Health is Wealth

Can I bend your ear for a little bit?  Can I keep it 100% for you?  You may have noticed that I keep bringing up the issue of health or talking about working out or eating plant-based. You may be asking yourself “Isn’t the Financial Effect about Finances? Wealth?” You know why I keep bringing up health?

Because health is wealth. 

Some of you are not going to hear me.  You are going to disregard what I say and think that I am messing with you.  Or I am just writing something just for the sake of writing something or attempting to make a connection where there is none. But I am here to tell you that HEALTH IS WEALTH. Some of you are listening to me but you are not HEARING me.  YOUR HEALTH IS LITERALLY YOUR WEALTH.

Let me make the case for you.

• When you are not at your best it affects your wealth
• When you are unhappy in a marriage it affects your wealth
• When you are depressed it affects your wealth
• When you are overweight it affects your wealth
• When your children are unhappy or in a bad place it affects your wealth
• When you wake up tired in the morning and unmotivated it affects your wealth
• When you are mentally stressed it affects your wealth

Still don’t get it?

When you wake up in the morning groggy and tired, I bet sometimes you end up being short with your kids or your spouse. How does that impact them?  What are they thinking when this happens?  Are they really thinking, oh, they are just tired, or are they thinking that this is how you are and for some reason you don’t really like them?  Are they thinking that they are an inconvenience to you because you don’t seem genuinely happy to see them?  How is that impacting your finances you ask?

That is a funny question to me.  Because it matters.  It matters so much because now you are entering the grand ole negative feedback loop.

What is a negative feedback loop? 

It is when something bad happens to you and starts to feed into other bad things that start happening in your life. i.e. I feel horrible, so I snap at my children, my wife, my friends. They in turn snap back at you. Now you feel horrible and mad. Now that you feel worse, you snap again at your children, your spouse, your friends. Getting stuck in this loop you may start eating bad foods, exercising less, feeling less motivated and more irritable. What does this do? Makes you feel even worse and the cycle continues. It feeds into itself.

It’s a cycle.

Here’s an example for you.  You are tired all the time.  You are taking medicine for your ailments.  You don’t work out.  You don’t take the needed time to work on yourself physically, mentally and/or spiritually.  You tell the love of your life that you are tired and she hears you but eventually, after hearing it over and over, she stops listening. It’s not her fault because she doesn’t really know or understand your pain.

She isn’t in your skin and she isn’t walking in your shoes.  So, after a while, the disconnect between you and your spouse turns from you just being tired to you not liking her the way you used to.  I mean, after all, you snapped at her the other day for something minor.  You snapped at her for just trying to help you.  And because you are so miserable you don’t even recognize what you’re doing.    What does she do when she feels this disconnect with you? She looks to fill the void in other ways.

Maybe she becomes distant. Maybe she shops to fill the void. Maybe she drinks, cheats, or worse leaves you.

How does all of this not affect your wealth? 

I know you have heard the term ‘it’s cheaper to keep her’. To be honest, I hate that term.  By my estimation, it is also cheaper to keep him too.  Read the paragraph above and replace she with he and it is all the same.  You are better off financially being together rather than separate.  Your children are better when you are together.  If you end in divorce or living separate lives in the same house, does that not affect your wealth?

What about your kids? 

What are your kids thinking?  Are they thinking that you are just tired?  Or just like your spouse, are they thinking there is some underlining issue that has to do with them?  You may think to yourself that this is an absurd thought.  But that time they wanted to show you a dance routine or they wanted you to smile at them for something they thought you would be proud of, you didn’t.  They start to feel like they are an inconvenience to you.  How do they handle this?  They start to listen to you less because why should they – you don’t REALLY care about them.

So, what do they do?

Maybe they start to perform poorly in school or talk to you less. Maybe they make poor choice to get you to pay attention to them because afterall they’re looking for attention and if you aren’t giving them positive attention, negative attention is better than no attention at all. Mentally they may check out from you.

Next thing you know you are now paying for tutoring because of their poor school performance which is a direct correlation to the lack of attention they’re receiving from you.  You are having to take time off from work because they are acting up in school or perhaps paying for therapy to try and figure out why their behavior has been so off lately.

Your wife just snapped at you because she is tired of you snapping at her.  You asked your kid to take the clean dishes out of the dishwasher and he/she rolled their eyes and just walked away.  You look around your house and realize it is a pig sty because you are too tired to clean, but you’re thinking it isn’t your fault because you are way more tired than your spouse.  Don’t they know how tired you are?

Tired and pissie, you head off to work and what do you do? 

You get pissie with a coworker or worse, you get pissie with your subordinate.  Maybe you are not as chipper with your boss.  The people at work start to wonder what is wrong with you.  They know about some of your stress but again, you can’t control their thoughts and feelings.

What if you’re the boss and you show your ass throwing around an attitude? Your staff start to think negatively about you and no longer follow your lead.  Or they too, begin to roll their eyes when you speak.  How does that not affect your wealth?

Are you hearing me now? Your health is your wealth.

As a financial advisor, I have to tell you a few things.

• I hate divorce
• I hate when you don’t get the promotion
• I hate to hear that you’re hurting and spending huge amounts of money on medical bills
• I hate having to pull money out of your accounts to help your children who don’t seem to be helping themselves

Do you know what I love?

• I love a strong family unit
• I love celebrating your promotion
• I love pulling money out for awesome vacations
• I love pulling money out for colleges, weddings, and help with first down payments

When we do the things that we love, we are happier people and make moves towards increasing our wealth.  This is when you enter the positive feedback loop.

What is the positive feedback loop? 

I feel great so I tell my children I love them more often. I make sure my spouse hears and feels that I love her often too. In turn they give me love back and that makes me feel amazing. I tell my co-workers I appreciate them, I get a promotion and I FEEL GREAT.

It is all connected. 

Sure, you can be healthy and broke.  You can be rich and unhealthy.  But let me ask you this; how good would you be if you had balance in your life?  What if you took some of that discipline you have in one area of your life, and started to apply it a little bit across the board?    What if, you put your mind, body, and finances in the most optimal position to achieve success?

This doesn’t mean you have to be the richest person on earth or even in the room.  It means you are able to live comfortably in order to provide for your family and be the best person you can be for the people around you and to your community.

Maybe your ‘wealth’ is your happiness.  Maybe your ‘wealth’ is a long hug from your spouse.  Maybe your wealth is getting kisses from your children well into their adult years.

In the end, it is all connected, it’s all full-circle and ultimately your health is your wealth. Hopefully, now you are hearing me.