In the financial independence world we hear a lot about pay yourself first. But pay yourself first is more than money. Unfortunately setting a budget, living a smart-frugal life, paying off debt, saving and investing our money is what we put our highest focus on. For many years that is exactly what I did. What about our health? Shouldn’t that also be just as important? Is it a coincidence that Health and Wealth are only separated by a single letter?

While I was in my second retirement over the last several months I had the time to make my health my primary focus. I did this by exercising every day for 2 to 3 hours. I was successful in losing 40 pounds and knocking several years off my age. I still have a ways to go to reach my health goals. But now that I have started this new side hustle it isn’t as easy to pull off. My struggle to pay myself first with dedicating time to exercising after work is what made me take a little self-assessment of my financial independence pay myself first short-comings.

Pay Yourself First is More than Money- Time For Self Assessment

• I enjoy and look forward to my bi-annual meeting with my financial adviser. We go over my fund performance and discuss investment strategy and goals going forward.
• I don’t feel the same about my bi-annual doctor appointment for blood tests. Where we also meet to discuss my health, what I am doing to improve it and strategies to meet my health goals. I always dread going in. Perhaps because I wasn’t making any improvement until these last several months.

• I will without fail track my spending and saving. I never miss a beat with my finances. I eagerly look forward to my financial statements.
• I am less than committed to tracking my exercise for the day and any health gains or loses. It can always wait and when I am tired or busy with anything else. When busy I put exercise as secondary. Not much to track anyway. I don’t hold myself accountable for my health goals.

Bingo. My brain says there is a problem

I have only worked 5 days at this full-time side hustle. I admit that the first two days I did come home and just told myself it is alright to not exercise. Just relax and chill after a rewarding but long day. I thought a lot about this over the weekend. Dammit! I come to realize that my health is just as important as my wealth. I better start treating it that way. I have to start treating it as paying myself first just like the financial stuff.

All the thinking I did about saving my side hustle income in a 401K to shield it from taxes this year and not one minute worrying about fitting in a sufficient amount of time to exercise daily. I basically lost all the weight that I had gained working until retirement number two for these exact lack of exercise reasons and I don’t want to gain it back. I feel healthy now but I won’t for long if I don’t stick to it.

Pay Yourself First is More than Money, it’s Also About Your Health

Making the pay myself first health and exercise plan

• I made a scaled down version of my larger and longer exercise routine so that I now commit to at least an hour after work. I have set that time as my own from 6:00 to 7:00 PM during the week.
• I started tracking my exercise and health gains during my retirement for the first time. I will now continue to do the same while working this side hustle to hold myself accountable.
• I will honestly communicate with my doctor instead of just getting through it as quickly as I can. I will be a fully active participant in this bi-annual get together which is done for me in the first place. I was so stupid!
• I will work to improve my healthy diet knowledge and start incrementally moving to a more healthy diet.
• I will read my Health related magazines more in-depth instead of gleaning through them. Maybe learn something. My doctor had recommended my using and joining (membership) a company called “Life Extension” for both the periodicals and the vitamins they offer. I also recommend them to anyone who wants improved health and knowledge. (BTW, Full disclosure. I do now have an affiliation with Life Extension. Although this is a personal recommendation based on my own use of their products, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you if you use these Life Extension links or the Life Extension Ad in the sidebar to place an order. Do your research and if you decide to use their products follow all instructions and consult your doctor when recommended.)

Conclusion

Pay yourself first is more than money. It also includes our health by paying ourselves with the time and commitment to be the healthiest that we can be. What good will wealth do anyone if their health is poor and they are unable to enjoy the freedom that financial independence will give? Aside from the misery that poor health can cause, all the effort to reach financial independence wasn’t just to hand it over to cover high medical costs due to preventable health issues.

Do you struggle to commit to exercise and a healthy lifestyle because you are too busy or do you have it down and can share how you are able to stay committed to your personal staying healthy plan?