What if you never had to worry about money again? What if you could learn the tools to support your own health? Why not de-clutter your life and learn to be happy with what you have? You may be thinking that these seem impossible, or that it would take you years to just focus on one. However, life is complex and you may not have the luxury of wading through these topics one at a time. Here we explore the common threads between each concept and why we consider them the keys to a full life.
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Where it all began…
Everyone has their own journey that has brought them to where they are today. For me the awakening happened gradually. It all started with learning about Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) when I was fresh out of college. I quickly grew tired of living paycheck to paycheck and wanted to start traveling with Mr TSC. We started planning our first international vacation until a financial hurdle made our dreams of traveling start to fade. Instead of just accepting our fate, this was when we learned the true impact of our financial choices. After a strategic move that cut our rent in half, a few months later we were on our 1st international trip.
As we started questioning the “rules” of finance and of the typical working career, I found myself asking more questions. Am I really doing what I can for my health? As a thyroid cancer survivor, I got to the point where I noticed that cancer patients often go through a cycle of multiple diagnoses. Eventually, I asked myself “What can I do to prevent recurrence?” After months of research and watching documentaries, we found out that lifestyle medicine and eating whole food plant based could reduce a lot of the risk of recurrence. I started to take ownership of my own health through nutrition. As a result, I no longer felt like a sitting duck just waiting for the next cancer to strike.
After getting my health back on track, and being on the path to Financial Independence (FI), the next question came. “Can I really keep this up until I hit that magical FI number”? Commuting 1.5hr one direction was draining, and while it was good for our financial future, I was exhausted. Enter the minimalist movement, this idea of needing less could in tern save us money, lowering our FI number. It helped me better focus on my health and food choices, and allow both of us to enjoy our most important non-renewable resource: Time. Being on the path to FI and pairing that with a minimalist mindset, I was able to leave my well paying job to return to school in hopes of it leading to a more fulfilling career.
All three aspects are taken into consideration when we make choices in our lives. It helps to balance us so that we aren’t too frugal and miss out on experiences, too strict on our diets to enjoy a homemade brownie from a friend, or too minimalist that we feel deprived. Thinking about finances, health, and sustainability provide a balance that each one on their own is more difficult to maintain.
How are finance, health and sustainability related?
One thing that we have noticed is the Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE), Lifestyle Medicine, and Minimalist communities are all filled with amazing insight and people that continually preach to those already interested in the topic. So the question is, why is there limited crossover between these communities all providing life-changing information?
In a sense, these communities aren’t really that different. They all:
1) Bring CLARITY to a challenging topic.
2) Require COMMITMENT to yourself and desire to change.
3) Thrive on a COMMUNITY of support to help you make and maintain progress.
Each of these groups are inspiring to be a part of and give you a sense of community and support. That you don’t have to do it alone because there are people willing to guide you through it and want to spread the message. People who are complete strangers in real life will band together over a shared topic, express the challenges that they have faced, and chronicle how they overcame it.
So yes, asking people into finance about how they are taking care of their health, plant based about if they really need that 10th kitchen gadget, or minimalists about their investment portfolio may sound strange. However, bringing these communities together we can attempt to balance the multiple aspects of our lives and benefit from the amazing content that is just beyond our finger tips.
Why not put all my effort into one?
You may be thinking that one is more important than the other, and that you should figure one out first and pursue the rest later when you are ready. If you take this route there is a chance that you may never be ready. All three concepts require continuous work. Financial Independence requires a substantial amount of time to get moving in the right direction, but once you are on track it is just a matter of time. Eating for health requires cleaning out your fridge and cleaning up your habits, but it is easy to get off track. Minimalism requires the initial purge and then committing to keep your life simple.
While we started with one concept and added from there, the important thing is that we let the ideas compound. Just because we were focusing on nutrition didn’t mean that we were going to forget how to budget and spend 3x as much on organic. Additionally, building a sound financial foundation should not have to come at the cost of your health. I say this from experience. What is the difference between 10 years to FI struggling through burnout and 15 years to FI when you get more out of daily life? Considering lifestyle medicine and minimalism may make the journey more sustainable and worth those extra 5 years. Plus wouldn’t it be easier to maintain your health now then try to regain it later?
What does each community have to offer?
Core Values of Financial Independence
Financial Independence is about using a variety of different investment strategies to have a solid financial foundation. This can occur at any point in your life and allows you to enjoy more of your days doing what you are passionate about rather than what pays the most.
- Spend less/earn more and invest the difference
- Do the numbers first, make every financial decision from a position of strength
- Don’t let your job define you
To gain control of ones time through creating a passive investment portfolio that allows ones work to be true to ones self.
Mr. TSC
Core Values of Lifestyle Medicine
Lifestyle medicine is about looking at the different aspects of your life that impact your health. This includes sleep, exercise, stress, social connection and nutrition. Health is complex and we often take for granted how much lifestyle factors that are within our control can make a difference. It is easier to maintain your health, than regain it.
- Be an active participant in your health journey
- Utilize nutrition as a tool to help rebuild and support your health
- Don’t let an illness or disease define you
While the goal is not to live forever, it is to extend the time that one is disease free so that one can enjoy the time that they have on this planet with loved ones.
Mr. TSC
Core Values of Minimalism
Minimalism is about examining out consumerist tendencies and overall making choices that help to simplify our lives. It is about freeing up space in your life so that you have more time to focus on those things that give you the most joy. Above all, being content with what we have and separating wants and needs can make for a more sustainable life.
- Every thing that you own should serve a purpose in your life
- Focus on the people important to you in your life
- Don’t let your material possessions define you
To detach ones connection of physical items with personal memories, to improve ones quality of life by reducing quantity.
Mr. TSC
What are the benefits of a holistic approach?
The benefits to a holistic approach to life is that you can maintain a curious mindset. These communities produce a safe space where you can question the decisions that lay before you and determine where you want to go with your life. The combination brings in a fresh perspective that adds flexibility rather than rigidity to obstacles that we face. It can also add context to see how your actions in one are impact other areas of your life.
Check it out for yourself!
Hopefully this post has introduced you to one or more concepts that can become the keys to living a fuller life. They all individually can provide life changing knowledge. They provide clarity to those ready to make a commitment to themselves, and provide a community to support you through your journey. Together they can help you build a well balanced life that prioritizes stabilizing finances, improving your health, and fostering contentment with what you have. Know that this is a process will not happen overnight. To get you started we are sharing below the first resources that introduced us to each community. Click below for more information, and comment back to let us know what you think of this cross-over!
Inspirations that brought us to each community:
- Financial Independence
- Lifestyle Medicine
- Forks over Knives (Documentary)
- Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (Website)
- Minimalist
- Vicky Robins – You’re Money or Your Life (Book)
- Minimalism by Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus (Documentary)
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I love the approach of thinking about lifestyle medicine that includes all aspects of our health. I definitely agree that all of these approaches fit well together!
Thanks Jess! We are looking forward to exploring this connection further in the future. The concept of lifestyle medicine has been promoted by Dr. Dean Ornish for over 30 years and he was the first to get his lifestyle program covered by insurance to treat heart disease. His latest book is called “UnDo It!” and I would definitely recommend giving it a read or listen if you have the chance.