Save Money By Taking Better Care of Yourself

In?Is Now A Good Time To Go On A Diet?, we talked about using a diet as a way to save some money. As most of us understand, typical diet plans are expensive, requiring membership in the diet program, the purchase of healthier but more expensive foods, or even the purchase of food and meals directly from the diet sponsor. But our plan actually saved money and was infinitely more basic: diet by eating less food! Today we’re going to take it a step farther, and suggest that you can save money by taking better care of yourself overall.

The Cost Of Doing Nothing

The direct expense of medical care and health insurance coverage are only the most obvious costs of doing nothing. There isn?t space here to go into all of the problems with the healthcare system but it?s more complex than most of us believe. There are no easy solutions, and certainly none that will satisfy all parties. Obamacare is here, and while there’s a few things it’s fixing, there are a whole bunch more that its either not fixed or even made worse. It?s best then to assume that primary responsibility for our healthcare rests squarely with us!

Both health insurance and direct medical expenses are generally in direct proportion to the state of our health. But our level of health has two components: uncontrollable and controllable health conditions.

There are healthcare issues, such as cancer and congenital diseases and conditions that are largely uncontrollable since there is little that can be done to prevent them.

Alternately, there?s a laundry list of conditions which are largely within our ability to control: obesity, hypertension, high cholesterol, stress and accidents among them. Ignoring risk factors associated with these conditions can ultimately result in degraded health and higher expenses for both direct care and insurance coverage.

But that?s only the beginning of what it will cost. Degraded health can lead to stress (over declining health), loss of productivity and even loss of happiness. Each of these factors have direct and indirect costs associated with them.

How to Save Money by Taking Better Care of Yourself

It?s crucial to understand that our health is a long term project, not unlike building a career, a business or a retirement plan. Just as bad habits can degrade health over many years, making improvements may also take years. But what is the alternative?

There are many changes you can implement which will not only improve your health, but also save you money in the process:

Diet. As mentioned at the beginning of this post, it?s possible to implement a ?diet? by reducing the amount of food you buy and consume. As a result of that effort in my family, we have been able to lower our grocery budget by an average of about 25%, and we?ve all lost weight. I myself have shed at least 15 pounds since the beginning of the year. Weight lost and money saved on groceries, a double win!

Exercise. The health benefits of exercise are covered everywhere, but in our media driven culture what isn?t always obvious is the fact that you can easily do it without spending a bunch of money on equipment or gym memberships. It costs nothing to walk a couple of miles a day, or to jog or ride a bicycle, but eventual improvements in weight, energy level, cardiovascular fitness and attitude can be substantial. How much money would you save if you could get yourself off of blood pressure medication?

Stress Reduction. So many health conditions are either caused – or made worse – by stress. No doubt life throws so many challenges at us so quickly that stress is inevitable. Still, some of it can be prevented. It?s doubtless that much of the stress we face is brought on by lack of balance. THAT?S something we can control. Lack of balance can be brought into our lives by spending more than we earn, packing our schedules with more activities than we can reasonably handle or by poor health habits. Identify and correct controllable sources of stress, and you can free up your mind and your time for more productive efforts.

Lower risk lifestyle. This is a category which is completely within our control. The usual suspects like smoking, drinking and drug use come to mind, but we can also add reckless driving and dangerous hobbies. It should go without saying that you can save money by eliminating or at least reducing smoking and alcohol consumption, which has also been shown to produce direct health benefits. And how much will it cost to wear your seatbelt and slow down a bit when you drive?

Smoking is an excellent example. It’s a tough habit to break, and standard nicotine patch therapy is expensive and not always effective. But there?s a new trend called vaping or vaporizing. I know about this because my son took up vaping as a way to beat his own cigarette habit. This technology uses steam, and not smoke, and can be an excellent way to break an entrenched smoking habit. There is some cost involved, but it is much less than the cost of regular tobacco use, and it has none of the negative health side effects. It could be a way to break what has been a seemingly unbreakable cigarette habit for a lot of people.

The Pay Off

Some of the payoff is in the form of direct expense reduction, but perhaps more significant are the financial benefits from the resulting improvements in attitude and outlook.

Cost of healthcare. Take better care of yourself and you have an excellent chance to cut down on the amount of money you spend for direct medical costs and for health insurance coverage. In and of itself this savings should provide sufficient incentive to take charge of your health.

Better productivity. It?s no secret that healthier people tend to be more productive than their less healthy coworkers. Increase your productivity and you may be more likely to keep your job in a bad economy, get a promotion in the future, or to develop the energy needed to trade up to a better paying job. Also, it may not be fair, but excessive weight and low energy level doesn?t help your image in the eyes of employers, whether in regard to promotion or hiring. Think of the career opportunities that could result just from losing a few pounds and putting a spring in your step.

Greater confidence in your future. We worry about many things in life, such as job security, saving for the future, and our children and family. But high on the list is our health. Let?s face it, how healthy we are has a strong impact not only on how long we?ll live, but on what the quality of that time will be. The better we feel about our health, the more confident we?ll be of everything else.

Sense of well being. This is probably the most under appreciated benefit of greater health. We can feel better about ourselves, move faster along the career path, and save a substantial amount of money doing so. But taken together, these advantages provide an overall sense of well being. When you feel good, you can take on just about anything.

Is any of this not worth trying?

What are some changes you?ve made or plans you?ve implemented to lower living or business expenses? What expenses have you been able to reduce? Are there any you?ve been able to eliminate entirely? Big ideas, small ideas, they?re all worth exploring.

( Photo by Mark Morgan Trinidad B )