Leveraging Your Financial Intelligence

by Doug Lennick

  Millennials value health above everything except for family.

  Almost half of Millennials think of healthy eating as a continuing lifestyle choice rather than a time-limited diet.

  84 percent of Millennials exercise at least once a week, and almost half think of exercise as their “passion.”

  Though Millennials earn less than older generations, they spend more on health and fitness.

  Millennials are more likely to practice yoga and meditation and use natural treatments than older generations.

  90 percent of Millennials seek to achieve good health because they believe it will help them succeed in other areas of life.5

  As we follow Millennials in the years ahead, we hope that this upcoming generation will lead the way in reversing current negative public health trends. Millennials' appreciation of health and fitness may also become part of the solution to the U.S. healthcare crisis. As noted in a 2011 New York Times article:

  For the first time in history, lifestyle diseases like diabetes, heart disease, some cancers and others kill more people than communicable ones. Treating these diseases—and futile attempts to “cure them”—costs a fortune, more than one-seventh of our [U.S.] GDP.6

  With statistics like that, it's no wonder that Reed Tuckson, author of The Doctor in the Mirror, emphasizes that doing what you can to be healthy is patriotic:

  If you want to do something for your country, for yourself, and for your grandchildren, turn off the TV and walk around the block a few times each day. Cut that bowl of ice cream in half. Get out and be active in the community Those are things you can control. That's being healthy. That's being patriotic.7

  By taking responsibility for their personal health, Millennials may very well lead the charge in years ahead to reduce such massive and unsustainable medical care expenditures.

  Like Todd and Nancy, Laura and Saša, Michelle, and Ryan, most of us strongly value our health—at least we say we do. Unlike the role models we interviewed for this book, many people don't translate their concern about good health into action. According to a 2015 survey on food and health,8 almost everyone thinks about whether they are eating healthfully (91 percent) or getting enough physical activity (94 percent.) However, just over half of Americans (55 to 57 percent) actually take steps to maintain or improve their health, and that percentage has dropped dramatically in the last several years.9

  What accounts for the disconnect between thinking about our health and acting to protect it? Some of us may be in denial about the need to be proactive about health. For instance, while most Americans (84 percent) think they are in good health, more than half of Americans who say they are in “very good” or “excellent” health are in fact overweight or obese.10 More than a third of Americans blame a lack of willpower for their failure to engage in health-promoting habits. Others cite lack of time or money. But it's often a matter of priorities. We usually make time for things that we want to do: Nearly half of men who participated in the 2015 Food and Health Survey admitted that they spend more time following their favorite sport or team than tracking their diet.

  BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR HEALTH

  An important part of the alignment model discussed in Chapter 2 is that we not only value health, but we accept the principle of responsibility for our health. Reed Tuckson, a traditional Western medical doctor, believes that much of our wellness is in our own hands. His book, The Doctor in the Mirror, is meant to convey the importance of being responsible for our health. The major message of Tuckson's book is that people who take responsibility for their health are healthier than people who leave responsibility for their health only to a doctor. As Tuckson points out:

  No one knows what's going on inside your body like you do. And no one knows what's on your mind like you do, either. So, given the proper assistance, who do you think is eminently qualified to be one of your key health advisors? Just look in the mirror. You'll be face to face with one of the most capable doctors you've ever met. You'll be looking at the amazing, the brilliant, the esteemed Dr. You.11

  Tuckson wisely defines health broadly, not simply as the absence of pain or disease, but in a holistic way as a person's complete mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. Clearly Tuckson understands the connection between health and happiness, and we recommend his book highly for its valuable advice on key areas that affect your health—your lifestyle (such as nutrition and fitness), your medical needs, and your home and family.

  Another way to be responsible for your health is to seek out a variety of qualified health advisors in addition to traditional practitioners of Western medicine. Alternative practitioners can provide perspective and guidance as you work to maintain and improve your health. For example, co-author Doug and his wife, Beth Ann, rely on their chiropractor, Dr. Moe Smith, for her guidance on positive health practices. She helps them identify the positive things they can to do to prevent illness, including guidance on nutrition, which their family doctor never discusses. According to Dr. Moe, chiropractic medicine is the largest noninvasive, nondrug, nonsurgical healthcare method in the world. Dr. Moe's practice is based on this philosophy: “Your body has innate intelligence. You're meant to be healthy. You're not meant to be sick.” Dr. Moe advocates “treatments” such as healthy nutrition that reduce or eliminate the need for prescription medications. Dr. Moe's reservations about reliance on drugs in traditional Western medicine are based on both personal and professional experience. When Dr. Moe was four or five years old, she had a lazy eye, and was prescribed a drug that almost killed her. Even more tragically, her younger brother died from complications of multiple medications. From a professional perspective, Dr. Moe points out that drug interactions are the fourth leading cause of death in the United States.12 According to Dr. Moe, “Medical doctors are some of the smartest people I know, but they are given only three options to help their patients: perform surgery, prescribe medications, or do nothing.”

