Fitness and retirement? How would those two ever be in the same article?
I’ll tell you how: they are both major life goals of many.
Most people in the world want to retire someday, and most people also want to be healthy and fit. Accomplishing these goals takes planning, practice, and experience. But, if you look at them next to one another they can be more alike than you knew.
Disclaimer: I am in no way a financial advisor. You should always seek the help of an actual financial advisor to answer any questions or you know, advise you.
For both fitness and retirement, the earlier the better
Get started with your fitness and your retirement plan early in life. Starting sooner gives you a couple advantages. You have time to recoup any setbacks you might have. You are also able to maintain and improve as opposed to fix and rebuild.
Both your finances and health are compounding assets. In other words, they are heavy but quickly gain momentum. By starting earlier you are able to get the ball rolling sooner. The earlier you can start pushing that ball the faster results come and the more momentum it carries. This makes the results are easier to maintain.
Find what works for you
There are so many different options for retirement out there, it’s almost as numerous as different activities people do to stay healthy.
For retirement savings: real estate, the stock market, investing in businesses, 401k, social security, IRAs, CDs, the list goes on.
And for fitness? You’ve got: CrossFit, Pilates, Yoga, MMA, running, basketball, hiking, triathlons, etc.
Both retirement and fitness have many avenues you can choose to invest in. Finding what works for you is important because you will then take an interest in it, by having that interest you actually care and want to see it improve.
Diversity is key
Everyone knows you don’t put all your eggs in one basket. For retirement that is important because the more financial ‘legs’ you have to stand on the more stable you are. If something happens to one, you still have the others to help keep you from falling. Fitness works the same way. The more specialized you are, the more likely you are to have a chink in the armor. This leaves you vulnerable.
Understand I am not saying you should do CrossFit. I mean, you should, its awesome, amazing and does a little bit of everything to make you a functional human in all modes of movement, but I understand my thoughts on this could have the appearance of being biased. Anyway, if you only want to run marathons, then fine, that’s great too.
No matter what, you should be incorporating some strength work, sprints, mobility, etc. into your fitness as well. Without doing so then yes, you might be really good at running. But what happens when you have to lift something heavy? Injury will come easier, and no one wants that.
Realize there will be hard times in fitness and retirement
No matter what you do, setbacks do happen. You pull a muscle or have surgery and can’t exercise for a few weeks. Or, the company you worked for goes under and you lose the majority of your retirement.
The point is that hard times happen. Nothing worthwhile comes easy. You just have to work through the problem and get past it. After this happens a few times you learn that this is just part of it. Obstacles are thrown in your path, find a way to go over, around, or under them.
Research and find a coach
Knowledge is power. The more you understand about something the more informed decisions you can make. This is true for your health, finances, having kids, building a table, buying a car. No matter the task, it’s best to be informed.
There are definitely those who can do all this research and learning on their own, and maybe you are one of them. But having a coach/mentor/advisor allows you to have access to their years of experience, as well as any years of experience from the person/people they learned from.
To end
I won’t answer any financial questions or give financial advice. But if you have any health or fitness questions then I want to help. Let me know what I can do!
