ordinary folk: cash flow struggle > health struggle

In any developed country, I believe more than 50% (possibly 70%) of the people struggle, on a monthly if not daily basis, more with finance health (denoted FF) than with physical health (denoted HH). These households could be on cash flow low ground or high ground. See notes below.

Some (lucky) individuals don’t struggle with either. (Let’s not bother to ask why.) They are out of scope, possibly outliers.

— Q: what specific “things” do other people envy in someone “successful” like TB? I think Mostly they envy the visible signs of success:

• A: (jolt) not quick commute, but a (visible) prestigious office location, even if it requires long commute
• A: (jolt) not career longevity, but a (visible) brank
• A: (jolt) not Fuller Wealth, but exclub wealth including big home. Hurts brbr and closer to the cash flow low ground
• A: (jolt) not an attractive spouse (not at my age anyway) or stable marriage, but a high-earning spouse
• A: (jolt) not health (invisible) but health insurance and (visible) athletic fitness
• A: branded degrees + academic kids

— visibility: financial status is one of the most visible of all statuses. In contrast, Health “status” is less visible. (Overweight is visible but too common to be a concern.) You could be more healthy than a friend, but usually the difference isn’t visible. Due to the less visible difference in this “status”, I guess most individuals consider themselves in reasonable/acceptable health condition.

Here’s another way to put it — if each person is asked to self-classify into one of three health status zones of

• deep-green i.e. no known issue whatsoever
• yellowish green i.e. acceptable, even if not perfect
• red i.e. non-trivial health conditions

.. then I think the yellowish green zone would be the widest and the default zone. Consequently, most individuals don’t feel the urge or the need to make big healthcare decisions or major lifestyle changes (HH). Actually, many people had better work hard to reduce weight, eat and drink less, quit specific habits… but these individuals self-identify with the yellowish green zone and feel no such urgency.

On the other hand, they all have to work (sometimes pretty hard) for a living, 辛苦工作, 省吃俭用. Therefore included as a FF component. Specifically, I perceive a “financial struggle” whenever I see folks worry about job loss, mid-career transition, long term family livelihood, retirement planning, inflation in healthcare, education and housing … Endless variations of Insurance products have been designed to address these financial struggles.

Who on earth need not economize their financial resources? Even the rich need to do so, but economization and give-up isn’t always a financial struggle. How about the Beijing home ownership dream? It easily costs RMB 10M but the ordinary salary is

— longevity target .. Most individuals don’t aim to live beyond 85. So they accept some non-trivial health conditions (HH), and they often decide not to make certain sustainable lifestyle changes (HH).

Note these changes are often tough over the long term. Remember the Promethean struggles in this blog.

— cash flow low ground .. A sizable portion (10%?) of the population seem to be stuck struggling on cash flow low ground. For them, wellness struggle is a low priority unless for a medical reason.

fitness≠healthy_longevity

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wellness≠accumulating asset: Buy longevity

See also

• reliability@shields: burnRate^wellness
• batteries: to accumulate strategic val #plowback #800w is the bigger picture.

In this blogpost, Key question is —

Q: For the purpose of wellness (healthy longevity), what can we do about the non-accumulation, esp. what to do using our financial assets?

more text styling welcome.

Wellness is, in many ways, truly more important than personal finance, but accumulation is elusive. I feel habits and (self-)knowledge can accumulate, but wellness condition has rather short-term accumulation.

When you have surplus spare time (or savings) … store it in batteries, like batteries for solar energy, wind energy. We have very very good batteries to store surplus cash, but for surplus spare time the batteries all decay and progressively lose stored “value” but can keep some value for X months:

