Investing in our own health!

One of the most important assets we have in our lives is our good health!

Health, wealth and happiness
In our quest for financial freedom, we sometimes forget that one of the greatest assets in our lives is to possess good health. What good is all the gold in the world if we do not have good health to enjoy it?

One of the side-benefits of being a conscript in the Lion City is that physical fitness and health is not far away from your mind. The annual requirement to pass the Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT) makes male Singapore Citizens who are medically fit push ourselves at least once a year to complete a series of tests including chin ups, shuttle run, standing broad jump, sit-ups and the dreaded 2.4 kilometre run.

What I realised from National Service was that my own health was in my hands. The ironic thing was that despite knowing that physical fitness contributes to good health along with a sensible diet, I continued to be rather slack in exercise and only really picked up a regular exercise regime after I have completed my 10 years of reservist.

Nowadays I try to play tennis once a week on Saturday mornings and jog on Sundays as well as one of the weekdays. My diet is also rather healthy as my breakfasts consist of multi-grain cereals from Mondays to Fridays and I tackle hawker fare for breakfast only on weekends.

Investment in health pays dividends
Investing in our health by having a sensible diet coupled with moderate exercise pays dividends by reducing our sick-leave, medical costs as well as generally well-being and peace of mind. I now realise that by being careful in what you put in your mouth, your choices of diet can affect your waistline. In my case, the multi-grain/quaker oats breakfast diet over the past 1 year has resulted in my pants getting looser over time. It is a good feeling that there is some spare space between one's pants and stomach.

Exercise is also a good stress reliever and helps to boost up one's immune system to fight off coughs, colds and flus that affect our quality of life and the quantity of our wallets! Given that medical inflation tends to be higher than the average consumer price index, our journey towards financial freedom can be derailed if our health gets impacted through neglect and apathy.

Include health as part of your financial goals
Our quest for financial freedom should not ignore our health. One of my personal affirmations is,

"Everyday in everyway I attract health, happiness and wealth!"

I deliberately put health and happiness in front of wealth because I see wealth as the means to an end and not the end in itself. If you are healthy and happy, even eating porridge and salted vegetables allows you to be happy. Occasional newspaper articles featuring the lifestyle habits of folks who make it to the century mark in terms of their age usually show these longevity experts as having simple lifestyles filled with regular exercise, simple meals and a positive outlook in life.

If you haven't already done so, do include an affirmative statement in as part of your daily affirmation or goal setting. It helps you to focus on what is important, your health in addition to your focus on financial freedom.

Be well, be healthy and be prosperous!