There’s no such thing as a perfect bank account or body.
I know people who were happy without much and were/maybe still are miserable with too much. We don’t chase things, we chase the feeling we hope they (never really do) possess.
Shift your purpose to change your life.
It’s all relative and up to interpretation; but what is a fact is that the stronger physical and mental health one has, the more control they have over their finances and assets.
Just like wealthier folks are homeowners, they are healthier too since their financial bases of owning something tangible are finally covered.
Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
As they say, the best investment is in yourself. It pays dividends for a lifetime and allows one to serve others beyond themselves.
Without taking care of yourself, which you must remember is not selfish, you are able to be there for others, so much so that human beings end up depending on you to support them until ~21 years of age!
Otherwise, you only have so much diligence and energy to divi up. And remember, the bank of mom and dad may still need to be supplied to them for much longer so you better be fit and your accounts thick enough to carry them along their journeys.
According to studies, the wealthiest people tend to be occupied with mental tasks not obsessing over food. As a result, they eat less and perform more, excluding athletes. That doesn’t mean the top 10%+ aren’t enjoying a rich meal with a client or the HANGRY feeling creeps in, but more often than less, they have no time to eat a double portion of fast food or buy inexpensive meals that will drain their energy.
Something You Can Control
Just like unsystematic risk in your portfolio, health, mentality, and overall lifestyle choices are diversifiable.
Did you know a great deal of chronic pain can be cured through meditation and breathing exercises?
So much so, you are able to switch your life around, feel 10x better, be a top performer at what you do, and stop suffering all by controlling what you eat!
Unsurprisingly, researchers at the Urban Insitute analyzed years of financial and health outcomes of those from different income classes and elderly adults and found those that carried larger amounts of unsecured debt (distressed) debt with significant interest payments that cost as much as the median rent in NYC (~$4k according to Bloomberg), had significantly worse health outcomes overall.
When you are liable for something, it hurts, and just like the pain and suffering of student loans, it will continue to haunt one until they pay it off.
It’s like dragging a ton of bricks over your shoulder. You have to pay off one at a time over time and sometimes you get so used to taking out cheap loans, it becomes dangerously unhealthy physically and financially.
It feels like a mental hurdle to overcome, a tax and burden that is tough to get rid of. Everything may be relative but also everything in life is mental. 10% of life is what happens to you and 90% is how you react to it.
Poor financial health is a major stressor for most Americans. After Bloomberg published a piece last week on revealing close to ~2/3rds of those earning $250k+ live pay-check-to-paycheck, first of all, I wasn’t surprised given lifestyle inflation is a norm in 24/18 hr cities but secondly, it was a shock given how many believe earnings and what one earns is equivalent to what they keep.
As they say, it’s not what you earn, but how much you stash and allocate at the end of the day. When you’re healthy, you can naturally make stronger choices and have more willpower. As a result, you will be better equipped to rationally invest during any cyclical environment and boost your earnings potential.
You can be truly rich or wealthy. Pick your battle but neither will be easy, especially if the target is just green dollar bills with a beer belly. If there’s one thing for sure, you can’t have both to thrive forever.