• battery: [s4] yoga .. the most disappointing, frustrating, elusive… You lose it soon after you stop practicing, like a Promethean struggle
• .. [be] self-discovery … experiment to discover sustainable self-practice routines. What instructors said seldom worked. All yoga practices are unsustainable. My self-discovery is slightly more sustainable, but a huge battery nevertheless! Self-discovery to some extent can be baked in. Plenty of positive energy (sunshine + patience) needed to achieve any accumulation.
• battery: [s5] diet discovery .. smoothie experiment to discover sustainable techniques
• battery: [b s5] eg: raw-veg diet — once I experiment to develop my capacity and tolerance, it is baked in.
• battery: BMI deep-green deep-green zone — usually short-lived i.e. fast-decay battery. Over a few years you can accumulate a deep-green condition, but it can be depleted within a few months. At that time, you need the bao3shan1 battle
• battery:  endurance — I now run more than 10km every week. After I slow down, I am confident I can pick up again. The accu is /baked-in/.
• battery: swim — the techniques takes years of practice. Techniques improve efficiency and endurance. The accu is /baked-in/.
• battery: Wellness habits …
• battery: [e s3] personal research and experiments on diet + fitness — every weight-loser must experiment to find what work for “me”. Ditto anyone hoping to maintain more than 3 workouts a week.
• .. For the research and insights, some dram-refresh needed
• battery: [s1] piano … not directly “restores” wellness, but can enhance wellness like sex does.
• battery: [s2] karma. more good deeds

Biggest batteries: localSys and IV learning:

1. These batteries “warehouse” spare ammunition for the upcoming battles. These batteries maintain (if not store) competitive energy. Those battles have profound impact on long-term wellness
2. These batteries protect livelihood, and protect against the heaviest and most persistent stressors.

— [s4] fitness goods and services, better nutrition. Some call these “investment” but I reject this notion.
— [s5] migrate .. to locations with better healthcare infra. Many financially wealthy families choose to live in healthy locations:

1. better healthcare infra
2. shorter commute to free up leisureTime 
3. better weather, highly sought after by retirees. Extreme weather as a health hazard probably shortens life expectancy.
4. workout facilities
5. better air quality
6. more sight-seeing places nearby, to encourage more outdoor activity

— [s3] lower paying job… MMM believes that the successful career individuals should really let go, and enjoy leisureTime. The OC-effective manager peers probably live with inferior work-life balance.

• have less leisureTime for workout,
• have worse nutrition balance, often having meals in meetings or at desk,
• They also have higher responsibilities/stress .. always on the ball, and always seeking delegates/deputies capable of 独当一面.
• .. These OC-effective managers are always benchmarked against a high bar for organizational effectiveness. Remember
  • Youwei, who worked hard as a team lead in MS
  • I worked hard to fill in the big shoes of the Macq leadership role but couldn’t clear the bar

On cash-flow high ground, I can afford to accept lower-paying jobs.

— [s4] leisureTime .. can be “bought” by financial means
for the vast majority of the world population, as a rule of thumb leisureTime is a prerequisite for active lifestyle with a Planned diet. As an exception to prove the rule, some highly effective role models can pack daily workout into a busy lifestyle, and avoid buying unhealthy foods, but they are a distinct minority in all populations.

Many financially wealthy individuals spend more leisureTime on wellness including

• workout 5+ times a week, a critical mass
• .. coach their kids to do the same
• cook healthy food at home
• .. coach their kids to do the same
• meditation (including breathing) + slow workout
• dancing

Commute eats into leisureTime that is otherwise usable on health activities such as cooking, family time. I think train commute is good if I can always sit. I hate driving for commute. Therefore, I feel those WallSt guys who waste 3H a day on commute is paying too much a price for a marginal gain in salary.

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reliable Shields@@ (burnRate^wellness) habits #w1r2

Context .. the G5 shields on family livelihood
See also .. health is wealth , how to accumulate wellness and WellnessCanBeOverrated

My personal control on family burn rate may not be very effective in X years when our expenses escalate, but at the moment, it is more reliable (albeit less valuable) than my wellness “shield” including my habits and current wellness condition.

In terms of adversities (hazards, events,,,,) both HH) health and FF) financial adversities happen to more than 50% of all families. Occurrence is generally beyond our control, despite our preventive measures.

In general, the “victim” has more resources dealing with FF than HH:

• HH is more often a physical adversity while FF is more of a social issue. Therefore other people (including organizations with resources) can more effectively help the victim of FF than HH.
• For a victim of HH (everyone suffering ill health), at least in the developed world, the most critical help is, instead of financial resources, often some medical expertise, the patient’s immunity, energy, fighting spirit,,, Donald Trump’s covid19 treatment was the very best but he probably relied on his own immunity.
• What if, in a rich or poor country, a HH victim actually needs financial resources? I think this is very common.  There may be no effective cure for the health condition, but financial resources can dramatically/significantly improve the quality of her life.

