Growing Old But Not Up
I am not the biggest fan of Facebook—I do recognize its value and admit to scrolling regularly to see what the rest of the world is up to, but generally I am not a huge contributor. However, this weekend, Facebook reminded me that two years ago, Milo looked like this:

Two short years and 140 lbs later, Milo has grown into this handsome boy:

While he is just two, that equals about 24 in dog years. By the time Milo turns 5, he will be a middle aged dog, and then a senior pup by age 9!!
Because Milo will age so fast, we work extra hard to keep him healthy. He eats better than we do most nights with a well balanced dog food, plus a scoop of pumpkin, fresh blueberries, a probiotic, and a squirt of salmon oil. He plays with friends all day and goes for a long walk at night to be sure he stays fit. And, regular routine vet visits keep a close eye on all his vital health info so we can enjoy a happy and health dog as long as possible.
While we go through all of this for our dog—and also for our kids (although we don’t make them eat salmon oil at every meal)—we often forget to do this for ourselves. Routine doctors appointments are hard to schedule, eating healthy and exercise are hit and miss, and often we are so caught up in work that we forget to play with friends and de-stress often.
And, we acknowledge this is a problem. Because building wealth without taking care of our health sort of defeats the point. Health and wealth really are tied together. All the money in the world is useless if you aren’t healthy enough to get out and enjoy life. And the healthiest person won’t stay that way long if money troubles cause great anxiety and limit choices.
So we’ve been reading “Age Proof: Living Longer Without Running Out of Money or Breaking a Hip”

While my husband resents the implications of the following review on Amazon, it has been an interesting book for us to read together.

The book is an easy read with actionable steps to improve your health and your financial position. From the financial side, we’d say nothing is ground breaking—here are the top five priorities to improve your financial situation:
- Earn a decent living
- Pay yourself first with savings
- Spend less than you make
- Protect your financial life
- Give back in a meaningful way
Nothing shocking there—however, under each of these points are great ideas as to how to take the first step towards each one of these goals.
I am sure our friends in the health profession would say the same for the health care advice—for example, the top four substitutions to improve your health are:
- Swap 30 minutes of sitting for 30 minutes of moving
- Swap the American way of eating for the Mediterranean way of eating
- Swap drink number two for a piece of dark chocolate or watermelon
- Swap Facebook surfing for more sleep
And again, each suggestion is followed by several actionable items to get moving towards better health.
While not exactly a fun beach read, Age Proof is a worthwhile book for easily digestible information for improving both your health and your wealth, and we recommend reading it this summer. We are happy to loan it to you once we are done reading it!