Your Most Valuable Investment

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There are two topics everybody will eventually need to know something about. The first is the topic of this blog: money. But buried beneath the spreadsheets and portfolios lies the greatest asset of all: your health.

Money and health are more closely related than what meets the eye:

We don’t talk about them. Two taboo questions you shouldn’t ask someone: how much they weigh and how much they make.

They are complicated simple problems. Eat clean and move. Spend less than you make, and invest in index funds. Easier said than done.

We rarely think of them when we have them, but they’re everything when we lose them. “A healthy man wants a thousand things, a sick man only wants one.” The same applies to money.

They compound. One workout and one dollar saved won’t change your future. But repeatedly do both for years and see the difference.

They are means to an end. Your health and your wallet are the foundation from which you can build any other aspect of your life.

We have plenty of health when we are young. Eat like shit, never work out, drink 17 beers per weekend, it doesn't matter. You'll bounce back. But sooner or later that lifestyle will catch up.

What you consume begins to matter more. Whether or not you exercise begins to matter more. I’m on the back nine of my twenties and that officially means I have to stretch before exercising. I crash after eating lots of sugar. I’m a grouchy zombie if I don’t sleep. It’s a great time, really.

As a result, I’ve put a big emphasis on health in these hallowed years. I’ve learned that America has an enormous health problem.

At a time when we have more resources, more knowledge, and more innovation than ever, 6 in 10 people have a chronic illness and 42% of people are obese—both the highest in history. It’s nuts.

In 2021, the United States spent 18.3% of GDP on health expenditures, compared to 6.9% in 1970.

And that's not even considering the human capital issue. We all know how hard it is to perform your best when you feel like crap. You're not thinking clearly, or doing your best work, and you're surely not your happiest self. You're not bringing the same vigor and energy to your job, your relationships, or really anything.

If you don’t believe me, think back on the last time you had the flu, a hangover, or a sore back. It’s all you can think about.

Your body is busy using energy to heal itself instead of helping you move forward. That’s no big deal if you’re dealing with something temporary. You can afford to rest, recover, and move on with life.

The problem becomes more significant if you neglect your health for decades and chronic issues start to show up.

Now, some health problems are sadly inevitable. But things like heart disease—the leading cause of death globally—is preventable 90% of the time. Further, 90% of Type 2 diabetes cases, 80% of strokes, and even 40% of cancers can be prevented.

Preventing the preventable comes down to how often you move your body and what you put into it.

We pay little attention to these things because it’s too easy not to. I can personally confirm you’re not going to notice any seismic differences in your health after eating Chipotle for a week straight.

And when it comes to exercise, expending energy for no reason is the opposite of how we evolved. Exercise was just a necessary part of survival. Fast forward to today, we’ve built an incredibly convenient world. We don’t need to hunt for food and we can make money from our couch. The incentives for moving around aren’t there anymore.

But our bodies aren’t built for a sedentary world, and eventually, they tell us.

All of the obscure chemicals in our food make it uniquely difficult to stay healthy in the 21st-century United States. But it’s worth trying. Why?

Health issues are expensive. We saw it with GDP, but on a more personal level, the fastest way to ruin your financial future is to experience a medical catastrophe.

Even if you have awesome health insurance, there’s still a cost. Co-pays, prescriptions, and time away from work can put a sizable dent in your bank account.

Let’s say your insurance needs you to pay $3,000 out of pocket for what you later realize was a preventable disease. In any other realm of life, you would cut that expense out immediately because it’s money you can’t use for things you enjoy. But for some reason, health is viewed differently.

I enjoy going to Michigan football games. At an average cost of $50 per game, $3,000 is 60 games. 5 straight seasons worth.

The quality of your health is the ultimate determining factor in how deeply you can seize the opportunities that your money creates.

We invest in our 401k’s like it’s a sure thing. Retire at 65 with a nest egg and then you can live it up, right? Hopefully. But you need a healthy body to do that. The value of your riches dwindles when you're bedridden, trapped in the clutches of a chronic illness. It doesn’t matter how rich you are, the true threat to a successful retirement is not recessions or high fees, it's poor health.

If we lose our health, we can’t do all the same things we desire. To compound that frustration, we need to budget more for medical expenses. Remember, 5 seasons.

We are so quick to dismiss healthy eating and exercise as too expensive or too time-consuming, but the alternative may prove even more costly down the line.

Think about why you want a successful career. Is it really about the money? Or is it what the money allows you to do? You want to enjoy time with loved ones and have the resources to create memories with them. You want a life well-lived. That’s what it’s really about, isn’t it? Staying healthy is an instrumental part of that.

There’s no guarantee that it will lead to a long, fruitful life, but I’m willing to bet it makes a difference. In fact, it might be the best investment decision you make.

- Sam

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