I listed and analyzed many financial adversities. These adversities usually hit numerous individuals, often individuals stuck on “cash-flow low ground”. Always, some percentage of the victims would survive. I can imagine that I am likely among the survivors.

In contrast, if a health adversity happens to someone in my family, there’s less control, less effective intervention available.

Wellness habits interact with defective genes (present in each of us), healthcare infrastructure, fate ,,, to determine an individual’s healthy longevity. For example, some smokers and drinkers outlive their healthy counterparts.

— God and karma have a more dominant role in this the HH domain than the FF domain. Therefore, I want to do more good deeds.
— accumulating protection
As I said in blogposts health is wealth and  “hard_to_accumulate” …. You can’t accumulate health and pass it on to next generation or donate it. For self-use, health can’t be preserved or invested for growth.

fitness(even health)can b overrated #600w

I (and many friends) often say wealth is overrated and wellness is undervalued. Really?

Look at professional fitness instructors and discharged soldiers. (Also some of the professional athletes but they are much fewer and less relevant). These individuals are often fighting fit. Some (not all) of them are more healthy than the general population.

However, some of them are not really healthy[1], and many of them struggle to make a living. A minority of them become successful business-people. The rest and the majority of them are average in terms of income and life chances. In my limited and rather biased view, a very common “problem” with these physically fit people is Brbr and cash flow low ground.

• if Alice among them is able to keep her burn rate low, and hit brbr above 2, then her fitness is a great asset in her life.
• if Bob among them is able to make a good living, then his fitness is a great asset in his life.

Now, most of my friends don’t have such fitness background.

Some of my friends have household incomes a few times above national average. Yet, some of us are still trapped on cashflow low ground, perhaps due to Brbr, high leverage, ambitious/aggressive investment. For these mere mortals, Personal wellness is now a huge differentiation. The relative importance of wellness vs wealth is best seen in such a context. When it comes to fitness, the most common (95%) case of envy is a financially successful individual showing good fitness.

• eg: Stephen of Macq
• eg: NumTech founder
• eg: Ilya

To my dismay, in every single case the visible athletic fitness is unrelated to healthy_longevity, which is more valuable.

Q: how about an athlete achieving financial success? Well these cases are much rarer and too distant from “our” world to trigger any envy reaction.

— Health (i.e. freedom from ill health, as a subset of wellness) can also be overrated. Look at the poor farmers or discharged soldiers… Perfectly-healthy adults can and do struggle with some combinations of

• no shelter .. even homeless
• no food security
• insufficient clothing to keep warm
• no education
• no job
• no loving relationship… a bitter marriage can be detrimental and worse than solitude.
• no loving family, and (at some age) no parents
• few meaningful long-term friendship
• no savings … or only negative savings i.e. heavy debt
• no dream. no way to realize his / her potentials
• no dental or skin care … often considered non-essential 😦
• no preventive healthcare
• no community care
• limited motivation to keep up personal hygiene, diet, fitness
• poor nutritional balance

Under these harsh conditions, it would be hard to stay Perfectly-healthy .  His/her health could hit any number of hazards, like a dugout battered on the rough sea. When (not if) hit by an illness or injury, the recovery would depend on the limited “resources” available.

Health is one aspect of human existence. A human being is not a stone. His/her health depends on psychological, and family/community resources. Humans survive as a group, very seldom as a lone wolf.

— [1] Cardio fitness usually means strong heart and lung, but that’s almost where their advantage ends. Many of these fit individuals become overweight , sometimes even before retiring.

(Note athletes are a highly visible but small part of the population of this blogpost.) More than half the spectator games require bulky, overweight build. Endurance events are seldom spectator events. Many coaches are former athletes and are now overweight.

Many athletes and soldiers also sustain long-term injury.

Diet requires education. Some of these fit people are not careful with diet in later life.