Physical and Financial Fitness
Physical and Financial Fitness
I have been stumbling over this idea for a long time. Although it seems fairly intuitive, I struggle with the ability to tie these concepts together in a satisfying manner. Physical and financial fitness are connected. I’m sure of it. Yet, I can’t always delineate why. Why are so many in our community so active and health conscious? It would seem that the answer should be obvious.
Here are a few of my thoughts.
Mind Body Connection
Although we like to think of financial independence as an economic issue, I think we miss the point. Financial independence is a mental health issue. it always has been. The point of extirpating ourselves from W2 bondage is to release our minds from the torture of the non purposeful life. Or to release the tension and anxiety about risk mitigation and grab a hold of risk management. Either way, the point of pursuing this path is safety. Security. Happiness.
We want to clear our minds of the economic clutter.
So it’s not much of a stretch to consider that part of mental well being is embracing physical health. Physical and financial fitness go together. There is a mind body connection. In order to truly pursue one, one must be at least partially engaged in the other.
Economic Optimization
There is a belief system out there that if we take care of our bodies, we will spend less. This is especially claimed in regards to healthcare. Although nothing is going to minimize the cost of insurance, many believe being a good steward of physical fitness will mitigate out of pocket costs.
Whether this is true or not remains to be proven.. Being a physician, I have seen many sport and exercise related injuries that have required extensive physical therapy or even surgery.
But logically it makes sense.
Nutrition also falls under this category. Food is one of the larger expenses related to the monthly budget. Many pursue both physical and financial fitness by shopping locally, avoiding restaurants, and even turning towards veganism.
Type A Personality
There are certainly segments of the financial independence community that are typical type A personalities. We like to monitor. We like to set goals and revel in achievements. Financial independence itself is an audacious undertaking that many of us can’t wait to dig our claws into.
Physical fitness is much the same. Once we have extracted ourselves from the resume building business or work world, we need a new area of focus to expend our energy.
Physical and financial fitness are thus bound. Once we reach financial freedom, exercise and health are obvious activities to pivot towards.
Final Thoughts
There is an obvious connection between physical and financial fitness. The mind body connection is strong. We focus on finances as a mental health issue. We focus on our bodies for much the same reasons.
Physical fitness is believed to lead to economic advantages. Not only in avoiding the lifestyle diseases, but in also saving on the cost of food and restaurants.
Our type A personalities need an outlet. Once we have escaped the economic rat race, our bodies crave joining a very different type of race. The race towards physical fitness.
Very true that exercise and sports like the ones I do can sometimes cause injury and surgeries. But the cost to our health system from chronic lifestyle diseases is in the billions. Approximately 30% of Americans are diabetic or pre-diabetic, and 40% are obese. Those costs will be off the charts
Maybe a fat wallet makes you thin?
I was listening to Dr Andrew Weil interviewed by Joe Rogan. Dr. Weil mentioned that exercise affects the mind and happiness in a huge way, and could be the key factor to fighting depression. It makes me wonder if people that are failing to exercise are more likely depressed and that affects their earning and saving motivation. People are always searching for medications to solve that. But fitness doesn’t come in a bottle.
Totally agree. Physical fitness and mental health are definitely tied. And I believe finances are a mental health issue also.
Very true. i think we ultimately cost much less the healthier we are.
Until such time as human existence no longer requires a body as a vessel, each and every action we take in life requires us to have some level of health (if we take the absence or complete failure of human health to be the state referred to as death).
Money, at a level that provides financial independence or otherwise, has no value to any individual that does not have health. One can’t take one’s riches along when one dies.
In light of the above, the anecdotally observed compounding effects of practices that result in good health and the length of time it tends to takes those that reach FI to achieve that financial milestone, I think it makes sense to focus on good health before reaching FI, as well as after, rather than only focussing one’s health once FI has been obtained.
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I like it. The compounding effect.
I have long said that physical fitness and personal finance optimization require a similar discipline to achieve and succeed.
Yes. We are all optimizers and it pushes us in both aspects.
Balanced healthy diets in mental, emotional, spiritual, physical, relational arenas lead to a purposeful life with legacy.
Very True.
Excellent post
Thanks for stopping by.
Vagabond said it: DISCIPLINE. It’s not to accede to a goal as much as to engage the practice. I’m coming off a back injury, been inactive for 2 months and it was killing me. Started back this week and now my need to practice perfect discipline is killing me. I’m not as good as new. I have to be strictly regimented or I’ll be back on the couch. No matter where you go, there you are. On the couch off the couch the process dominates. Same with finances. It’s the practice of discipline, but I’m stoic by nature. Personally I don’t think obesity is exercised based at all. I think it all a hormonal response to carbohydrate poisoning. I think the human body was metabolically designed to live off fat primarily and most efficiently, with occasional foray into carbohydrates in times of fat famine not vis versa.
I completely agree with every point you made Gasem…that for most obesity is carb consumption related.
Interesting. All I eat is carbs.
Physical fitness is a lot more difficult for me than financial fitness.
I’m not exactly sure why. Finance is pretty easy for me.
Maybe it’s because I can’t exercise hard like other people due to a minor disability.
Many would say that physical fitness is easier for them. Funny how we all have different abilities.