“When you ask people what affects their wellbeing most,
they think of health and wealth” – Tom Rath
Physical health, mental health, and financial well-being are inextricably linked. This connection is becoming much more prevalent in women’s lives - especially as they age. Women are twice as likely as men to suffer from Parkinson’s disease and stroke. Women are also twice as likely as men to develop generalized anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression. Especially alarming is that 70% of Alzheimer’s sufferers are women, one of the most debilitating conditions to wellbeing.
Health is truly the foundation of a good life, regardless of your wealth. Your health is your greatest gift, and should not be taken for granted.
It’s not surprising that good health may help you to perform better at work, which may lead to advancement opportunities and higher lifetime earnings. One study showed that those who exercised regularly tend to earn about $25,000 more per year than those who don’t exercise regularly. Another concluded that a higher body mass index led to lower pay, particularly among women.
The basics of creating a healthier lifestyle are widely known:
Eating healthfully
Exercising regularly
Getting sufficient sleep
Managing stress
Not smoking
Socializing
Etc.
With good health, you may work longer, live longer, travel more, engage in activities that improve your quality of life. This in turn, effects your earnings and savings potential. The powerful compounding effect can have an extraordinary effect on your personal wellbeing.
Meanwhile, the cost of poor health can add up over a lifetime and can significantly reduce overall wealth. One reason could be that declining health leads to more doctor visits, which can mean lower productivity and less career advancement, resulting in lower earnings and higher debt levels. This is “lost wealth” could have been used to support your lifestyle or passed down to your family.
Wealth, or Financial Wellness, is the extent to which you can meet all your future commitments and needs, while having the financial resilience to continue meeting current and future needs. These include:
Having control over your finances
Setting and meeting financial goals
Being able to bounce back from a financial misstep
Having the financial freedom to make choices that improve your quality of life
Wealth has a profound affect on one’s health. The greater the wealth, the more favourable the health outcomes, including lower mortality, higher life expectancy, and decreased risks of obesity, smoking, hypertension and asthma. The reasons could be due to having more resources to commit to healthier eating, exercising regularly, stress relieving activities, taking more vacations and socializing more.
Meanwhile, financial stress or reduced wealth, can adversely affect health and most other areas of your life. The worse financial shape you’re in, the more likely you are to experience major stress-related issues, worsening sleep patterns, weight gain, decrease physical activity, and reduced vacation time, which in turn can lead to greater health problems. This downward spiral is caused by the continuous interplay of wealth and health.
Melissa has been passionate about leading an active lifestyle and adopting wellness practices for almost five decades. Discipline is built into her DNA.
Her healthy obsessions have included studying ballet for 13 years, running long-distance for the past 15 years including participating in 50 races and 14 marathons, and cycling long distances of 100km+ for the past six years.
That level of dedication and determination remains with one for life and has helped her develop the most disciplined investment and wealth management strategy to benefit her clients. She is unstoppable in her quest to help clients reach their financial goals and live the lifestyle they’ve envisioned.
At Melissa Rush Wealth Advisory Group, the deep connections between physical health, mental health and financial well-being are always top-of-mind.
Melissa also enjoys inspiring and encouraging her clients to be their best self – in both wealth and wellness. Knowledge is power. Her team’s previous events have included life coaches, personal trainers, nutritionists, yoga instructors, and meditation specialists. Spending social time in a supportive environment, with like-minded women, is always an enjoyable and valuable experience.