Bear Mountain Bull

Investing for Retirement - In Your Health

Everyone knows you need to set aside money for retirement, but here’s another investment for retirement that needs attention: Your health. And just like your money investments, the earlier you start the better. You can’t wait until you have high blood pressure, a heart attack, diabetes and then start investing in “pills” to control it. A much better plan is to mimic setting aside money every paycheck. Set aside time to–yes, folks, exercise! Just like any other investment, it needs to be a way of life, a steady progression of making sure that you maintain your muscles, your weight and thus your retirement health.

This doesn’t mean that you need to enter the Ironman. We can’t all be billionaires and we won’t all win marathons. But you can invest in a stay-fit program. Any program is better than none. Find something you like—or can at least stand. That may mean swimming three times a week, running, basketball, or biking. For me, I walk every day, about a mile and a half. I may miss ten days out of the year when I don’t walk. It’s my commitment to my health so that I’ll still be walking when I’m eighty. Even that small investment wasn’t enough; in the last couple of years I’ve had to add dreaded weight lifting. It would seem that pounding the pavement wasn’t doing anything to help those flabby sails forming in my arms. Mind you, I don’t lift weights for instant gratification or huge muscles (and anyone that could see my puny muscles could attest to that!) I do it so that I can carry the groceries in from the car when I’m sixty.

Exercise and eating right can also save money. If you’re fit, you’re less likely to fall, you’re less likely to have a heart attack, diabetes, high blood pressure—exercise even helps your mental state. Yeah, sounds great. But no, it isn’t easy either. It involves sacrifice. It can involve spending money, but it doesn’t have to. Walking is free. After an initial investment, weight lifting doesn’t have to cost anything either. Same with biking, hiking, throwing a ball around, etc.

Just like you want your kids to know about money investing, you need to make sure they know about health investing. You teach them to brush their teeth everyday—how about exercising every day, which is probably just as important to long-term health? Get outside with them—throw the football, the baseball, help them practice. Don’t think you don’t have time—you have the rest of your life to exercise, but your life is only going to be as long as you are healthy.

Motivators:

1. Stand in front of the mirror. Turn sideways. No, don’t suck in your gut. Just stand there and note the sheer roundness.
2. Women: Put on a bathing suit. ‘nuf said.
3. Men: Yes, you still fit in the same size pants as college, but in college you didn’t wear them under your stomach.
4. Try taking one flight of stairs. If you have to stop and rest before going another flight (either up or down), maybe you should consider exercising for your health — and the lives of the people around you trying to get out during a fire.
5. Women: Stand in front of the mirror in a sleeveless top. Hold arm out. Measure the wind sail flailing beneath your arm. Two choices: lift weights or never wear sleeveless again.
6. Touch your toes. Okay, just look for them. How far do you have to lean over to see them? Now try it without the swim fins on and tell the truth…
7. And perhaps the number one hint that you need to get in shape: You’re on an airplane and the flight attendant asks you: “Would you like a seatbelt extender?”

Retirement requires money, but it also requires being there and being healthy to enjoy it. Just like with your money, you’re better off investing sooner rather than later. Find a program—any program and commit to it. Realize that exercise and eating decently is a privilege as well as a responsibility. But just like investing, the sacrifices you make now, add up–it’s worth it in the long run.

Article contributed by MES