Healthcare Myths Are Keeping You Broke

The intersection of medicine and personal finance is vast.  Mismanaging healthcare costs can lead to dying poor in America, or even worse, being a hundred and homeless like one of my patients.  We often think of the crushing costs of chronic illness and health insurance, but many healthy financial independence enthusiasts like you are also being duped into spending needlessly.  Healthcare myths are keeping you broke.  But you might not know it.  If you are filling your healthcare spending column of your budget with items other than health insurance and prescription medications, you might be throwing away cash with no benefit to your overall well-being.

The supplement, personal fitness, and beauty industries are all trying to sink their claws into your bank account and siphon money from traditional healthcare spending.

Are you falling victim to their marketing schemes?

A Multivitamin a Day Keeps Financial Independence Away

The supplement market is rabid.  For pennies to dollars a day, you can ensure good health by consuming all the right vitamins and minerals packaged in a  pretty little pill.  It all sounds great except for one fact.  There is no evidence that multivitamins or most other supplements improve health.  In fact, to the contrary, there is a suggestion that some vitamins may cause harm.  Most doctors, but not all, realize this and thus are loathe to prescribe them.  Yet, the nonprescription status of these products allows them to market directly to consumers and skip medical evidence altogether.

That is not to say that some vitamins and supplements don’t have a place in modern medicine.  But their medical indications are few and far between.  Thus, your average healthy FI enthusiast has no business wasting their money on these products.

Healthy People Pump Iron

While it is true that moderate aerobic activity and light weight training are beneficial for health, we as a generally unhealthy nation spend billions on gym memberships.  And we are no better off.  For basic health, most of what is needed can be done for a very low price.

Walk.  Run.  Do an exercise video from You Tube.  Buy some barbels.  The point being, there is no reason to spend thousands a year to go to a health club.

Joining a gym is a luxury.  It is something you should do for fun.  But it really is not making you any more healthy than basic calisthenics and aerobic training could do at a fraction of the price.

I’m not saying to quit.  I’m saying to recognize it as entertainment spending and not really health related.

If you are going to the gym solely to be more healthy, you are being duped.

Healthcare myths are keeping you broke.  Don’t fall for this one.

Beauty or Broke?

Ninety percent of beauty products are junk.  And some of them are quite expensive.  Any cream that costs you an arm and leg to make you look younger is likely detracting from your bank account and not your age.  There are very few things as good for your skin as a basic moisturizer.  Above and beyond the many cheap options, you are paying too much.

There is no shampoo that is going to make you hair fuller or stop you from going bald.  It is genetic.  Nothing short of a prescription for Propecia (mildly helpful) or a hair transplant is going to do the job.

If you were meant to lose your hair, there is very little you can do.

Final Thoughts

Although you think of health insurance and fighting disease as the big levers, healthcare myths are keeping you broke without you even realizing it.  You are being duped into thinking that by spending money on supplements, or the gym, or beauty products, you will live a longer more fruitful life.  These habits can be an impediment to financial independence.

Stop wasting money!