Last week I attended Discovery’s annual launch and enjoyed seeing their statistics on physical activity of their members and how it affects other related and unrelated factors. Members with high physical engagement have a faster recovery after being in-hospital and their length of stay in-hospital is shorter. Their hospital visits cost on average 17% less than inactive members and Discovery has found an immediate increase in their other healthy lifestyle behaviours. This past week I was also chatting to Alison Benzimra from Generation Thrive and she was telling me about the effect that bad financial decisions and lack of planning can have on individuals.
Alison is passionate about healthy, active ageing and dedicated to keeping older adults strong, mobile and thriving. She has seen first-hand the effect that bad financial decisions can have on individuals’ physical bodies. When individuals have concerns about their finances it can manifest in physical pain, muscle tension and even long term illnesses. We all know the effect stress has on our bodies and long term stress can cause an array of illnesses. Long term stress caused by concern about our finances is no different. Getting our finances into a healthy place is as important as keeping our bodies and minds healthy.
Dealing with finances every day I have seen the freedom good financial decisions can bring to individuals. We do not need to be super wealthy to feel in control and joyful about our finances. We just need to make the right financial decisions. I have found the following to be helpful in dealing with finances:
1. Prayer. I believe we are custodians of our finances as we do not own our finances but merely manage them. I have found it helpful to pray before making any financial decisions and to know where and what to invest or spend money on. We all need wisdom when dealing with finances.
2. Budget. I have found the amount of financial freedom that budgeting brings very helpful. I do not mean a budget you do once a year and never look at again; I mean an active budget that tracks your current spending. There are many great ones and I have found YNAB very helpful. Get one what works for your family. If we know where our money goes we can make informed financial decisions. If the budget is tight one month, you can choose to cut back or, if you have a birthday, you can allocate more funds to entertainment. By not budgeting we do not have a clear picture of where our money is going and we cannot give account of how we have managed our affairs.
3. Goal setting. Short and long term goal setting is key when working with finances. We need to know what we are saving towards otherwise we may lack the willpower to follow through on our saving. Unless we know that we are saving towards our retirement or our child’s education, for example, we can be inclined to spend the ‘saving’ and not be diligent in putting it away every month. Daily we have choices—where to buy our food, clothing, books etc. And by setting goals for ourselves we can make better choices as goal setting assists us in keeping our eye on our financial goals.
You might be reading this and feel you have a long way to go, why even bother. I guess that is the same with exercise—we all have to start somewhere. Sometimes we lose track and have to start again but we all know that good, regular physical activity is good for our minds and bodies. The same goes for financial planning—start somewhere, set goals and get a budget going. If you have not had a good start or have made a mess of your finances, know that every day you get to start over and tomorrow you will have the opportunity to do just that.
Discovery have seen the effects that a physical lifestyle can have on their members—I guess that is why they are offering their members an Apple watch from January 2016. I will give all the details in my blog next week about Discovery Health’s offering for 2016.
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