Maintain a Healthy Brain for a Long-Lasting Return on Life (ROL)
Does your exercise routine include some reps for your brain?
Dementia, an umbrella term for afflictions like memory loss, cognitive decline, and Alzheimer’s disease, can be one of the most physically, emotionally, and financially taxing conditions for older adults. However, medical research suggests approximately four in 10 cases of dementia could be prevented through lifestyle changes.
Maintaining a healthy brain for a long-lasting Return on Life (ROL) means making intentional choices that can enhance mental and financial well-being. Incorporating the lifestyle changes described below into your daily routine could improve your brain health, lengthen your mental health span, and boost your Return on Life, including during retirement.
1. Get your heart pumping.
According to research published by Johns Hopkins, diseased blood vessels, high blood pressure, and other heart-related problems can cause internal bleeding and affect blood flow to the brain. Over time, these small injuries can affect cognitive functions, including motor skills, and may even contribute to the development of more serious dementias, such as Alzheimer’s.
Regular exercise gives your heart the workout it needs and keeps blood flowing to your brain. While many folks focus more on cardio as they age, strength training with appropriate weights can also build muscle memory, flexibility, coordination, and endurance that will help you keep moving later in life.
2. Relax more.
Reducing stress is another key to a healthy heart and a sharp mind. Some research has concluded that high levels of cortisol, a hormone the body releases during stressful situations, can impact the nervous system and contribute to the development of dementia. Stress can also contribute to feelings of anxiety and depression that affect our mood and our ability to make the best decisions for ourselves and others.
If your daily run or bike ride isn’t blowing off steam like it used to, try yoga or tai chi to add some mindfulness to your exercise time. Meditation, prayer, or keeping a gratitude journal can also put your worries in perspective and promote more positive thinking. I have made meditating more and maintaining a gratitude journal among my priorities this year. They are part of self-care, one of my three words for 2025.
Improving your sleep schedule can also help to reduce stress, especially if you’re susceptible to “doom scrolling” on social media or watching cable news before bed. Unplug for an hour before turning in, and avoid late-night snacking and drinking caffeine. A warm bath or reading might help you power down as well. A consistent bedtime—even on weekends—can help you regulate your body’s internal clock, making it easier to wake up refreshed and ready for the day.
Just as movement and mindfulness support brain health, so does what you do.
3. Add a DASH to your meals.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, research has shown that the Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet can slow down cognitive decline as people age. DASH fills your plate with fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, and fish like the Mediterranean diet. Cutting back on red meat, sugars, and high-fat dairy can help lower your blood pressure and its adverse effects on your heart and brain. Staying hydrated can also improve your focus and recall and help you add a few extra minutes to your workout goals.
4. Train your brain.
Recent studies have concluded that regularly playing games and solving puzzles can improve our cognitive functions and even increase the volume of gray matter in our brains. You can also strengthen these neural connections by reading, taking classes, or having engaging conversations. Learning a new language, instrument, or skill might also widen your social circle and fill in some blocks in your new retirement schedule. Try pairing learning with another one of your health goals, such as working with a coach to improve your backhand or cooking your way through a healthy cookbook.
Closing Thoughts
When it comes to exercising and caring for ourselves, we often find it easier to make excuses than to take action. While members of my family have been fortunate enough to avoid dementia or Alzheimer’s, I have heard enough stories from others to know how difficult suffering from any type of dementia can be. I also recognize how difficult it can be for family members when someone they love is stricken with some form of dementia.
Please share these tips with others. As noted earlier, about 40% of dementia cases can be avoided by taking steps like those described above. Taking care of yourself and your loved ones—while reducing the risk of dementia—can lead to a more fulfilling life for all.
Our Life-Centered Financial Planning tools might also get your gears turning. Make an appointment, and let’s work together to create a plan that aligns your TEAM of resources—Time, Energy, Attention, and Money with your vision for a fulfilling, mentally sharp life. You can enhance your overall fulfillment by strengthening the connections between your money, wellness, and life. If you’re ready to align your health and wealth for a thriving future, let’s start the conversation.
