Blue Zones - What are the secrets to a long, healthy and happy life?

At first, it might seem a bit odd for a financial planner to be writing about life expectancy and healthy lifestyle, but really it isn’t. 

Before diving into the article, will you allow me to clear up a common misconception?

Financial planners don’t actually want you to accumulate money for the sake of it. 

Instead, if they’re doing their job properly, they’ll help you spend your money on the things that bring you happiness.

Of course, happiness is essential for a long and healthy life. 

There is ample evidence that being stressed and unhappy leads to inflammation and disease. Therefore being happy and purposeful does the opposite.

Financial planners want happy clients, who are using their money as a tool to make their lives better.

So really, it’s not that odd at all.

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Blue Zones

With that out of the way, I’d like to share some learning I’ve found about ‘Blue Zones’.

Blue Zones are places in the world where residents have exceptionally long life expectancy compared with other people around the world. 

Residents in these areas typically live to 90 - 100.

Interestingly, these areas comprise not only the oldest groups of people on earth, but also the healthiest and happiest. 

They typically don’t take medication, nor develop cognitive decline conditions like Alzheimer's or Dementia. They also often work well into their 80’s.

There are 5 blue zones around the world: Okinawa prefecture (Japan), Sardinia (Italy), Nicoya Peninsula (Costa Rica), Icaria (Greece) and a Seventh-Day Adventist community in California (USA). 

The lifestyles of residents in these places all share ‘power 9 principles’, or common characteristics. These are: 

1. Plant-Based Diet

• Whole Foods: Diets are rich in vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, and whole grains.

• Limited Meat Consumption: Meat is eaten sparingly, often only a few times a month.

• Carbs: like pasta and some types of bread make up a large part of diets.

2. Regular Physical Activity

• Natural Movement: Daily activities involve regular, low-intensity physical activities like walking, gardening, and housework.

• No Structured Exercise: Physical activity is integrated into daily life rather than being a separate, structured activity.

3. Strong Social Connections

• Family and Community: Strong family ties and a sense of community provide emotional support and purpose.

• Social Engagement: Regular social interactions and maintaining a robust social network.

4. Purpose and Stress Management

• Sense of Purpose: Having a clear sense of purpose, which can add years to life expectancy. Research shows someone with clear purpose typically lives 8 years longer than a ‘rudder-less’ person.

• Stress Reduction: Regular routines for managing stress, such as prayer, meditation, naps, or socialising.

5. Moderate Alcohol Consumption

• Wine in Moderation: Some Blue Zone populations consume alcohol moderately, particularly red wine, often with meals and social gatherings.

6. Sufficient Rest

• Sleep and Rest: Prioritising adequate sleep and taking time to rest during the day, including naps.

7. Moderate Caloric Intake

• 80% Rule: Practices like "hara hachi bu" from Okinawa, which means eating until you are 80% full, help prevent over-eating.

• Front-loading caloric intake: Eating smaller meals, particularly in the evening, with higher calorie meals for breakfast and then tapering off throughout the day.

• Smaller daily eating windows: Eating the last meal of the day early enough to have a 14-hour fasting window before breakfast.

8. Spiritual or Religious Involvement

• Faith and Belief Systems: Many Blue Zone inhabitants participate in spiritual or religious practices, which contribute to a sense of community and purpose.

9. Environmental Factors

• Clean Environment: Living in areas with clean air and water.

• Agricultural Lifestyle: Proximity to nature and engaging in agricultural practices.

What does this have to do with financial planning?

Whilst the people living in these blue zones are typically healthy, they’re usually not wealthy, at least not in the conventional sense of being wealthy; how much money they have. 

They usually have more modest means and homes. 

But they’re happy and healthy because they have ‘enough’ and live richly in the other areas of their lives. 

This provides further proof that money does not necessarily equal happiness.

What can I do?

Our modern day UK society doesn’t really lend itself to providing many of these ‘power 9’ for us.

However, with the knowledge about how impactful these lifestyle factors are, you can be more intentional about how you live.

If you can incorporate some of the ‘power 9’ traits into your life, whilst balancing the demands of daily life, you’ll be acting in service of a longer and healthier life.

Sure, we can't all go and work in the garden all day harvesting tomatoes for a healthy and delicious pasta with our extended family in the evening, but we can make changes which have a similar impact. Such as buying organic ingredients and having quality time together at meal times at the table, instead of sitting on our devices or watching TV, for example.

After all, blue zone research found that only 20% of our longevity and healthiness can be attributed to genetics, the other 80% to the lifestyle choices we make.

I don’t know about you, but I find that pretty compelling evidence to think carefully about how I live my life!

If you are interested in learning more about Blue zones, you can go to the website dedicated to the research and its findings here:

https://www.bluezones.com/

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If you'd like to talk to us about your situation to see if our Financial Planning service could help, you can book in a free initial consultation here:

https://calendly.com/labfp/intromeeting

Otherwise, see you next time.

Property vs. Pensions

There is a reason Adrian Edmondson is pictured above, (sadly less so Rik Mayall). All will become clear below.

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Have you ever read the money sections of the newspapers at the weekend, particularly The Times, or Mail on Sunday?

There are a few versions of, essentially the same interview, floating around, in which a celebrity is asked about their money history and lessons learned. 

In it, they're always asked the question: "What's best for Retirement - Property or Pension?"

It's a fairly innocuous question on the face of it.

But really, it's not a great question, as you can hold a million and one different things in your pension. Of course, what the question really means is a pension holding typical pension funds. Usually stocks and shares, and perhaps some bonds in there, to reduce risk. Likewise, you can hold the types of funds held in pensions in other investments, like Stocks and Shares ISAs.

