If You Don't Have A Plan For Your Health, You Don't Have A Plan For (Semi-) Retirement

Never Retire: Living The Semi-Retired Life

Two things happened recently around food shopping and health that mildly annoyed me.

1. My girlfriend and I were at the local farmers market.

As we stood with a few bags looking at I forget the type of produce, I remarked to Melisse that we can get it cheaper at Trader Joe’s.

A woman next to us obviously overheard our conversation and said:

Yes, but do you know how long it has been sitting on their shelf?

Farmers market snob!

All else equal, legitimate point. However, all else isn’t equal and mind your own business.

This lady didn’t know our situation. We might be struggling to make ends meet, buying what makes financial sense for us at the farmers market and other items at grocery stores.

2. I was in line at Amazon-owned Whole Foods.

The cashier asked the guy in front of me are you an Amazon Prime member?

His response: Hell, no!

The cashier replied, good answer!

Mind you, as this interaction was taking place, I had my phone out, Whole Foods app open so the cashier could scan my Amazon Prime membership!

When pretentious guy left, I approached. The cashier looked at my phone and said, I can scan that for you.

My response, which actually landed super well: I’m ashamed to admit I’m an Amazon Prime member.

The cashier laughed nervously and proceeded to be super nice to me for the rest of the transaction.

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I relay these stories because, while mildly annoying, they’re funny.

But also because when we discuss health, as it relates to personal finance, retirement and doing life in general, I never want you to feel the way I felt in those situations. As if somehow somebody else’s choices or convictions are superior to yours. It’s not about what’s better or worse, it’s about what suits you. Your wants, needs and preferences.

Close example. Obviously I love city living. I’m not a fan of suburbia. This is all about my needs, wants and preferences. You might feel exactly the opposite. There was a time when I couldn’t comprehend why anybody would live in the suburbs. Thankfully, as I grew as a human, I realized we all make choices based on, here again, our wants, needs and preferences. As well as our circumstances.

I never want to be like the farmers market snob or pretentious guy again. Never.

So when I discuss health—and my views and strategies around it—like anything else we talk about, it’s merely my experience. If hearing about my experience helps inform yours in any way, fantastic. If not, all the same. Because, on health initiatives and healthy behaviors, I’m often as uncertain as I am imperfect. I have lots to learn as well as doubts, concerns and, best of all, vices. We’ll spend time talk about the latter, no doubt.

It’s one thing to have strong opinions and express them confidently. It’s entirely another to preach in a way that strongly implies there’s no other way. And, if you take another way, you’re an ignorant Amazon Prime member who buys produce at Trader Joe’s.

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This said, the other day, I published my first installment discussing health and how I’m approaching it—

Never Retire: This Will Make Your Blood Pressure Go... Down

The biggest objection I receive to my plan to Never Retire and work less now so I can work less longer is—

What if your health fails and you can’t work in relative old age and beyond?

Legitimate concern. However, any strategy comes with risk. If you intend to traditionally retire—and you have to work more now so you don’t have to work when you’re older—you run the risk of being in ill physical or mental health in old age. This scares me more than the risk I take by living more evenly across my lifespan.

I’d rather act now and take the steps available to me to mitigate the risk that my health will prevent me from working when I’m older. Plus, by design, I have the type of work that doesn’t require much, if any physical activity. As long as I can lay in bed, I can work.

But I don’t want to work in bed out of necessity. I want to work in bed by choice. Or, better yet, work however and wherever I want, like I do now.

I want to keep the same routine—or something similar—I have at 47 when I’m 57, 67, 77, 87, 97 and 107.

As I have committed to writing this newsletter for as long as I live, a lifetime subscription might go a long way! It’ll be pretty amazing if some of us are still interacting with one another in 10 or 20 years, let alone 30, 40, 50 or even 60 years.

We have the tools to live longer and be healthy and active for as long as we live. I’m opting to access and implement as many of them as I reasonably can and leave the rest up to chance, fate or however you like to define uncertainty.

Starting today and, in every few installments, I will outline an element of my ever-evolving health routine or discuss one of my vices as it pertains to the goal of living and living well deep into (at some point you can’t call it relative!) old age.

A preview from my notes—

The first one—intermittent fasting.

I read an article the other day where Chris Martin of Coldplay said, after eating lunch with Bruce Springsteen, he now eats like Bruce Springsteen.

Apparently, Springsteen routinely eats one meal a day. So he has taken intermittent fasting to the extreme. I presume he throws some healthy snacks in the mix. I’m guessing he goes anywhere from 12 to 18 hours each day without eating. Though maybe not. Maybe he eats one and only one meal per day.

However The Boss does it, it’s working for him as, at age 73, he’s currently on tour playing energetic three-hour shows.

I mentioned Dr. Mark Hyman’s book the other day. In it, he talks about the benefits of intermittent fasting. Long story short, Hyman suggests leaving 12 to 14 hours between dinner and breakfast because it puts the body under “good stress” and helps “reverse insulin resistance, cools off inflammation, optimizes mitochondrial energy production, increases muscle mass, lowers fat mass, activates antioxidant systems, boosts stem cell production and more.” It’s more favorable than calorie restriction, which leaves you “hangry all the time.”

The second one—a morning protein shake, usually after exercise.

Also from Hyman, each morning, I make a shake for my girlfriend and I.

It usually looks like this—

• Almond milk

• Blueberries

• Shelled Hemp Seeds

• Flaxseed Meal

• Chia Seeds

• MCT Oil

• Almonds or almond butter

• Frozen zucchini

I suggest getting Hyman’s book or looking up each ingredient to develop an understanding of the benefits.

Two big ones—protein helps build muscle mass, in conjunction with resistance or (light) weight training and the shake helps keep you full for several hours.

After implementing just these two changes to my diet and routine, I have noticed significant changes in how I look and feel, not to mention the blood pressure improvements I discussed the other day.

In future installments, I’ll outline more of what I’m doing.

Others ignore this angle, however it should be part of every personal finance discussion, especially ones that deal with retirement or working in retirement. We can no longer assume that as we age, we’ll run into health problems. No matter how you plan to live—semi-retired all the way, traditionally retired—health issues can derail the most well-considered and financially resilient plans.

What have you done, are you doing or planning to do from a health standpoint—physical or mental—to round out a comprehensive personal financial and lifestyle plan you can execute now and for the duration?

In the next health installment, we’ll talk snacks, lunch and dinner before we get into vices. And why I need them as much as I need to pay attention to diet and exercise.