There’s a very common narrative that high achievers tend to buy into. It’s the idea of the deferred life.
We work relentlessly in our thirties, forties and fifties, pouring all our surplus time and energy into building our careers and our portfolios. We tell ourselves we’re making sacrifices now so we can finally relax, travel and enjoy our lives ‘someday’ when we cross a specific financial finish line.
But this mindset contains a hidden, incredibly dangerous flaw. It assumes that when ‘someday’ finally arrives, we’ll still have the physical capacity to enjoy it.
When we plan for the future, we can easily become obsessed with our financial capital. We track compound interest, monitor yields and ensure the portfolio is perfectly balanced. But we risk ignoring our physical capital.
Your physical capital can be described as your health, mobility and energy levels. And unlike a well-managed investment portfolio, your physical capital doesn’t compound over time – it naturally depreciates.
It’s easy to dream about spending your retirement tackling multi-day hiking trails, camping out under the stars, or finally having the time to master those mountain bike routes. But if you spend three decades sitting behind a desk, sacrificing your sleep and ignoring your health in the pursuit of a larger bank balance, those dreams might remain entirely out of reach.
A fully funded pension can’t buy back worn-out knees or a depleted cardiovascular system.
In financial planning, we often talk about the three distinct phases of later life:
- The go-go years: The early years of retirement when you have both the time and the physical health to travel, explore and engage in high-energy activities.
- The slow-go years: The phase where you’re still healthy but naturally begin to slow down. Long-haul flights and strenuous hikes are replaced by gentler pursuits closer to home.
- The no-go years: The later years where health issues and limited mobility dictate your lifestyle and your world naturally becomes smaller.
The tragedy of the deferred life is that many people run the risk of delaying their biggest, most physically demanding dreams until they hit their mid-sixties, only to discover that their ‘go-go years’ may already be behind them.
A truly successful financial plan doesn’t just prepare you for the future – it permits you to live today.
It’s about finding the delicate balance between saving for tomorrow and experiencing the present. If your financial plan is so rigid that it prevents you from taking a long weekend to recharge, investing in your physical health, or enjoying an active holiday while your body is at its peak, it could be time to rewrite the plan.
Don’t arrive at your financial finish line with a full bank account and an empty tank. Treat your physical health with the same strategic reverence you give your investment portfolio, because your health is – and always will be – your primary wealth.