Medical Insurance 2

My blog post yesterday came in timely. I read The Star newspaper today and there is an article on the importance of medical insurance. For those that have not seen the article, here is the link

The article highlighted the importance of PHI and how some people view it as an 'investment'. Personally, I feel that an 'investment' means something that have 'returns'. Hence unless paying a premium for my insurance give me returns, I'll consider it as an investment. We all need to realize that not all policy give us investment returns. Some basic and 'old fashion' policy give us just medical coverage. Only until we use it, really, there won't be much 'return of investment'. There are some policy that has an investment account 'linked' with it. This investment linked policy do give some returns. Of course, these investment linked policy have higher premium compared with the old fashion policies. I am no insurance agent, however, after years working with my colleagues from PHI companies, that much I can relate.

One thing I totally agree and must reiterate is our health. Strictly speaking, insurance is useful for us when we are sick or dying. If we can prevent from being sick or dying, then will it not be better? This is what I call 'investing in our health'. 

Essentially there are 3 things about investing in our health.

1. Eat healthily. 

    Do not ever indulge ourselves in food orge! We have all heard it, fried food is bad and fruits and     vegetables are good for us. You may ask, how can we just eat fruits and vege? Of course we can't. It is all about balance diet. I'm again, no dietitian  but, common sense will tell me, to eat as little as possible fried food, and food with high glycemic index but eat much of fruits and vege. If you don't know what glycemic index is, 'google it'. 

2. Exercise

   Yes, this 8 letter word is something we all despises. We all hate it. We all always have no time for it. Lets face it, its either we exercise now, or die earlier. Its that simple

3. Supplements

    Supplements is a need, a 'must'. Medical evidence on the usefulness of supplements are overwhelming. The food we take in daily, is just not enough of vitamins and antioxidants. 

That's it. ABC of investing in our health. Some of us may ask, what do we get if we invest in our health? What is the 'ROI' so to speak? The ROI is long and productive life.  Take note that I 'bold' the word 'and' because we all know that if we have long but not productive life is likened to a stroke patient, paralyzed and dependent on a wheelchair. What's the point of living 200 years but on a wheelchair right? Being productive but not long years is too short term. You may be a billionaire now, but you only have next 6 months to live because of hypertension, diabetes, kidney disease, etc. 

Begin with an end in mind.