Posted by Dave on December 7, 2010
This is a guest post by Dave, who is also looking to retire no later than 45, but unlike Tim has no kids and doesn’t want any. Dave is from Ontario and is working towards his CGA certification.
I’d consider myself to be a fairly fit person – last May I ran a 10km race with minimal training (other than what I was normally doing) and finished middle of the pack in my age group. Looking ahead though, I realize that in order to be able to do what I want to do as I age I have to maintain a certain level of physical fitness. Take golfing for example – this is by no means a physically taxing sport, but it does involve a significant amount of walking, some flexibility and a moderate level of strength in order to play well.
Physical fitness is a “use it or lose it” kind of proposition – it’s much easier to maintain a certain level of fitness then it is to “gain” it later. I’ve been 60 lbs heavier than I am now and it’s not a good time, losing that weight and getting into shape after not doing very much was not fun, nor easy. Growing up, I worked on farms with many guys in their sixties and seventies who were able to do just as much (if not more) work than I was, simply because they never took a break from the lifestyle. In the same fashion (moderated because I don’t have hundreds of 40-60 lb bales of hay to throw around continuously) I hope to maintain a similar exercise plan that I am on in my 30s well into the future.
I am far from a fitness freak, my main goal is to maintain a level of strength that will allow me to do what I want to do. This goal could mean I could go out and play pick-up hockey from time to time, run a 10km race or like I did yesterday walk for 20 km around the city because the weather was nice and I needed some fresh air after being cooped up studying for an exam the past couple of weeks. I lift weights a couple of times a week for 20-30 minutes at a time (during my lunch break), do some moderately paced cardio the rest of the weekdays and go for a walk on the weekends.
I have no expectations of my ability to run a marathon or do an ironman or anything extreme. For vanity and health purposes, I don’t want to be fat. So, once or twice a year I run a baseline test on my physical fitness. Can I run 10 km? Can I still do 100 pushups in a short period of time? Can I squat my body weight? These checks over time allow me to understand where I’m at physically and provide a comparison to where I was in the past.
Do you have fitness goals? Do you watch your health and fitness as well as your finances?
Posted by Dave on February 9, 2010
How much would you pay to fix yourself physically?
I have been feeling a moderate amount of pain in my lower back over the past few weeks and while golfing I have almost been put out of commission by a sore lower back. So I decided to go see a chiropractor, something I have never done before an appointment this morning. During the initial assessment, a scan was taken of my spine and the results were kind of shocking. Where most people’s back muscles should be equally strong on both sides, mine are most definitely not – looking something like a triangle pattern, which is not ideal.
I’m going in for my first adjustment tomorrow, and am hoping whatever I have done is fixable. I am basically willing to do anything to get myself in shape, I’m just hoping that it won’t be extremely expensive. My benefits cover the first $400 per year, but the initial appointment was $95 with each additional adjustment being $35 – this could end up being a $2,000 per year fix, which is not really good times for my budget.
For me, my health is my main focus (other then on Superbowl Sunday when I tried unsuccessfully to eat my weight in junk food). I eat things that don’t really taste good because I know they are healthy. I exercise when I really don’t want to because I know I am sedentary the rest of the day and the gym will help balance this out (at least partially). If I am not healthy, then basically everything kind of goes out the window – how much fun would retiring at 45 be if I can’t even lift a golf bag, let alone swing a club? There are a lot of things that I would like to do that would be less enjoyable or impossible if I were in poor health.
The problems with my back are probably caused at least partially (more likely totally) by the work I do. I’m sure I could fix my posture and perhaps my workstation, but the main problem is that I am still sitting around all day doing nothing – something I’m pretty sure humans were not evolved to do (not sure if there was anything in a swiveling posturepedic style 20,000 years ago). So I’m not really sure what to do. I guess listen to my chiropractor and hope that my back can be fixed and that I can spend another 15 years sitting around so that I can do whatever I want after that.
I’m hoping that whatever is the matter with me can be fixed, and fixed quickly (golf season is in less then 4 months now). Then hopefully I can learn how to sit properly so that I can continue to do the job that I do and won’t have to look into a career change that could potentially add years to my early retirement.
I realize that I don’t necessarily need to go to a chiropractor, and that more traditional medicine would be more then capable in treating my back. Yet having watched both of my parents go through back injuries, the only options typically offered by more traditional medicine are pills and/or surgery. I am looking for something a little less invasive where hopefully I can assist in fixing whatever is the matter. Having to pay for health care is a new experience, and makes me grateful for Canadian health care – no matter how messed up it seems sometimes.
I’m assuming that everyone in my situation would pay whatever it cost to fix what was wrong, but would you change a career, potentially changing your financial plan totally?
Posted by Dave on November 24, 2009
Have you noticed that the discipline needed to structure a personal finance plan is similar to a fitness plan?
I kind of went the other way from most people, my fitness plan influenced the way I look at personal finance. When I left University in 2003, I had gained an astonishing 60lbs in the 5 years I had been in school! (4 year degree and 1 year of co-operative education). In much the same way someone can gradually gets themselves into significant amounts of debt. Then all of a sudden they find out the money coming in isn’t enough to match the money owed at the end of the month. In my case I had my own eye-opening experience on the fitness side, surprisingly, on an ice rink.
I played competitive hockey for much of my life until going away to school, amounting to four to six days per week from September until April, forcing me to be in pretty good shape during that time. I had fooled myself into believing that I hadn’t lost a step while in school, until my final year when I played in a hockey tournament. The tournament included 3 short games of 30 minutes. At the end of the tournament my body was essentially in shock, I got physically ill that evening. All because I had thought I could do more than I could. It was at this moment, as I was shaking with a fever that I decided I needed to do something to fix this.
I joined a gym, the local YMCA, and went there not really knowing what I should be doing but figured something was better then nothing at all. I then started reading articles on the internet and picked up techniques, workout plans and eventually started losing weight. Six years later and I’m in better shape now then I was in high school.
So how does this apply to personal finance, specifically a plan to retire early?
- Discipline – I can decide to go to Cuba and eat fried cheese and hotdogs and drink too much for a week (like I did on my honeymoon this spring) but the next Monday, I also know I’m going to be back lifting heavy weights and drinking green smoothies. In the same way, a personal finance plan requires discipline – if you don’t stick to your plan, you might as well not have one. Some spending decisions need to be examined in much the same way as fried cheese – the cost of the spending decision (for example a night on the town) has to be addressed somewhere else in my budget if I still plan to be financially free as early as possible.
- Intensity – Last week I did the 300 workout. This is a pretty intense workout, which challenged me to the point that I was physically unable to lift more weight at the end of the workout. This is a benchmark workout that is timed and that I’ll do probably once a month so I can see how I compared to prior months. Intensity in personal finance can be tested in the same manner, whether it’s specific dollars to be saved per month, or debt payments per month. For myself, right now, my goals center on paying off my mortgage as quickly as possible. The goal is specific and will probably test me month to month (especially around Christmas), but at the end of the month I feel a similar level of satisfaction as from being able to do that crazy workout.
- End Goal – My end goal of my fitness plan is to live longer and be in better shape to enjoy life. The end goal of my financial plan is to be financially independent as quickly as possible. These two goals go together as I really don’t want to be reliant on either the health-care system or a job, and both plans are getting me towards achieving my goals.
Right now, I’m in the type of physical shape that I want to be in, I’m hoping that this will transfer over to my financial goals. As Jacob notes in his “Who is extreme” article there is a link between personal finance and fitness. I’m wondering if anyone else has noticed that link or have you noticed other links between your other long-term goals and your retirement goal that you trying to achieve?