  We believe that medical doctors and traditional medicine contribute in important ways to our health and longevity. There are many circumstances in which medication or surgery are lifesaving. We always suggest you consult with a medical doctor whenever you have concerning symptoms. However, we do encourage you to consider seeking support from reputable natural health professionals, such as chiropractors, naturopaths, nutritionists, massage therapists, personal fitness trainers, and health coaches, who can support you in carrying out plans to maintain or improve your health.

  WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR YOUR HEALTH?

  As the research shows, developing health habits that contribute to your overall well-being is not an easy task for many of us. That's why WDYWFY is such an important tool for protecting your health. WDYWFY's Five Profoundly Simple Steps will help you take control of your health by turning desires for good health into realistic goals that pass the acid test. WDYWFY will help you develop and implement a solid and achievable health plan. One of the most valuable benefits of WDYWFY is that it allows you to track progress toward achieving better health and overcoming the disruptive emotions that are at the root of “lack of willpower.” Everyone has their own health needs and desires. Some threats to our health are widespread in the United States, such as being overweight, poor diet, or smoking. To help you prioritize and achieve your health goals, begin by reading through the next section on common health issues. Also review recommended ways to address the most common health problems, since such ideas can help you adopt key activities for achieving your health goals.

  STRESS

  When it comes to protecting your health, setting a goal for managing stress should be part of nearly everyone's health plan. In the last chapter, we discussed strategies for reducing financial stress. Financial stress alone is virtually an epidemic, with nearly 75 percent of us experiencing some degree of financial stress. But your body doesn't care what's causing you stress, whether it's concern about finances, worry about a child's behavior, or frustration with rush-hour traffic. Your body just reacts. So, when you add up
all the different life situations that can cause stress, there's a 100 percent chance you will need to deal with the physical and emotional effects of stress in your daily life. Your ability to prevent and manage the negative effects of stress may be the most important skill you can develop to live a long and healthy life.

  Can Stress Be Good for You?

  Stress can be positive or negative. A certain amount of stress is beneficial. For instance, being under stress can improve your memory or increase your productivity and energy. It can help you deal with positive life challenges such as getting a new job, getting married, or having a child. Stress can also help you fight off certain illnesses by prompting release of hormones that support your immune system. But frequent or long-term stress is a disaster waiting to happen. Vast amounts of medical research show that chronic stress can interfere with the proper functioning of every one of your body's processes, and that sets you up for numerous health problems ranging from heart disease to headaches, digestive issues, weight gain, and sleep disorders, to name only a few.

  Reducing Stress

  Dan Buettner, National Geographic fellow and author of The Blue Zones: 9 Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest,13 told co-author Doug a few years ago, “It's hard to be happy if you're not in good health.”14 And as we've seen, it's hard to be healthy when you're under a lot of stress. When Dan studied regions all over the world whose residents enjoyed the longest and healthiest lives, chronic stress seemed noticeably absent. It's not that these remarkable Blue Zone 90- and 100-year-olds had never experienced hardship. In fact, many of them lived through horrendous conditions during World War II, when food was scarce and their lives were in constant danger. However, they all had developed practices to either eliminate sources of stress or at a minimum counteract a stressor's negative effects.

  If you have started using the Smart Money Philosophy discussed in Chapter 3, you're already doing your body a favor by reducing financial stress. Of course, there are many other areas of life that can be stressful. So, whether you're worried about money, your kids, your job, or your health, excessive stress is generally bad for your physical and emotional well-being. Eliminating situations that trigger the stress response is the most direct and effective way to ward off the negative effects of stress.

  Use Money to Reduce Stress

  If your financial resources are sufficient, you can often use money to help remove or minimize causes of stress in nonfinancial areas of your life.

  Several years ago, Erin and Doug Livermore's then four-year-old daughter, Addie, was expelled from two day care centers within three months. Addie had raging ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) and her behavior, such as running out of the school, throwing tantrums, or hitting other children, had become too dangerous. Addie was as difficult at home as she was at school. Erin and Doug tried to be patient, but weren't always successful. When Addie was expelled the second time, Erin and Doug were already slogging through the costly and sluggish bureaucratic process of having Addie's condition evaluated and her educational and medical needs determined. Meanwhile, as a two-career couple, they had to find quality care for a very difficult child. They knew there were long waiting lists for other day care centers, and that no day care center would be able to keep Addie even if they had an opening. They also realized that no ordinary babysitter could give Addie the structure she needed, and no ordinary babysitter would last more than a day with Addie.

