Prioritizing Health

Healthcare is one of the fastest rising costs right now, far outpacing the standard inflation rate. While the typical CPI based inflation rate averaged around 2.6% since 2000, medical care costs averaged 3.4%. While that might not seem like a large difference, over a 24 year period medical care costs rose 121% while normal goods and services rose 86%.

Regardless of your views on our healthcare system in the United States, you should be prepared for what the future  holds, for better or for worse! This post isn’t about maxing out your HSA (health savings account) or getting the proper insurance, although those things are integral parts of a healthy financial system. These subjects are covered in my book and in other personal finance books. This blog post is about optimizing your own personal health so that you are less likely to fall back on your insurance and health savings. If you aren’t already an active individual, then you do everything you can to increase your quantity and quality of activity throughout the week. Here are some benchmarks that you can shoot for. You don’t need to start out with these but perhaps make them targets—your future self will thank you!

• Active: ~150 minutes of moderate activity per week or 75 minutes of intense exercise
• Very active: ~300 minutes of moderate activity per week or 150 minutes of intense exercise
• Super active: ~420 minutes of moderate activity per week or 210 minutes of intense exercise

Moderate activity counts as aerobic activities that you can perform while talking. Intense exercise is indicated by the inability to talk while doing it. You can also use a smart watch to track your heart rate for a more accurate measurement, although it is certainly not necessary.

You do not need to go to the gym for 2 hours a day every day of the week to reap the benefits of a more active life, despite what Instagram fitness influencers say. A “very active” lifestyle can be 200 minutes of moderate activity like speed walking or light jogging (40 minutes for 5 days which works out to about 4000 intentional steps per day) and 50 minutes of intense exercise like going to the gym (1 gym session). A little bit goes a long way. Much like investing, in which building the habit of investing is initially more important than the details, building a routine and habit for exercise is more important than what you are doing during that time. Don’t get hung up on choosing the perfect workout routine, i.e., suffering from analysis paralysis. Lay out some simple goals and get started, then let your progress and long term goals tell you what you need to improve. Put yourself in the best position possible to live a long and healthy life! Listen to your body, eat healthy foods, and get adequate rest.

Lifespan isn’t the most important metric when it comes to health, but rather healthspan, i.e., the span of your life in which you are healthy and able bodied. For most people, it’s better to live to 80 and be fully able to live a quality life versus living to 90 but in and out of the hospital and in constant pain for the last 20 years. We can all agree that the quality of life in both of those situations is very different, as are the financial implications.

Therefore, staying healthy is extremely important. Remember, fitness is a marathon, not a sprint. A regular effort at consistent intervals is far better than a few weeks of high intensity “getting back into it” then fading away. Find a schedule that works for you and stick to it. Much like a budget, the best one is the one that you’ll follow and one that is not overly ambitious. Do not worry about your progress as long as you are getting out there and doing something consistently to improve yourself. Progress will come. The only person you are competing against is the person you were yesterday. Ultimately, the goal of taking care of yourself not only benefits your overall quality of life, but also greatly reduces the changes of major healthcare expenses in the future or at least postpones them until an older age. It’s a component of the financial equation that not many people think about but has a profound impact on their finances. Happy exercising!