In the previous blog, we have discussed few habits that we should avoid in order to achieve a healthy lifestyle. Unhealthy habits like drinking, smoking, not getting enough sleep, overeating will only result in deteriorating your health. Tolerating your unhealthy habits can lead to many diseases. This could lead to paying hefty amount of insurance policies, hospital bills, and etc.
Changing your lifestyle can be a tough move but it can result to a better long-lasting impact to your health. If you have been thinking to start changing your habit, do it now. Lifestyle choices play a big role in your life especially in determining your insurance premiums. Most of the insurance companies offer lower premiums to those with a healthy lifestyle. In fact, they sometimes offer discounts for those people who maintains good health. Therefore, eliminating your unhealthy habits will save your money.
How much time and money do you invest in your health? Many people think that living a healthy lifestyle is expensive. Maybe this is the reason why some people are stuck to their unhealthy situations because they have always thought about how living healthy can consume a significant amount on your finances. However, in reality, living and continue living an unhealthy lifestyle will cost you more in the long run.
1. Increased medical spending
Unhealthy lifestyle choices share the same risk factors as long-term exposure to three correctable lifestyle behaviors: smoking, unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity -- and result in the development of chronic disorders, especially heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, etc. Many studies have shown that smoking, obesity, overweight, and alcohol consumption lead to more medical expenditure.
2. Difficulty obtaining medical insurance
Medical insurance companies can help you cover some of the costs of your poor lifestyle choices but that does not mean they can cover all of the diseases that one may experience. The more health conditions you have, the higher risk you are, and less likely to be accepted by insurers.
3. Think again and lessen your expensive vices
The obvious culprit when it comes to expensive vices is drinking and smoking. You can save more money by eliminating, or at least, lessen these vices. However, our expensive vices does not stop here. We also find fun in drinking fizzy drinks more than water. These carbonated drinks is disastrous to our health, especially our waistline. The sugar content of these drinks will slowly eat up our body which will lead to a possibility of developing diabetes.
4. Cut down transport cost
Car maintenance, parking fees, toll fees, public transportations fees, etc. are all considered as part of our daily expenses. However, we can always make a move and drastically cut these expenses by changing our lifestyle. A simple move like walking to the streets on your way home can already be a good contribution to your overall health or choosing bike rides when grocery shopping may save you money.
5. Reduce monthly food bills
Switching from pre-packaged processed foods to home-cooked foods can have a significant impact on your monthly grocery costs. At the price of a packaged soup that lasts for two days, you can buy ingredients for one serving of soup that lasts for five days. Not to mention the savings you can get by giving up or reducing expensive takeaways. A takeaway meal costs two to five times as much as a home meal and contains at least twice as many calories.
As you can see, living a healthy lifestyle does more than just reduce your waistline. You will discover countless other ways you can to improve your finances by taking stock and reducing unhealthy habits. The best part is that changing your overall well-being also changes your overall outlook on life.