Most of us are familiar with the idea of (financial) investment. Financial advisors sometimes call this “investing in your future” or “investing in yourself”. Living a healthy balanced lifestyle can be seen in similar ways so let’s discuss some similarities between financial investing and wellness investing…

Long term. Financial investing, or saving, is a long-term activity. It is about years and often decades. The benefits do not accrue quickly but over a lifetime. Indeed, this is one of the bigger challenges: because the rewards are far-off / distant in time, the motivation can be hard to maintain. Human beings seem to find it hard to stay motivated when the goals are not close-by or immediate. This is very much the case with saving money. It is also very much the case with wellness: living well now does bring some immediate benefits like more energy, better mood, and improved productivity; but there are many benefits that have to do with ageing better (getting “old” more slowly) and living longer. Arguably the biggest outcome of wellness is a better quality of life in our older years. This can be hard to appreciate when we are young. But it is so, powerfully so.

Too-good-to-be-true usually is. We’ve all seen and heard of get-rich-quick schemes. Many of us have tried these. The results are occasionally positive but rarely so. Most of these schemes benefit a few (usually the founders or first-in) while the majority end up losing money. Sometimes disastrously. A very similar thing can be said of wellness. There are countless “quick-fix” diets and exercise plans and stress-relieving miracles out there. They can be seen in every local newspaper (look at the personal ads), many websites, and on TV too. Wellness is a huge industry today but the tragedy is that there are so many products and services offering overnight cures. These are just what they seem to be: too good to be true. Often cruelly so (e.g. crash and fad diets often lead to metabolism changes that actually make weight control more difficult). Everyone knows this. And yet, so many of us still fall for this one. It’s actually quite sad.

Difficult. Saving money is not easy. There are always temptations (dinners, holidays, toys for the kids, new shoes, a bigger car, etc. etc. etc.) and we fall for them often do we not? Well, the same can be said for wellness. Fast food is easier than home-made salads. Pizza is delicious. That early morning walk or run can be hard when the option is a cosy lie-in. One more beer just seems like suuuuch a good idea at the time. The choices required to help us get/stay well are not always easy. So let’s just acknowledge that. The solution lies, of course, in understanding the benefits of saving money and the benefit s of living well. But that does not make it easy and we should know that. It can be said that one of the bigger failings of the money/investment and the wellness sectors is a hesitancy to express truth around how it will be hard at times. Let’s be truthful.

Experts can help but be careful. There are any number of people who offer help with investments. Many are legitimate professionals. But many are under-qualified. Some are incompetent. Some are really just selling products or services (and making obscene commissions or profits). Some are even fraudsters. What you are looking for is a qualified and experienced professional with solid references (customers you can contact yourself to check). Usually, they do work for commission and or profit and that’s fair enough (we all have to eat) if the earnings are transparent (known to you) and reasonable (you must judge for yourself there). Ideally, you’d prefer someone who is 100% unbiased and not linked to any particular product or service, but that may be a bit idealistic – a realistic approach might be to work with advisors who are linked to certain products and services provided the links are transparent and the commissions reasonable. All these comments apply to wellness just as they do to long term investing. Use experts like financial planners, equity brokers, doctors, personal trainers, dieticians, yoga teachers, psychology counsellors, and others, yes, but choose carefully because the stakes could not be higher.

Life lessons can so often be learned from and applied across various areas of modern living. Two areas that have very real similarities are long-term savings and healthy living. Think on it…

Written by Dr Colin Burns