Get fit and boost the health of your finances

HEALTH and wealth do more together than simply rhyme.

Improving your health can improve your wealth by saving money and creating a mindset to breed financial success.

Companies are jumping on the bandwagon, incentivising movement using fit tracking devices and smartphones.

Qantas Assure allows clients to earn frequent flyer points based on the steps they do, while Medibank and Flybuys teamed up to offer 10 points every time a health fund member records more than 10,000 steps a day.

Affinitas Capital senior adviser John Purl said there were many ways to save and build wealth by being active.

“Try walking meetings outdoors,” he said, adding that the fresh air could also inspire fresh thoughts.

“I encourage people to incorporate movement throughout the day. It could be using a stand-up desk, taking the stairs or walking to a postbox further away.”

Riding or walking to work and sending documents to printers on the other side of the office were other ways to increase activity, Mr Purl said.

Workers should also leave healthy snacks in their bottom drawer rather than raid lolly jars. “Try not to operate throughout the day with brain fog and sugar highs,” he said.

No pain, no gain is a popular mantra in the gym, but the mindset created from being physically uncomfortable can flow through to being willing to be mentally uncomfortable by investing in areas you may previously have avoided.

Wealth for Life Financial Planning principal Rex Whitford, who rides 15km each way to work three days a week, said stopping smoking delivered double the benefits. The health benefits of quitting are widely known, and nonsmokers avoid the Federal Government’s massive tax take on every cigarette sold.

He said the key for being both healthy and wealthy is to stop procrastinating. “People put stuff off because it’s hard, but once you get used to it habits are formed – whether that’s exercise or saving money,” Mr Whitford said.

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