Assets 'vs' Liabilities

Often, I find myself comparing fitness principles to finance. For example, viewing energy balance (how many calories you consume vs how many calories you burn) like a bank balance. You must keep a close eye on your bank balance so that you’re aware how much more you have to spend, or whether you need to in fact tighten the purse strings and do some saving. Failure to do this could lead to unwanted debt. Similarly, being in control of your calories will lead to unwanted fat gain.

In the world of finance, it’s important to determine what in your life as an asset and what is a liability. In simple terms, if something is putting money in to your pocket, it’s an asset whereas if it’s taking money out of your pocket it’s a liability.

Clearly, to be financially healthy, you’ll want more assets and less liabilities.

Now, let’s compare that to your physical health. Any lifestyle choices that you make will become an asset or liability to you. If something serves you, benefits your health and allows you to live better or longer, then that is an asset to your health. Alternatively, if something has a negative impact on your health and ultimately costs you years of your life through illness, inactivity or early mortality then it is most definitely a liability.

Using this principle we can make informed decisions on lifestyle choices. But keep in mind that not all liabilities are necessarily bad. A nice car may be a liability, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve it. You’ll probably take careful consideration, however, as to whether you can justify that purchase.

When ordering your next takeaway, cracking open a bottle of wine or treating yourself to that bag of minstrels at the petrol station, it’s probably wise to ask yourself, “do I deserve this?”. If you’ve had a healthy week with well balanced meals and regular exercise and after a long day you fancy a glass of wine – meh, enjoy. If, on the other hand, you can’t honestly say that you have, on balance, had a healthy week, it would probably be a good idea to ‘check the bank balance’ before making that decision.