and $2,646 for an obese man roughly due to various costs in high blood pressure & vitamin medication prescriptions coupled with doctor visit costs. In hindsight, that $4,879 cost pales when its stacked up against a $360 annual membership to your local gym. One may look at the cost of obesity and may not think it’s much, but it’s a very conservative amount and assumes that you only suffer from obesity and you don’t incur any additional costs from other likely obesity related illnesses and conditions including diabetes, cancer, and even just back problems. If we were looking to add the cost of all these additional diseases that are caused from obesity, it would be clear that simply eating healthy and taking care of your body can not only save you loads of money, but can save your life.
Prioritize your health and money at the same time
I’m not a hardcore advocate of going to the gym because going to the gym doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re a healthier person as you can go to the gym and lay on a mat for an hour and go back home having not exercised. Therefore, I am an advocate for exercise and eating balanced meals. If your pressed on cash, try to take a walk around the block or opt to walk to short destinations. If you really don’t know where to start, I’d recommend going on Youtube and looking up specific workout programs and exercises. Skip motivational videos or videos that aim to get you to buy some sort of product or exercise program. As for eating healthy, eliminating all processed, high sugar, high cholesterol foods, high sodium foods may be a stretch for many depending on how much you love food. But, if you want to see some incremental progress, I’d recommend adding more vegetables to your meals and slowly reducing some of the known unhealthy options. Recognize that the options I’ve laid out bears little to no cost to you and maximizes the benefits to your health. Though these options help improve your health and safeguard your finances, there are several more ways to prioritize your health and money simultaneously, but the first step is to recognize being healthy is more likely to save you money than being unhealthy.
