Don’t save for future? You may be ignoring health

If you are not inclined to save for the future, you may also have a tendency to ignore your health as researchers have found that poor physical health and financial health are driven by the same underlying psychological factors. 

The decision to contribute to a retirement plan predicted whether or not an individual will act to correct poor physical health indicators, the findings showed. 

Insufficient retirement funds and chronic health problems are at least partially driven by the same time discounting preferences, the researchers showed. 

“We find that existing retirement contribution patterns and future health improvements are highly correlated,” said Lamar Pierce, associate professor of strategy at Washington University in St. Louis in the US.