Healthy, Wealthy & Wise
Me, if I was a wise old owl. Which I’m not.
What noble aims! – To be healthy, wealthy and wise. Wouldn’t it be great to have all three? Few enough aches and pains to be considered healthy, enough money in the bank to pay the bills and then some, and the wits to know that a third glass of merlot is a bad idea.
I don’t know about you, but I have always struggled just a little with all three aims. Luckily, with the advantage of age, I now find myself nodding off a little earlier some nights, and enjoy the proverbial ‘early to bed’. Usually on the sofa.
It’s years since I rode a bicycle. I’m guessing most people won’t read the caption and will think I’m sporty. Tee hee.
‘Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.’ - Benjamin Franklin
The virtues of hard work are often written about, but usually in relation to paid employment. For anyone who has spent decades parenting children, while juggling a day job too, you know that an early night would be luxury beyond measure. Usually, it’s late nights and early mornings which, would not appear to be recommended. I’ve met early risers – my own mother was one – and their early morning enthusiasm still baffles me. Here on Rosy & Silver we believe you’re old enough to decide what time to go to bed, and whether to keep hitting that snooze button.
Is it wrong to think this photo would be more exciting if these were chocolate coins, rather than gold?
Of wealth and pensions
I remember one day, when a fresh-faced young pension advisor visited our office for a retirement talk. All you need to do, he said, is save 15% of your salary every month and – bingo! – you can retire on the French Riviera with a yacht. He lamented that women were far less likely to invest the 15% than men, and I left the talk feeling like a failure.
A few days later, I read a newspaper article by another pension advisor, repeating what we had just heard, but adding that how older women would become a burden on their families and on society. (Clearly, pension salespeople get their figures from the same source, and like to ratchet up the guilt factor to make people buy pensions.) I felt even worse, thinking it was my fault that I was a bad person, that I was failing to do my civic duty.
Until I read another article – in the same newspaper – that pointed out that women earn, on average, 15% less than their male colleagues for the same work.
Wait, what?
And not forgetting the ‘Mommy Tax’, which shows that women’s lifetime earnings are considerably reduced if they take time out of the workplace to raise their families. That means women, and mothers in particular, are at a considerable disadvantage when it comes to pension planning.
I had a thought. (Steady on, now, steady on!)
If women had pay equality, then they would be far more likely to invest in a pension plan. It’s so much harder to win the race if your starting block is 15% further behind the other runners, and you have a baby (or two) on your hips. Just a thought.
I couldn’t find a stock photo of a woman smiling at her salad., so this will have to do You will have to imagine me smiling, because I have just had Pad Thai for dinner. You don’t have to eat salad either. Just saying.
Smiling at salads
How many different theories of healthy eating are there? I genuinely want to know. There’s low carb, high carb, no fat, high fat, low sugar, high protein, eating breakfast, not eating breakfast, snacking, not snacking.
Have I missed any?
Here’s the honest truth. I was brought up with the food pyramid of Five A Day for fruits and veggies, with carbs at the bottom and sweet treats at the top. I was naturally very slim as a teenager and in my early 20s. But, from the age of about 25, my weight increased by about 1lb/500g per year. It was barely noticeable in my 30s, but, but 25 years on it most definitely is.
I do enjoy an occasional salad – mmm, a classic Caesar with extra parmesan, please – but I actually can’t digest plate loads of leaves. My post-pandemic body needs love, sleep and gentle exercise more than it needs the Ten A Day that pundits are starting to talk about.
Ten? Seriously?
My approach is going to be An Apple A Day. I reckon if we can get in ONE piece of fresh fruit (on top of our morning juice and a small handful of chocolate-covered raisins), we’re practically home free.
If you’re scared to act you shoe size, take ‘em off.
Jumping in puddles
Thank you for reading all the way down to the bottom of this blog post. Now that you’re here, I have a confession for you. I started building this blog in 2020, and did nothing with it until 2022. This is the third blog post I’ve written for Rosy & Silver, which means I’ve been averaging, oh, one blog post per year.
See, you can feel smug about being more productive than me already!
I’ve included this wonderful stock photo of a person jumping barefoot in a puddle, because that looks like the wisest thing to do. It would have ruined her sandals.
That’s it for this blog post. Have a brilliant day, and be your best self!
