Stockpiling health and wealth
Your good health and secure economic situation put you in a much better position to preserve your standard of living in the long run even when hardships inevitably come your way. Expensive or unhealthy problems that you are unprepared to deal with can quickly rob you of the economic ground you have worked so hard to gain over the years. Ensuring that you are living a better overall lifestyle in the future actually starts right now with positive healthy behaviors and effective economic decision making. Protecting yourself against catastrophe, with these behaviors, is the first step to preserving and growing your quality of life. When you make these behaviors part of your current lifestyle you will see positive changes fairly quickly. Focusing on the ten items listed below will improve the health and wealth of you and your family thus making life’s bigger challenges much easier to handle. 1. Water - There are many reasons why water should be the cornerstone of your healthy lifestyle. An important reason for this is preventing dehydration, which is the number one reason for daytime fatigue. Many people don’t initially recognize that they are dehydrated, since they tend to gauge it by thirst. However, you don’t have to be thirsty to be dehydrated. An effect of mild dehydration is feeling tired or sluggish. If that is happening to you there is a good chance you’re not getting enough water and you are not working toward your goals at 100%. 2. Expect the unexpected - So many people get in financial trouble because they didn’t prepare ahead of time for problems. Think about it – things such as home repair, health care, and car repair can end up being huge bills if little problems are left unattended. I have a story on my website about a time I was too lazy to blow the leaves out of my gutters. For years all the tree debris built up until eventually the damage from backed up rain water cost me several thousand dollars. Ben Franklin said it best = an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Spend a little bit of money and effort now to avoid potential financial disaster in the future. 3. Healthy food choices - Whole grains provide stable energy and act like little scrub brushes cleaning your arteries. The cleaner those arteries are the more fresh blood is flowing through your body providing energy creating nutrients and flushing away energy robbing waste materials. With more energy you will be able to work harder toward your goals. 4. Start with a clean slate / don’t owe anyone anything - Think about a day at work or around the house when you were on your feet all day long. At the end of the day you get to sit down and the sensation of “taking a load off your feet” feels great. You will experience the same feeling when you pay off your debt and start over with a clean slate. Focus your intensity on eliminating one debt at a time until you are debt free. Not owing anyone any money is a terrific feeling and jump starts your efforts in living a financially sound lifestyle. 5. Exercise - Exercise doesn’t necessarily have to be overly strenuous to be beneficial. Moving your body makes your blood pump harder and pushes fresh oxygen through your body to your cells. That gives your blood cells the material it needs to produce more energy and give you a revitalized feeling throughout the day. 6. Be ready to take advantage of opportunities - Just like problems, opportunities are sure to come your way. The thing with both problems and opportunities is that neither will typically call ahead of time to warn you they are going to show up today! Your best plan of action is to budget for opportunities. Carrie drives a total of 50 miles a day for work. Tires are expensive and she would rather not think about the hundreds of dollars she may need in order to buy replacements so day. However, she knows she will have to face that fact eventually. Rather that facing a huge tire bill unexpectedly some day she put money aside every 2 weeks into a “tire fund”. Since she has already been putting money aside for a future purchase of tires she is also ready to take advantage of any great tire deals on tires come her way. Sure enough Carrie found a tire sale that offered 1 free tire with the purchase of 3 along with other promotional amenities not typically offered. Since she has saved for tires ahead of time she was in a position to make the purchase and save enough to buy the new iPod she wanted! 7. Environment - Your environment consists of your home, work, car, and other structures you stay in or pass through. These entities can have either positive or negative affects on your short and long term physical or mental health. Take an active role in arranging the environments your part of around desires and goals. Ideally, your environments will be supporting your desired lifestyle rather than detracting from it. When it does complement your goals your motivation gets an additional boost. 8. Buy assets so you can afford liabilities - How can you tell the difference between an asset and a liability? The same way you tell the difference between a bowl of brown rice and broccoli and a slice of cake. One can seem bland and boring, but it is good for you; the other is exciting and fun but its’ value rapidly decreases and soon becomes nothing but a cost. Assets are things you buy that 1) fill a need and then 2) produce additional money in your budget through income or expense savings. High efficiency light bulbs are assets because they solve your need for light and produce cost savings over traditional lighting. Those savings are the “found money” that allow us to buy liabilities. Liabilities produce no income and are usually just a cost. An extra night at the beach produces no income and will cost more money therefore it is a liability. 9. Supplement your health - Often times we do not get the optimum amount of nutrients either because there is not enough healthy variety in our diet or the foods we eat are too processed. Supplements make up for deficiencies in your diet. Whether you get your nutrition from supplements or through a strictly healthy diet remember that vitamins allow your body to heal, ward off sickness, and work more effectively. 10. Interest - There is a fairly easy rule to remember when it comes to interest – earn it don’t pay it. Arrange your budget and your financial plan so that you are building assets that pay interest and avoiding interest laden debt by paying cash. One thing to remember is to keep your credit rating high and squeaky clean so that if you do need to pay interest you are in a position to demand the best rate. Bowman’s Money College offers consulting and educational advice to individuals and families on personal financial matters such as starting a small business, writing and following a household budget, and rebuilding credit. For further information visit BowmansMoneyCollege.com or email mike@bowmansmoneycollege.com.
|
