Financial Freedom may become an elusive goal, if you are not focusing on one of the most important aspects of your life: Your Health.
I realize that all of us start with certain aspects of our health that can’t be changed. For each of us, there is an “optimal” health that is based on such factors as family history, accidents, or illness. This optimal health would represent the healthiest we can be, if we make the wisest health-related choices moving forward. We can’t do anything about the past, but we can take steps to improve our future.
The impact of making these changes can be significant. Not only will our life expentancy increase, along with the quality of our life; but the financial impact may be felt immediately. Two of the most obvious financial impacts are the costs of medications and treatments and the loss of time while undergoing a treatment program. The less obvious impact may be the cost of necessary insurance coverages or the impact on job performance.
Although there are several health-related factors that are directly under our control, these two may be the most important:
Weight Management – Do you know your BMI (Body Mass Index)? You may be surprised to learn that the BMI numbers across the United States today are higher in every state than the highest BMI numbers anywhere in the country in 1990. (See CDC website if you want some interesting metrics.) What this means is that we truely are experiencing an epidemic of obesity in this country that is impacting the costs of healthcare for all of us.
But more importantly, it may be impacting YOUR financial future. If you are carrying too much weight, you are subjecting yourself to the increased risk of diseases like diabeties, high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, and cancer. These major diseases not only cost significant amounts of money for treatment, they will also impact your ability to perform at your highest level; which affects your income as well.
Smoking – If you are still smoking, even with all the warnings you are hearing; you are still not realizing what that activity is costing you. A friend of mine, who stopped smoking over 30 years ago, talks about how he quit “cold turkey” when the price of cigarettes increased to $.50 a pack. Anyone who is still smoking would consider that price to be a steal: $.50 won’t even cover the taxes.
As of today, a pack of cigarettes in the United States varies from almost $5.00 to $12.50. At an average cost of $8.75 a pack, a 2 pack a day cigaratte habit costs almost $6,400 a year!! To make matters worse, the additional costs of your health insurance, life insurance and disabiliy insurance attributed to smoking can be much higher than that. And finally, this doesn’t count the impact on the way you feel, the wear and tear on your wardrobe, and the impact on your quality of life.
So, if you really want to have an impact on your finances for the long-term, make the investments today to put yourself and your family on the path the achieveing Optimal Health.
And now I would like to invite you to claim your FREE Instant Access to an online Health Assessment, which will help you to determine whether your health is likely to impact your Financial Freedom. This assessment is available at abundance-by-design.tsfl.com. (None of this information is saved online. You can print your final results to establish a “beginning” date to compare to your health improvement goals later.)
Tags: Health, Weight Loss
Leave A Reply (16 comments so far)
Laurie Hagedorn
12 years ago
Great article, Peggy! Optimal health needs to cover all aspects of our lives. It is sad to me to look around and see for myself all the obesity everywhere. It is as if our society has been poisoned. And really, are people still smoking? Yes, they are, and they need to stop. Maybe the calculations you have supplied us with here will help open some people’s eyes to how much they can actually save by quitting that unhealthy habit. No, I am not preaching – I am an ex-smoker myself and love, love, love how much better I feel! Thanks again!
PeggyLusk
12 years ago
Thank you so much for your feedback, Laurie. I’m so glad to hear that you were able to break away from smoking: I know that the impact on the quality of your life is huge.
If you would like more information about how you as an individual can impact your finances through your daily actions, I have a free video series available on my website call “Take Control of Your Financial Destiny“. The second video in the series has further information about the obesity epidemic we are facing.
Maho Quinn
12 years ago
Never thought about how your health affects your financial impact. Great point! Obesity has become an epidemic in this country as well as the world. I look forward to reading more of your blog posts.
PeggyLusk
12 years ago
Thank you for checking out my blog, Maho. I’m so glad that you found this one to be enlightening. I hadn’t realized either how much impact weight can have on financial status, until my husband and I lost weight ourselves. I hope you will check out my video series link on the blog as well. “Take Control of Your Financial Destiny” is free, and will likely give you some additional “Ah Hah” moments. 🙂
Amethyst Mahoney
12 years ago
Great post, Peggy, and congratulations on your transformation! It really is true about the finances. I have several friends who spend anywhere between $250 and $750 (!!) each and every month on doctor bills, medicine, and C-Pap equipment all related to their extreme obesity (we’re talking 350 pounds plus here). They all struggle financially and can’t really advance in their jobs because of how much time off they have to take. But they still have time to run through the dollar menu drive-through every day. It’s really sad.
