Healthy senior woman smiling while holding some green juice in her kitchen

The difference between lifespan and healthspan, and how it affects your financial plans

As a wealthy expat, you’ll no doubt have taken care to craft your financial plans to allow you to enjoy all that life has to offer.

One aspect of your long-term planning will be to consider your longevity. This will include the sustainability of your wealth once you retire, the legacy you leave, and a variety of tax-efficient strategies that could help you reach your financial goals.

Yet, there’s a high chance you haven’t stopped to think about how long you may enjoy good health, or how a shorter healthspan may influence your future plans, or finances.

3 spans to consider when making your financial plans

  • Lifespan – Your expected length of life, this may be impacted by social, economic, behavioural, and biological factors over the course of your life.
  • Healthspan – The period of life you spend in good health, free from chronic diseases and disabilities of ageing, which may be influenced through lifestyle changes and medical innovations.
  • Wealthspan – How you adapt your current and future wealth management in light of increased life expectancy, with a flexible strategy to allow for good health and the possible need for care.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in the UK 65-year-old males have an average life expectancy of 85, and a 1 in 4 chance of living to 92. Meanwhile, 65-year-old females have an average life expectancy of 87, and a 1 in 4 chance of living to 94.

A look back at your ancestors and their lifespans may help to give you an idea of how long you might expect to live.

But, what happens if your health begins to deteriorate as you grow older?

Medical innovations mean that there’s a good chance you may be able to benefit from successful treatment, recovering most of your health, and continue to live a somewhat normal life. While this is obviously good news, living longer in poor health could prove costly.

As such, should you find yourself ailing as life progresses, your well-laid financial plans may falter too.

This leads to two crucial questions:

  • How much of your remaining lifespan, is going to be healthy?
  • How much of it is going to be blighted by potentially debilitating diseases, such as cancer, heart attack, stroke, dementia?

The chart below illustrates the issue, highlighting clear variations between regions.

Source: Economist Impact

Generally speaking, average life expectancy and healthy life expectancy have each increased over recent years. The problem is healthy life expectancy is increasing more slowly. As shown, data shows that you could live five years or more in poor health. These figures are from 2019. So, you may well find that you suffer ill health far longer in future.

You can influence your healthspan – often more than you may imagine

While the pharmaceutical industry has made significant advances in trying to expand lifespans and, to a lesser degree, healthspans – particularly in recent years – there’s another area of medicine is growing, and shouldn’t be ignored.

Unlike traditional medical treatment, that focuses on treating symptoms, functional medicine identifies and then addresses the root cause of a disease.

As such, combining functional medicine with routine visits to your regular family doctor, could benefit your health and expand the number of healthy years you continue to enjoy life, helping you to reduce the chance of debilitating ailments hampering your plans.

One stark example of how traditional medical doctors could be failing you is that few have training or understanding of the importance of diet and nutrition for maintaining and supporting good health.

Shockingly, according to a report published by Time, a survey of US and UK medical schools in 2021, found that most students received just 11 hours of nutrition training throughout their entire medical studies.

If you’re unwell, a traditional doctor will treat you through pharmaceutical drugs. After doling out the meds, if you’re very lucky, they may talk about diet and exercise as an afterthought just before you leave their office.

The drugs don’t work… but they do make money

Of course, the reason traditional medical treatment is driven by drugs and pharmaceutical intervention is because it makes money – a lot of it.

According to SOMO, a knowledge and research organisation, between them big pharma companies Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna, and Sinovac made $90 billion in profits through their Covid-19 vaccines in 2021 and 2022.

We won’t go into whether the vaccines worked here, but it’s fair to say that millions of people around the world were misled about the benefits.

Extend your healthspan by taking a more holistic approach

Meanwhile, functional medicine isn’t nearly as profitable. As such, it’s not widely marketed or talked about. That is why we recommend you take a proactive stance and seek out and talk to functional medicine providers.

Instead of relying purely on traditional medical interventions, focusing on diet, exercise and mindset as well as introducing a range of appropriate supplements could allow you greater control of your wellbeing, and extend your healthspan.

Elongating your healthspan could have a positive financial impact

Ultimately, elongating your health allows you to focus your time and resources on what matters to you most.

Remaining in good health for longer will allow you to spend your retirement money on enjoying life. Acting now may also grant you more time away from hospitals, doctors, and costly treatment.

Instead, you can focus on the things you love.

Whether you wish to spend more time with your family, travel the world, or pursue other interests, ensuring you remain in good health as long as possible is key to optimising your enjoyment of life.

Remaining well and disease-free for longer could also make all the difference to your long-term financial plan, and enhance the legacy you leave for your loved ones.

We are here to support you in enjoying the best possible return on life

At BMP Wealth, we look at your quality of life and the funds you’ll need to maintain your lifestyle. Plus, to understand how your finances will support you throughout your healthy lifespan, we use sophisticated software to illustrate your cashflow projections.

To discuss the health improvements you could enjoy through functional medicine, and how to ensure your financial plans account for a long and happy retirement, please get in touch.

Email info@bmpwealth.com or call +852 3975 2878.

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