by Michael Plank
“I wish I’d spent less money on building my health.”
“I wish I’d spent less time getting fit.”
“I wish I’d spent less energy getting strong.”
Ever hear someone say something like that? No? Me either.
I remember meeting with a financial advisor when I got out of college. He talked about the importance of spending less than you earn and of avoiding debt, but his contention was that debt was fine for three things: buying a house, education, and… health.
What he meant though was that debt was fine for medical emergencies. And that’s because when people have a medical emergency they are willing to pay anything to fix it. No financial cost, no time cost, no pain cost is too high to get out of that emergency and back to good health. People will pay whatever it costs when they don’t have a choice.
But although there are a lot of uncontrollable health emergencies, there are a lot of potential health emergencies that can be avoided – or at least the risk can be dramatically reduced – by getting as healthy and fit as possible while things are good.
There is arguably no investment more important, none that pays you back more for your time, money, and energy, than getting and staying healthy and fit.
And, just like planting a tree, the best time to start was 20 years ago. But the second best time to start is today.