How long will we live?
Some of you may know that I have a clinical and operational background. However, I have always had a passion for finance and have recently made this career change. This week, during an internal call with our team, one of our senior advisors asked me a question that I hadn’t thought about for a while. His question was, “Has there been any new data (in the world of medicine) that talks about longevity or average life expectancy?”.
His question was 100% valid and important for him to know. In conversations with his clients (many of you), as he’s building out their financial plans, knowing how long to project them for (realistically or ideally) is quite essential.
We, as humans, don’t think about mortality until it becomes ‘real.’ Usually, it is due to some life-changing event or realization, but the reality is we need to talk about it and plan for it even more. Your financial plan and even the plan of what you want to do with your money after you’re gone is essential. That said, this is an excellent reminder to always keep your estate and financial plans at the top of your list.
One- Two-Two
When my son was learning how to count, he would start with one and then say two twice before moving on to three (and so on.) Ironically, he certainly doesn’t know this, but did you know that the oldest person ever recorded was 122 years and 164 days old?! Jeanne Calment, a Frenchwoman, holds the record for the longest documented human lifespan. Unfortunately, the average lifespan for most is around 73 years, with variability based on country, region, lifestyle, socioeconomic status, and access to healthcare. All of these factors come into play when you’re evaluating health and longevity, but we must also consider the varying factors that also must come into view when reviewing our financial lives.
Let’s Get We(a)LL-thy!
Eating healthy and exercising has been shown to improve overall physical health, but also improve mental health as well. Exercising is a great way to lose any extra body fat just hanging around, and there is a simple equation: we’re all taught to lose weight. Burn more calories than you consume. The more you exercise, stand, and move around, the more likely you are to be healthy, considering you also maintain healthy eating habits. However, none of this happens automatically or automagically, as I like to call it; it all requires focused intentionality.
Being intentional about your health and not picking up that extra Little Debbie snack takes a lot of willpower and focus (most certainly for me!). Similarly, as Dave says, your financial health and ability to ‘live and give like no one else’ is directly related to how intentional you are. There is a simple financial formula that has been proven to lead to financial success as well. That is, live on less than you make. Like the living healthy formula, this formula sounds easy but can be much more difficult in practice.
Put Down the Cookie Mentality
Our ability to put down that cookie or walk away from the item that is ‘on sale’ takes intentionality, no question, but to be intentional, we need to have our WHY at the forefront. Your WHY can be anything that is a driving force in your reason to make a change. Mine always highlights my family and our future together. I love this quote from the Ramsey team – “If your Why doesn’t make you Cry, you need to find a different why.”
It’s simple: intentionality comes naturally once we’re focused on our WHY and always keep that in plain sight. Focus on your WHY and every part of your wellness to the point where you can retire financially free, and We(a)LL-thy!
By now, you may have figured out that losing weight is not my specialty; I would even boast that my superpower is I can beat the cookie monster in a cookie-eating contest. However, if you’re looking for an incredible team of teachers to walk with you on your financial journey, consider talking to one of our world-class financial advisors or our financial coach at Whitaker-Myers Wealth Managers. If you’d like to submit a topic for me to discuss or write about, contact your advisor or submit a topic request here.