This Week’s Favorite Reads
This week’s favorite reads include articles discussing how to find a lost 401(k), overcoming the fear of embarrassment and taking more chances, and building your credit score. You will also find an article offering strategies to help you navigate the difficulties many have in finding doctors and another discussing the performance of various asset classes over the last decade. We also share a couple of articles addressing China’s DeepSeek, which has helped make markets a bit more volatile recently.
Here are the links to this week’s articles, as well as a brief description of each and why you should check it out:
1. How to Find a Lost 401(k).
Have you changed jobs multiple times? If so, can you still access any 401(k) assets you held in your former employer’s 401(k) plan(s)? According to this article, as of May 2023, approximately 29.2 million forgotten 401(k) accounts held nearly $1.65 trillion in assets! This article offers strategies to help individuals locate these lost retirement funds. Proactively employing these methods can help individuals reclaim lost retirement savings and enhance their financial security.
2. No One Cares: Take a Chance.
The fear of embarrassment often prevents individuals from seizing opportunities. We can easily find ourselves embarrassed by things that happen to us in public. However, others are unlikely to remember such incidents. The article emphasizes that we are generally more focused on ourselves than on others. This suggests that the perceived judgment we fear is often exaggerated. Recognizing that others often fail to notice or care about our embarrassing moments should make it easier for us to take intentional risks and live authentically. Doing so can make it easier to align our actions with our personal values rather than societal expectations. By overcoming the fear of embarrassment, we can live more fulfilling lives.
3. How To Build A Good Credit Score After Taking A Hit.
Whether you are trying to recover from a hit to your credit score or simply trying to build or improve your credit, you will want to keep several factors in mind. The components of your credit score include payment history (35%), credit utilization (30%), length of credit history (15%), credit mix (10%), and new credit (10%). The article offers suggestions to help you improve each of these components. Doing so can allow you to effectively rebuild or enhance your credit score over time. One other thing to keep in mind. If you regularly pay your bills on time and accidentally miss a payment, call your creditor. They will typically forgive the late payment. They will often reverse any late charges and interest, too.
4. Where Have All The Doctors Gone?
Are you having trouble finding a doctor? Especially since COVID-19, many Americans find it more challenging to find the care they need. In this article, Dr. Howard Zucker discusses the growing physician shortage in the U.S., leading to longer wait times and challenges in accessing care, especially for older adults. Factors contributing to this crisis include an aging population, professional burnout, and systemic issues within the healthcare system. The article offers strategies that can help you navigate these challenges and secure necessary medical attention.
5. Updating My Favorite Performance Chart For 2024.
Financial advisors such as Apprise typically invest using an asset allocation-based approach. We don’t know which asset class will deliver the strongest returns in any given year. As discussed in this article, returns over one 10-year period can be vastly different than those over a different period. Market returns are cyclical. Surprisingly cash outperformed bonds over the last 10 years. Why? Interest rates increased. Plus, bond values move in the opposite direction of interest rates. Commodities, which are often viewed as an inflation hedge, suffered a lost decade. Brief countertrend rallies in 2021 and 2022 failed to offset overall poor performance. The S&P 500 led asset class performance in four of the past six years, helping to make it the decade’s best performer. This outperformance helped drive the underperformance of many asset allocation portfolios during the past decade. Assuming current trends will persist indefinitely can be dangerous. The next decade may differ significantly from the last. The unpredictability of returns underscores the importance of diversification when investing. I agree with the author’s view that while we don’t know what the next decade will bring, it probably won’t look much like the last 10 years.
Since I haven’t mentioned it previously, I wanted to briefly address Seek and Artificial Intelligence in general. On January 27, the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 fell 3% as hype grew around DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup that promises to work just as well as the AI model, such as ChatGPT, which many of us are familiar with. Importantly, it was reported that DeepSeek takes a fraction of the cost and energy of better-known tools.
Since then, much has been said about DeepSeek’s potential, but there are many questions that remain unanswered. If you’re either not familiar with DeepSeek, or would simply like to learn more, I suggest the following articles:
Six Takeaways from a Monumental Week for AI
One other thing to remember is that the large tech companies that released earnings after this announcement did not communicate any slowdown in their capital spending plans for 2025. Much can change from here, as we are still in the early innings for AI.
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