8 Steps to Improving Your Physical and Financial Health [and 1 Important Anti-Step]
A Lifetime of Physical and Financial Health
Caring for your physical and financial health and wellbeing is the greatest, most worthwhile gift you could give yourself, as the benefits of improving and tending to your physical and financial health are endless, having a ripple effect throughout your life.
Physical and financial health are intricately intertwined and improving your health in one area can improve your health in another. According to Columbia University Irving Medical Center, “even an additional $5,000 per year can give you a measurably longer and healthier life”. With an additional $5,000 of income annually, one can purchase fresh produce instead of junk food or join a gym. Similarly, good physical health can open more job opportunities, increase focus, and minimize sick days or unpaid leave needed for medical attention.
Challenges to Being Physically and Financially Healthy
While there are many benefits to improving physical and financial health, many people struggle to make the change that they desire. According to Gallup, the most common goals that Americans set are personal health or fitness goals (80% of goal setters), and “financial goals are next at 69%.” People consistently recognize the importance of improving their physical and financial health, yet many meet barriers they feel cannot be overcome. The joke - each January the gym fills with ambitious resolution setters, each March the gym is empty - is deeply true.
Improving physical and financial health requires ongoing consistency, moderation, discipline and forethought. Working on your physical and financial health for one week is great and probably will not have a long term impact. However, working on your physical and financial health for a year, you will certainly see change!
8 Steps to Improving Your Physical and Financial Health
1. Start Today
Many young people in particular do not realize the compounding effect that taking care of their physical and financial health will have. Fortunately, schools recognize the importance of physical health, as physical education and health classes are commonplace. Unfortunately, schools do not (yet) provide financial education, so many people do not start taking control of their financial health until they are well into adulthood.
Regardless of your age, you will never be younger than you are today! The benefits of starting today will compound throughout your life - you will thank yourself one day.
There is always a reason to start tomorrow.
Why are you resisting starting today instead?
What is one small change you can make to start taking action today?
For a quick refresh, watch Investopedia’s What Is Compound Interest?
To learn more about the many advantages of improving your physical health, watch the TEDx Power of Fitness by Vincent Lam
2. Explore All Components of Physical and Financial Health
Physical and financial health are multi-faceted. Physical health includes cardio, muscular, nutrition, sleep, etc. Financial health includes saving, spending, investing, debt, income, etc. All of these facets are interconnected. Just as improving your cardio will help you to sleep better, decreasing your spending will help you to pay down debt. Oftentimes, many small changes can be made across all facets of physical and financial health, ultimately leading to substantial improvements.
While some people prefer to focus exclusively on one facet, focusing on all facets (albeit to different degrees depending on your specific circumstances) can lead to faster changes. Being an excellent sleeper (there is such a thing!) is not enough to make you physically healthy. Similarly, being a great saver is not enough to make someone financially healthy, as it is also important to know how to spend money in ways that bring you the most joy. Ask yourself…
‘What aspects of my financial health are strong?’
What aspects of my financial health need improvement? Why?’
3. Set Short-Term and Long-Term Goals
Improving your physical and financial health does not happen overnight. You must commit to a lifetime of new habits and a new relationship to your health and wealth. Setting (and celebrating!) short-term and long-term goals can be a helpful step to maintaining motivation.
Short-term goals that are specific and attainable will keep you motivated throughout your financial journey! Examples of short term goals…
Physical health: Eat one fresh fruit daily
Financial health: Create a list of all debts (corresponding interest rates and minimum payments) by Saturday
Long-term goals may feel impossible to attain, a lifetime away. Track your long-term goals and set milestones to celebrate along the way. Before you know it, you will see progress. Examples of long term goals and milestones…
Physical health: Run a half marathon
Milestone: Run a 5k
Financial health: Save a downpayment for a house
Milestone: Save $10,000
4. Surround Yourself With Supportive People
Our peers greatly influence our physical health as well as our financial health. Simply spending time with people who spend beyond their means will lead to increased spending, whereas spending time with people who are financially conscientious will lead to you being more financially conscientious.