  Erin wanted to quit her job, but losing all her income wasn't practical in the costly Washington, DC, metropolitan area where they lived. So, Erin and Doug began their search for a nanny who had experience dealing with ADHD children. Miraculously, they found a wonderful, compassionate young woman who had grown up with a younger brother with severe ADHD. Their nanny now cares for Addie and Addie's older sister, Mackenzie, who is on the autism spectrum. Their nanny has been a one-woman stress reducer, but it has come at a price. Between the nanny's weekly salary and payroll taxes, Erin spends more than half of her gross salary on child care. But Erin and Doug think it's more than worth it. Their kids are happier. Erin and Doug are happier. They have backup on snow days, when kids are sick, and when they need to work later than usual. To further reduce their child care–related stress, and hopefully encourage their nanny to stay long term, Erin and Doug made a strategic decision when they first hired their nanny: They decided to pay her for the hours the kids were in school. That meant that their nanny would usually have at least three child-free paid hours per day when she was free to work on her online college studies or do whatever else she wanted. Erin and Doug valued flexibility, so they paid for it. In return, they got their nanny's loyalty and greatly minimized their child care stress. Today, both girls are doing well, in no small part a result of the loving and relaxing environment provided by their nanny.

  Erin and Doug are grateful they made the decisions they made several years ago about how to manage care for their wonderful though challenging special needs children. But they wouldn't have been able to afford a nanny if they had not both previously set and implemented financial goals to advance their careers. When Erin and Doug arrived in the DC area in 2014, they both got jobs, but their combined income barely met their basic needs (even pre-nanny). Doug set a goal of increasing his income to a certain specified amount, and managed to reach his income goal by leveraging networking to find successively higher paying jobs three times within two years. In that same two years, Erin went from a below-market income as an accountant in a media company to a senior controller position, doubling her initial salary, primarily by working tirelessly and proactively taking on responsibilities well beyond her job level. Doug and Erin knew they needed to boost their income to get out of survival mode in the DC area, and they have succeeded.

  Despite Doug and Erin Livermore's experience in achieving financial goals that in turn helped them manage stressful circumstances, neither would say that they've eliminated all the stress in their lives. When it comes to negative stress, there are some causes we can control. In many cases, we can't control or eliminate a source of stress, but we can always control how we react to stressful situations. We can always improve our ability to respond to life's trials in ways that keep stress from negatively affecting our physical and emotional well-being. Co-author Doug's belief is that reducing stress and maintaining one's physical and emotional equilibrium depends in large part on preparation. In Doug's view, preparation has four components:

  Physical Preparation: Develop a “can-do” mindset. There is no substitute for doing, for taking action.

  Mental Preparation: Whenever you say, “I'll cross that bridge when I come to it,” realize that you should be mentally crossing it now.

  Emotional Preparation: Anticipate the emotions you might experience when a stressful situation occurs and decide in advance how you will recognize and manage those emotions.

  Moral Preparation: When dealing with stressful circumstances, avoid the temptation to ignore your principles. Ensure that your responses come from a place of integrity and are responsible and compassionate.

  Stress Reduction Key Activities

  In addition to the four components of preparation to manage negative stress, there are many useful life practices that can help you combat negative stress. According to the Mayo Clinic, effective stress management approaches include:15

  Eating a healthy diet

  Exercising regularly

  Getting enough sleep

  Making time for enjoyable activities (or as co-author Roy would say, “having fun!”)

  Practicing meditation

  Seeking support from good friends or professional coaches or counselors

  If stressful circumstances might be affecting the quality of your life—and that's the case for most of us to some degree—teach yourself the Mindful Breathing practice shown next. It's a surprisingly quick and effective way to immunize yourself from any negative physiological effects of stress.

  PRACTICE: MINDFUL BR
EATHING16

  A routine mindfulness practice can help you “retrain your brain” to be more resilient and better manage stress.

  Use this quick meditation several times a day, or whenever you feel under pressure:

  Close your eyes for five minutes.

  Pay attention to your breathing, noticing how the air moves in and out of your nose.

  If your mind wanders, don't be concerned, just return to focusing on your breath as you inhale and exhale.

  Tip: Decide on particular times when you will practice mindful breathing, for instance, when you wake up in the morning, before a meeting or presentation, before you walk in the house after a long work day, or after getting into bed for the night.

  MANY DISEASES, ONE CURE

  Our original intent was to provide readers with suggestions for key health-promoting activities that were tailored to readers' particular health concerns. We researched the most common life-limiting or life-threatening conditions, and investigated the best ways to prevent or manage top killer diseases. What we found should not have surprised us, but initially it did: Illnesses and disease conditions that could cause disability and limit life expectancy were varied. However, approaches to prevent or manage those varied diseases or conditions were virtually identical. Therefore, we first want to raise your awareness of the most common dangers to your health, most of which are caused by, and can be minimized by, lifestyle choices. We hope that this information will motivate you to set health goals and engage in key activities that can greatly lower your risk of disability or premature death. Nearly 75 percent of all deaths in the United States are attributed to just 10 causes, with the top three of these (heart disease, cancer, and stroke) accounting for over 50 percent of all deaths.