Why your health deserves as much investment and attention as your finances

Being aware of your finances and tailoring decisions to your circumstances and goals is often seen as a way to improve your life.

You might save for the future, invest for long-term security, and make financial plans to help you achieve long-term goals like retirement or buying a home. Financial planning may play an important role in helping you build the life you want.

However, it’s not the only factor that influences enjoyment and fulfilment later in life. While you might recognise how important your health is and even set goals, people often take a different approach to improving it when compared to finances.

Why your health deserves to be part of your long-term plans

Your health could affect your quality of life now and in the future

How healthy you are might have a direct impact on what you’re able to do and enjoy both now and in the future. As ageing often brings health challenges, taking steps to improve your health before retirement could make a difference.

Retirement is often a milestone you’re looking forward to. It gives you greater freedom to spend time on what’s most important to you. Poor health potentially impacting retirement plans is a cause for concern for many people.

Research from Age UK (28 April 2025) found that 10 million middle-aged people in the UK worry about staying healthy as they age.

While taking steps to improve your health doesn’t guarantee outcomes, it could make a difference to your retirement.

Change doesn’t happen overnight, but a long-term investment could deliver results

As with a financial plan, you won’t achieve results when working on your health overnight.

You’ll often need to be consistent to see the result you want to achieve. As a result, thinking of your health plan as an investment could provide a long-term view that helps you focus.

How to take inspiration from your financial plan to create a health plan

If you already follow a financial plan, you may apply many of the same principles to a health plan. Here are five steps that could help you get started.

1. Decide what you want to achieve

Before making changes, think about what good health means to you. Your goals will depend on your circumstances, lifestyle, and priorities. Perhaps you want to increase your fitness levels, have more energy, or improve your mobility.

Try to make your goals clear by making them specific. Rather than saying “I want to be fitter”, you might state: “I want to walk for 30 minutes five days a week.”

Having a clear goal gives you something to work towards and makes it easier to measure your progress.

2. Understand where you are starting from

Once you know what you want to achieve, take an honest look at your current position.

In financial planning, you would assess your income, savings, investments, and spending before deciding what changes are needed. With your health, the equivalent is understanding your current habits and wellbeing.

Understanding your starting point helps you identify the gap between where you are now and where you want to be, and could allow you to set a realistic time frame.

So, the goal in the point above might become: “I want to build up to walking for 30 minutes five days a week over the next three months.”

If you have any health concerns or are unsure what changes are appropriate, speak to a healthcare professional for guidance.

3. Create a realistic blueprint

With your goals and starting point established, it is time to create a plan. Think about the practical steps you can take to move towards your objectives.

The important thing is to make your plan realistic. Trying to change everything at once can quickly become overwhelming. Instead, focus on a few manageable adjustments that you can maintain over the long term – you can build on the positive first steps you’re taking in the future.

Remember, consistency is often more valuable than short bursts of intense effort. Your health plan should fit into your life, not become another source of pressure.

4. Monitor your progress

A financial plan is not something you create once and then forget about. You’ll usually carry out regular reviews, and your health deserves the same attention.

When creating your blueprint, set points in the plan where you’ll check on your progress and stick to it, whether it’s weekly or quarterly.

It is worth remembering that progress is not always straightforward. There may be times it’s harder to maintain your routine. Rather than giving up, a progress check-in could help you get back on track.

5. Review and adapt your plan

Just as your financial priorities may change throughout your life, your health goals will evolve too.

A routine that works for you today might need adjusting as you get older, your lifestyle changes, or you update your goals. Alongside tracking progress, regular reviews could help you assess your approach and adapt your plan where necessary.

Good health could be essential for living a fulfilling life in the future. While wealth could give you greater choice and freedom, poor health could limit how much you’re able to enjoy these opportunities.

There’s no way to guarantee what the future will hold, but considering your health now could be part of investing in the future you want.