People who guilt or exclude you for not spending money in ways that they spend money are not friends. Friends are supportive of your goals to improve your physical and financial health. If the immediate people in your life do not support your goals (or worse, actively discourage you from working towards your goals), you can find people who do.
Communicate your goals to your peers and share how you would like them to support you
Seek out financial support groups on Facebook, Reddit, etc.
Attend Workaholics Anonymous, Debtors Anonymous, etc. to find people with similar goals
5. Prioritize Rest Days
According to Penn Medicine, crash diets do not work. Similarly, no-spend months can lead to increased future impulse spending or revenge spending. Exerting excessive self-control for an entire month is physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting.
When rest days are balanced and intentional, they can further your progress towards meeting your goals. Just as rest days from the gym are necessary for recovery, spending money on things that bring you joy is necessary to remain motivated in your journey to financial wellness. It is important to define the freedoms and limitations of your rest days. Ask yourself…
‘How often would I like a rest day?’
‘How will I behave differently on a rest day?’
‘On a rest day, I will not go to the gym.’
‘On a rest day, I will not look at my bank account.’
‘What behaviors would I like to maintain on a rest day?’
‘On a rest day, I will still eat a piece of fruit.’
‘On a rest day, I will still not online shop.’
6. Consistency is Key
We engage with our health every day (moving our bodies, eating, sleeping, etc.) just as we engage with our finances every day (turning the lights on, driving the car, eating groceries, etc.), and improving physical and financial health is slow by nature. Therefore, the healthiest and most sustainable approach to improving your health as well as your finances is gradually and consistently. Weighing yourself or checking your net worth every day will actually be discouraging. Instead, to increase motivation and to remain consistent, track your progress occasionally (quarterly or semiannually for example). In six months, you will notice a difference, a difference that will get you excited to continue your health and wellness journey.
7. Seek Professional Support
If you find yourself struggling to stay on the path towards financial health and wellness, consider seeking professional support with a Certified Financial Therapist for support with your relationship to money, increasing your financial confidence, and reducing feelings of financial shame. For support along your physical health journey, seek out holistic sports counseling for support with mindset conditioning, processing performance trauma, and navigating transitions such as injury or retirement.
To learn more about the many benefits of financial therapy, read Money Talk: How To Suggest Financial Therapy To A Loved One [Part I]
Find a Certified Financial Therapist through the Financial Therapy Association
8. Give Yourself Grace
The most important step on your journey to physical and financial health and wellness is always giving your grace. There will be setbacks. You will fall into old habits. That is okay! Actually, that is more than okay - that is a part of the process. Relapse is one of the stages of change. Through relapse, we learn. Ideally, relapses will become fewer and further between (notice the upward spiral due to learning from relapses). Following a relapse, not all hope is lost! Just because you missed a credit card payment does not mean your credit score will never recover - get back on the path!
Read 10 Useful Steps To Addressing Your Financial Shame - We All Have It!
Write financial affirmations for yourself that you can refer back to when you feel discouraged
The Ever Important Anti-Step
*Do Not Compare
Comparison is human nature, and looks can be are deceiving. Just as physical appearance is not an accurate indicator of physical health, physical possessions are not an accurate indicator of financial health. Social media allows for curated portrayals of our lives. When the person that you did not even talk to in high school posts a photo in a Tesla, you make many quick assumptions - that they do in fact own this Tesla, that they can afford this Tesla, that they aren’t lying awake at night stressing about the monthly payment, etc. When that same person posts a photo in a swimsuit on the beach, you assume that they did not photoshop the image at all, that they feel comfortable and confident in their swimsuit, that they did not take over 100 photos to find the single photo that they feel okay posting, etc. To combat comparison, try the following…
Attempting not to compare yourself at all to others is an unrealistic expectation, so allow for nuance in your comparisons. A lot of shame about physical appearance and financial wellbeing stems from incomplete information. Ask yourself…
‘What information am I missing?’
‘Am I comparing the beginning of my journey to the middle of someone else’s journey?’
Compare yourself to yourself. All that ultimately matters is that you are improving and that you feel happier and healthier.
Through FutureMe, write your future self a letter about where you are physically and financially today, so you can be reminded of your progress.
