Something you never thought you'd hear from a financial planner

Last time, we talked about aligning your spending with your current life stage. Today, I’d like to expand upon an important concept that we briefly touched on last time...

Having enough time and money doesn’t mean much if we don’t also have our health.

No matter what life stage we find ourselves in, we often assume our current good health will continue into future life stages. And while maintaining a positive outlook and being proactive increases our odds of good health, it can be a mistake to assume that our continued good health is a given. You probably don’t have to look too hard to find examples in your own life of people whose good health has been taken from them much sooner than expected.

Yet rather than wallowing in the acceptance that as we get older our health will most likely decline, let’s focus our time and attention on a major positive that comes with this realization.

Once we acknowledge that our health is finite, we can make the case for spending now on what we might otherwise put off for later.

For example, instead of holding off on taking that big family trip or buying that lake house until you are comfortably retired, perhaps now is the time to make it happen.

You will not only enjoy these experiences more when you’re in good health, but you’ll also gain immediate access to the memories they create. And those memories will last you a lifetime – whether your good health continues into the future or not.

Now, this may sound a bit strange coming from a financial planner. But the reality is that yesterday is in the past and tomorrow isn’t promised so let’s work on prioritizing our present. Try as we might, we can’t take our money with us and I’ve yet to meet a client that regrets – responsibly! – spending their money on experiences with those that mean the most to them.

While our health might not last a lifetime, we can breathe a little easier knowing that the memories we create right now with the people we love will.

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