I finally found the book that reveals the secret fountain of youth.  Yes, you can turn back your age clock and significantly enhance how you live during retirement.  Not surprisingly, it outlines all the things that we know we should do, or not do for that matter, at any age.  Work out (note: not just exercise, work out) six days a week.  Avoid eating too much and stop eating junk (shocker: have  lots of fruits and veggies, whole grains, non-fat dairy, fish, some chicken).  Stay positive and invest in your relationships and community.  Spend less money than you have coming in.  I love it!  The most difficult part of my job is watching people age.  The tagline “invest right, live right” is intended to show the critical importance of being physically, emotionally and spiritually healthy.  It means just about everything to our quality of life.  If you are a millionaire and your body is falling apart, all of your planning has been for naught.  A friend once told me “getting old sucks.”  As I preach with investing: focus on what you can control.  Consider a membership to the gym or hiring a nutritionist as a critical part of your investment planning (having a personal trainer is far more fun and interesting than staring at a boring copy of a long term care policy sitting on your desk).

From the book: “70 percent of premature death and aging is lifestyle related.  Heart attacks, strokes, the common cancers, diabetes, brittle bones, most falls, fractures and serious injuries, and many more illnesses are primarily caused by the way we live…we could eliminate more than half of all disease in women and men over fifty.  Not delay it, eliminate it.”  Wow, powerful.  Work out 6 days a week, eat better, stay in touch with everyone, put work aside for a few days and go volunteer, and save more money.  Nice, I am off to put on my running shoes to run my River Club neighborhood loop!  For real.  As soon as it stops raining (totally kidding, I am going now!).  invest right, live right…right here in Pawleys Island.  Hopefully the healthcare system we have in place 30 years from now will be irrelevant to me, because my goal is to not have to use it very often.

🙂

Please try to read this book.  I learned a lot and my short article here does not do it justice.  The science sections are fascinating, the skiing stories are fun and the language is witty.  Oh, and I read it in one evening, it is a breeze.

“Younger Next Year” by Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge (there is a version for men and a version for women).

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