LOUISE FAIRSAVE: Your money, health
A PIVOTAL ASPECT of wise spending is maintaining a healthy mind and body. Wealth and health are deeply related, even more than you think.
We all need to be well to attend work and earn a living, but how many of us have realised that a major health concern could wipe out our cash savings in short order?
Anyone of us could possibly be reduced to a vegetable state of existence from a fall or road accident. Alternately, a major illness may immobilise us. Even with medical insurance coverage, the cost of medical care can be onerous, utilising all the family savings and leaving the family in debt, particularly if overseas medical attention is required.
There have been countless appeals to government and to the general public for assistance with the cost of local or overseas medical care for loved ones. This just highlights one of the major, and many times, unpredictable risks of catastrophic health care costs.
Recent pension reform measures require the younger generation to work for a longer period before being entitled to full National Insurance pension. Will they live long enough to collect a worthy portion of the pension and social security payments for which they would have worked very hard?
Longevity more often than not involves applying the tenets of a healthy lifestyle: keeping physically fit, taking care with one’s diet, avoiding addictions like smoking, alcohol and illegal drugs; managing stress and keeping a positive outlook. Do you realise how important your personal health is to your ability to earn, and to your capacity to build wealth and to enjoy the wealth you accumulate?
Some may say: “My family has money. I don’t have to worry about working in order to earn a living.” In those cases, your money’s worth may be working for you through its earnings. Yet, unless you keep on earning, you could possibly be digging a financial grave for yourself.
One sure legacy of your antecedents may be found in their health profile. Check it out. Be doubly sure that you have inherited no dire health risks. For as pointed out earlier, health care costs without the help of government or charity can obliterate fortunes.
For all of us, even as we plan our finances, it is important to consider the health of your nearest relatives as contributing to the prediction for our health going forward. Given any aspiration to gain wealth, have you considered your future health and your life expectancy? What is your likely wealth/health legacy? Your pattern for spending and building wealth depends on these answers and may be totally different from anyone else’s that you know.
Avoiding or reducing stress is a more prominent thrust of today’s world. When you spend wisely and your finances are in order, you are more likely to be at ease than if you are burdened with worrying debt, or bills for which you cannot find cash to pay.
Then, addictions like gambling present mental and psychological health problems that can drown anyone and their family in debt. Sometimes, family members are forced to cut themselves off from the addicted relative in order to save their own sanity and finances.
Illness, whether physical or psychological, which threatens one ability to function normally is an antithesis to wealth-building. In extreme cases, this will manifest itself as overwhelming debt.
The crux of the matter is that a healthy lifestyle is fundamentally important to our avoiding debt and sustaining manageable finances. We must all look out not only for our personal health, but for the health of all our relatives and dependents in trying to spend wisely and to build wealth. Yet, bear in mind always that the course of life is never entirely in our control. Setbacks in health and wealth can happen to anyone, anytime.
• Louise Fairsave is a personal financial management adviser, providing practical advice on money and estate matters. Her advice is general in nature; readers should seek advice about their specific circumstances.
This column is sponsored by the Barbados Workers’ Union Co-op Credit Union Ltd.
