WOW Word-Of-the-Week #512: Investment

May 28, 2014 by · Comments Off on WOW Word-Of-the-Week #512: Investment 

Investment – what you do to create a profitable return.

What comes to your mind when you think of the word investment? Is it stocks and mutual funds? Is it your retirement account? How about your home? Have you ever thought of your body as an asset?

This week’s WOW is a perfect follow up to last week’s and the importance of walking (or any kind of exercise) and comes from The Wall Street Journal Sunday article written by Jack Hough and titled, “Big Payoffs – Five Investments You Don’t Know You Have.”

He lists:a investment

  1. Your Benefits
  2. Your Body
  3. Your Marriage
  4. Your Spending
  5. Your Community

What I am going to focus on today is #2 – Your Body. Have you ever thought of it as an investment?

Hough writes, “Workers who exercise regularly earn 9% higher pay, on average, than those who don’t, according to a 2012 study published in the Journal of Labor Research.

 By scoring subjects on their propensity to exercise, based on factors like age, education level and school sports involvement, the study showed a cause-and-effect relationship between working out and earning more. Other studies have documented an obesity penalty to earnings, which seems to hit women hardest.

 The financial benefits of fitness extend well beyond earnings. The fit pay less for life insurance than the fat, and spend less on health care.

 Plus, the benefits to employers of worker fitness–fewer sick days, higher productivity and so on–are enough to make companies want to chip in.

 Put it all together, and for a typical household the return on investment for getting in shape over the next year dwarfs the likely gains from financial assets.

 For those of you who have heard me speak, I have always said, “I don’t exercise because it’s good for me; I exercise because it makes me feel good.” Good health is something most people don’t worry about until they don’t have it!

This week’s focus is thinking of your body as an investment. How would your employer rate you on fitness? How much exercise do you get in a week? Do you ever take the stairs instead of the elevator? Now that you know walking stirs creativity and exercise is a good investment for future earnings what are you going to do differently?

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