PeggyLusk
12 years ago
Thank you so much for your welcome feedback, Amethyst. I have some very close experience with the trade off between perscriptions and weight loss with my very own husband. It doesn’t take much excess weight to start having problems with your internal organs; and those just won’t get better with perscription drugs.
I think the ones that sadden me the most are those that tell me they can’t do anything about their weight; that it’s just hereditary. Or, worse yet, that they just can’t give up their favorite food. In my case, I really wasn’t eating enough food, especially with the work-out program I had chosen. My metabolism was shot, and I was burning muscle as I was trying to build it. It was really difficult to get on a schedule of eating every 2-3 hours and drinking all the water I need. It really is a daily choice to sacrifice the short-term desire to eat when and what you want, with the long-term desire to live a long and healthy life.
I use meal supplementation to stay on track, since I don’t have time to cook something that frequently. Our overall food budget isn’t really more expensive than it was before I began the program a couple of years ago: We just buy less at the grocery store. And I really save a lot of food expense when I travel! Since I always have something in my purse that I can eat, I’m no longer tempted by the dollar menu drive-through. (I didn’t even include that in my previous spending totals: I guess I should check my numbers..) 🙂
Jan
12 years ago
Oh wow – congrats on your transformation. That before and after pic was so inspiring 🙂
PeggyLusk
12 years ago
Thank you so much for your kind words, Jan… I actually have that picture on my office wall, and on my water cup, to inspire me as well. 🙂
What was really weird about the before picture is that even though my BMI numbers were high (44) and my weight was higher than it had even been in my life (197 pounds); I was working out 6 days a week and had convinced myself that my health was improving. It WAS better than 3 years before, when I was barely exercising at all; but was a long way from healthy. When I looked in a mirror, I really didn’t see that person that showed in the pictures. In fact, when I put that before and “during” picture together a year ago, even close family members were amazed at the difference. They had watched me lose it, and still didn’t see the difference without the picture. (I always advise people to have a before picture taken, even if they really don’t like to appear on camera.)
I’m still working on losing the last 10-20 pounds, but am focused on keeping the weight off by making permanent changes to the way I deal with food; rather than going on a “diet”. I am amazed at the difference in how I feel and work!
Leanne Chesser
12 years ago
I absolutely agree that our health is connected to our financial freedom. I believe that we need to grow in all the areas of our lives – – I think that freedom, success and abundance have to do with all life areas, not only our finances. Also, we need our health in order to enjoy our financial freedom.
PeggyLusk
12 years ago
Thank you, Leanne… I couldn’t have said it better… 🙂
Linda Ursin
12 years ago
Many people forget about their health when working towards abundance. I haven’t, but it’s a very slow process due to chronic pain. I know my BMI, not that it says a lot according to my doctor. He says I’m not supposed to go below 66 kgs regardless of BMI, because then I would only be losing muscle tissue. It still leaves 20 kgs to go though 🙂
PeggyLusk
12 years ago
Thank you so much for your comments, Linda. I understand the additional complications when you are already dealing with health issues. (These also tend to increase as each of us get older.)
Just knowing what your optimal body weight is and setting that as an achievement goal are the most important steps to getting there. Reward yourself for your accomplishment: You have added quality time to your life, and increased your abundance already! 🙂
KishaLynn
12 years ago
What a genius twist of an incentive to focus on your healthiest body–tying in how your finances are linked. Great post and congratulations on your body transformation!
PeggyLusk
12 years ago
Thank you so much for your response, Kisha… This is actually an area I stress in my financial training, due to the impact health has on finances. It doesn’t make sense to be deprived of healthy food and a gym membership, to spend the money instead on medications for the rest of our lives…
Akos Fintor
12 years ago
Hey Peggy,
It’s mind blowing that people are willing to throw away their health to gain financial freedom, then of course they spend a fortune to get their health back. LOL.
you hit the nail in the head with that one.
Keep ’em coming!
Akos
PeggyLusk
12 years ago
Hi Akos,
Thank you for connecting with me and commmenting on my blog. Yes, it really is mind-blowing how related your focus on health is to your success in becoming financially free. I’m so glad that you are focusing on Health..
Peggy