1 / 18

Small Steps to Health and Wealth™:

Small Steps to Health and Wealth™:. Health and Personal Finance Connections. “The Greatest Wealth is Health” Virgil (BC). Small Steps to Health and Wealth™ (SSHW). Second Edition SSHW workbook (2013) SHHW workbook online for free downloading: http://njaes.rutgers.edu/money/.

damonf
Download Presentation

Small Steps to Health and Wealth™:

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Small Steps to Health and Wealth™: Health and Personal Finance Connections

  2. “The Greatest Wealth is Health”Virgil (BC)

  3. Small Steps to Health and Wealth™ (SSHW) • Second Edition SSHW workbook (2013) • SHHW workbook online for free downloading: http://njaes.rutgers.edu/money/

  4. Why Small Steps to Health and Wealth™? Americans Have “Issues” • Overweight/obesity • Physical inactivity • Heart disease and diabetes • Low savings rates • High household debt/bankruptcy rates • Inadequate emergency reserves/financial fragility • Other?

  5. SSHW “Elevator Statement” Small Steps to Health and Wealth™ encourages participants to make positive behavior changes to simultaneously improve their health and personal finances.

  6. Health and Finances Top New Year’s Resolutions University of Scranton study: Top 5 resolutions for 2014 • Lose weight • Get organized • Spend less, save more • Enjoy life to the fullest • Stay fit and healthy

  7. “The Jersey Diner Approach” to SSHW • Adopt SSHW strategies that work for you • Choose 3 to 4 (max) strategies

  8. Recent Health-Wealth Research Findings • The “cost” of better health is the need for greater wealth (higher total lifetime health care costs) • More years of out-of-pocket expenses • Increased likelihood of chronic condition in later life • Increased likelihood of need for long-term care • http://crr.bc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/IB_10-8.pdf • Healthy living habits improve during tough economic times • http://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/re/articles/?id=2018 • http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/C_Ruhm_Healthy_2005.pdf • Associations between financial distress and physical symptoms of stress • http://ldi.upenn.edu/uploads/media_items/foreclosure-and-health-status.original.pdf • http://www.personalfinancefoundation.org/research/efd/The-Association-Among-Health-Race-and-Debt.pdf

  9. Health and Finance “Issues” Similarities 1. Problems develop gradually 2. Less stigma due to increasing frequency 3. Impacts job productivity, discrimination 4. Lots of technical jargon • Medical terms and acronyms (e.g., BMI) • Financial terms and acronyms (e.g., IRA)

  10. More SimilaritiesHealth and Finance “Issues” 5.Need for programs in schools and at work sites 6. People fear drastic changes and large numbers 7. Need for more “point of purchase” info • Calories in foods and cost of credit card minimum payments 8. Advice needs to be realistic

  11. Still More SimilaritiesHealth and Finance “Issues” 9. Lack of limits causes problems 10. Restrictions help avoid problems 11. Drastic solutions have major drawbacks 12. Good health and wealth are related to: • Higher productivity, fewer work absences • Lower medical expenses to erode wealth • Live long enough to collect Social Security benefit

  12. SSHW Framework: 25 Health & Wealth Behavior Change Strategies

  13. Meet Yourself Halfway… Or You Will Feel Deprived • Health: Decrease portion sizes of favorite foods by 1/3 to 1/2 and/or increase exercise • Eat half as much as you do now…gradually • Take leftovers from restaurant meals home • Finances: Reduce discretionary spending by 1/3 to 1/2 and/or increase income • Spend less than you do now • Look for less expensive options

  14. Convert Consumption (Calories & Spending) Into Labor • Health: How many hours of exercise are needed to burn off extra food? • Is eating a certain food “worth the calories?” • Finances: How many hours of work are needed in order to buy something (use after-tax dollars)? • Is buying something worth the time worked?

  15. Compare Yourself With Benchmarks • Health: • Body Mass Index (BMI) • “Five a day” (5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables) • Total cholesterol < 200 mg/dl • Finances: • Consumer debt-to-income ratio < 20% • Age x gross income divided by 10 (Stanley & Danko net worth formula in The Millionaire Next Door) • Suggested asset allocations by age

  16. Step Down to Change Source: Dr. Alena Johnson, Utah State University • Don’t cut out something completely • Find a less expensive alternative

  17. Ramp up physical activity Work up to 10,000 steps Increase fruits & vegetables in diet Do more of anything positive! Automatically increase savings at regular intervals Add 1/12 of mortgage payment (P & I) monthly Do more of anything positive! Kick It Up a Notch!

  18. Rutgers Cooperative Extension Personal Health and Finance Quizhttp://njaes.rutgers.edu/money/health-finance-quiz/ • Believed to be FIRST combined online health and personal finance daily behavioral practice assessment tool • Collected data will be used for research about relationships between health and finances

More Related