Healthy, Wealthy And Wise! Living The Dream!

Healthy Wealthy And Wise!  Living The Dream!

I love a good party and making celebrations last as long as I can–so now with the new year comes a new regular feature on Tribute Journal—“Healthy, Wealthy and Wise!”

Every year, my husband strives to keep a good balance in his life and works hard to up his game in his ongoing pursuit to be healthier, wealthier and wiser!  I have to hand it to him, these are certainly worthwhile achievements–they’re why I’ve decided to devote a journal entry each month to exploring some good options in each of these categories.  While much of the information I will be posting won’t necessarily be new to you, I hope it serves as a friendly reminder to be proactive in your life and take action where needed.

Being more healthy always seems to be at the top of everyone’s list of things to do for the new year!  I would imagine that it’s pretty fair to say that with all the information available to us on the topic of living a healthy lifestyle, that for the most part, we are all aware of what we should be doing.  Often it’s a matter of taking time to make a plan, then incorporating it into our daily lives that seems to stump us up!

As a nurse, I work with a lot of doctors who are qualified to offer fundamental advice for optimizing our overall wellbeing, but for this post, I asked my own personal physician for his input–without hesitation, he said that keeping track of our resting heart rate and blood pressure, along with other lab tests, such as blood glucose and cholesterol, was of utmost importance in order to establish a good medical care regimen.  By doing this, your values can then be compared to those recommended for people in your age group and treatment or medications ordered accordingly.  Obviously, these things can best be monitored by getting regular check-ups.

Most pharmacies and drug stores have medical equipment for public use so you can tract your blood pressure.  Local hospitals also routinely conduct public health fairs where vital signs and other lab tests are done for free or at a minimal charge  

At these appointments, your health history can be reviewed and updated; any medications you are taking can be adjusted accordingly, as well.  Other tests that might need to be done can be scheduled at this time too.  My son-in-law is a doctor who is doing his residency in emergency medicine concurs with this wise counsel–he told me that it’s imperative to try and keep current on anything regarding your medical care…preventative medicine plays a substantial role in decreasing the likelihood of ever having to visit the emergency room!  Cole also said that too many people underestimate the havoc that smoking has on their bodies and the toll it takes on your overall health at a very early age!

My husband is a financial planner, but if you were to ask him what it means to him to be wealthy, you just might be surprised by his answer: “Wealth isn’t always how much money you have.”  Often he will advise his clients to work hard to save and invest their money wisely so that they will have enough to live comfortably, as well as provide for a “wealth” of experiences to enhance the opportunities to live life more fully.

For our family, financial security has meant not taking on a lot of debt, with a few exceptions:  One being for schooling, which will ultimately help you be qualified for the best employment available to provide an adequate income.  A second one being for the purchase of a home.  Although my husband and I were in a position to help our children with most of their expenses when they were teenagers, they all worked part-time jobs while they were in school to help pay for some of their extracurricular expenses, by doing this they learned valuable budgeting lessons!

Most money advisors will counsel that saving even a small amount, while you work towards investing as much as ten percent of your income in reliable investments, leads to better financial security.   

My husband also believes that it’s never too early to start saving your money and setting up a retirement account.  If your employer has a 401K retirement fund, if possible, he’ll usually encourage you to invest the maximum amount since the money set aside is on pre-taxed dollars and is automatically withdrawn from each paycheck, it provides a ready savings plan for those that have a hard time doing it on their own.

In his book, “Life’s Greatest Lessons: 20 Things That Matter” Hal Urban states that we make two important choices regarding our minds:

1.  What we let into them.

2.  How we use them.

Mr. Urban says that we should be as selective about what goes into our minds as we are about what we put into our bodies.  “When we nourish our minds by observing, reading and studying, we can condition them to be more creative, to learn more quickly, to think more strategically, and problem solve better.”  Some people like to do Sudoku word games or solve cross-word puzzles to help their minds stay sharp and agile.  My husband and I have fun quizzing each other on current events or trivia questions like the names of groups singing certain songs on the radio.

One of my favorite ways to give my mind a little mental gymnastics is to put technology aside for awhile each day and read at least one good book every few weeks.

Someone once said that a mind is a terrible thing to waste–and why would we want to…when used constructively, it can help us to both appreciate life and live it more fully!

       “In truth, the only difference between those who have failed and those who have succeeded in life lies in the difference of their habits!”  Og Mandino

I always have to chuckle whenever I ask my oldest daughter’s husband, Shane, how things are going for him and he replies…

“Just working hard at doing what I need to do and living the dream!”  

Here’s to our success as we continue to explore ways to strike a good balance in all that we have to do as we live out our dreams—-even those we didn’t know we had for ourselves!  Ha!

I’d love to know what health and money habits, or mind games you practice to help you keep plugging away at life.   

–Mary