Anyway, I find these interviews fascinating, as the person being interviewed nearly always says property. 

It can be for any number of reasons, but this one from just a week ago is illuminating, and at the same time, pretty damning of the financial services world.

That is from an interview with Adrian Edmondson, of Bottom fame, in the Times. It saddens me as a fan of his, that he views financials services in this way, and he won't be the only one. 

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Three reasons property can be preferred over pensions

This, I think gives us an insight into one of the main reasons why a lot of people prefer 'property' to what I would call 'investments', which in this context are pensions and investment funds.

1) A lack of trust in the financial services world.

2) Can be from a preference for investing in something you can see with your own eyes. You can see, touch, and in some cases, smell (for better or worse) a property. 

As Adrian says "a house will still be a house after a financial crash", and investments are just numbers on a page. People, understandably, tend to have less of an emotional connection to the FTSE 100 over a house filled with many memories, or because it looks nice.

3) And probably most importantly, I would argue, is down to a lack of financial education. Not because pensions are necessarily difficult to understand. They aren't, but we're not taught proper financial education at school. Added to this we're a nation obsessed with property, as are our media, so you'd do well not to understand how property, as an investment, works.

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Lack of Education

I put out a poll on this topic on this platform, and by far, respondents said pensions are 'better' than property. It was around 65%/35% in favour of pensions. 

Yet, according to Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, 69% of savers surveyed said they believe they lack, or are unsure of the skills they need, to choose where they should invest their pension¹. 

This speaks to a worrying lack of understanding of what pensions (investments) do, and can do for us, as a nation. It's no wonder then, that when people have built savings, or received an inheritance, perhaps in their 30's and 40's, and think of planning for their long-term financial future, that they consider this conundrum - "Do I get a buy-to-let, or do I Invest in my ISA/Pension?"

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So what performs better? Property vs. Pensions

Let's strip out the emotional factors, for a moment. You may have a natural preference for one or the other from personal experience, or remember what you were taught by parents growing up.

For now, let's just consider the cold, hard returns side of things. Most people who invest in either do so for a financial return, so that has to be the most important consideration at this point.

Schroders, the investment house, conducted research on returns of property in various parts of the UK, compared with investments in Global Equities, which are investments in stocks and shares around the world. Essentially, what most people have in their pensions.

They measured at the end of 2022, as to what £100,000 invested would have returned over the last 25 years². 

As you can see, 'pensions' (investments) easily provided the best returns over the last 25 years compared with the growth in property prices, turning your £100,000 into £631,000. 

Next best, was investing in property in London, turning your £100,000 into £580,000.

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Other Considerations over and above returns alone

Of course, choosing to invest in property or investment funds, or anything else for that matter, is not just about how the underlying assets performs.

From my perspective as a financial planner, here are some of the most important other considerations.

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Fees and Involvement

Rental income will increase returns from property compared with those shown above, this is true. But on the flip side, to obtain the property, you may have a mortgage, with added interest, which in turn reduces returns.

Some people like the idea of property as a 'passive income', but how passive is it really?

You'll have the hassle of 'managing' the property, be it admin, such as bills, or dealing with tenants and their needs. That doesn't sound that passive to me.

Otherwise, you get a property manager involved who can take anything up to 25% of your rent for their services, although it typically is less than this amount.

Pensions have management fees and this chart excludes those. These can typically be up to 1.5% a year, but with a workplace pension or personal pension could be much lower.

Because pensions are just numbers on a page, the only people you deal with are your pension provider or your financial planner, who looks after your investments/pensions for you. Because of this pensions (investment funds) are much more passive.

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Access

Property you can 'access' (sell) at any time, as long as you have a willing buyer, but this depends a lot on the property market at the time. 

Pensions, you can't touch until age 55, increasing to 57 in a few years' time. But other investments that work like pensions, and can hold the same funds in (such as global equities), you can access at any age.

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Tax

The tax regimes for the two approaches are vastly different as well. That would require its own article, and let's face of it, not many people want to read that. 

The current political environment has made it harder for property to generate returns after tax, like it did in the 90's and 2000's, and for most people it only really works well if you do it as a business, and not so much as a side-income. 

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In summary

If you simply want to go by which gives you a better return in the long-term, global equities has proven to do this, and Schroders found this was the case over any time period - 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 years. But, remember, past performance is no guide to future performance, etc. etc!

However, returns alone should not be the be-all and end-all in your thinking. 

More important should be the other factors I've mentioned. Consider what is likely to suit your lifestyle, how passive, or involved, do you want that income to be, and what suits your current and anticipated future tax situation, as this will have a big bearing on the effectiveness of either approach.

Essentially, both can work very well in the right circumstances, but there are trade-offs, and neither approach is without them.

You either need to work out which trade-offs you're comfortable with yourself, or find a professional who can help you do this.

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¹ PSLA Research Link

² If you want to read more, Schroders' data can be found here: https://www.schroders.com/en-gb/uk/individual/insights/what-174-years-of-data-tell-us-about-house-price-affordability-in-the-uk/

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If you'd like to talk to us about your situation to see if Financial Planning can help, you can book in an initial consultation here: https://calendly.com/labfp/intromeeting

Otherwise, see you next time.

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The information contained within this blog post should not be taken as financial advice, as it does not take account of personal circumstances, which would affect advice given. Should you wish to talk to us about personalised advice for you, we'd be happy to do so.

The Lessons From A Person Who Suddenly Took 5 Years Off

This edition of the blog is about the thing that we can never get back, and never know how much of it we have left: time.

Your wealth, and to a degree, your health, can be measured, can be lost and regained.

But your time? well, we all get the same 24 hours in a day, but we don't know how much more of it we have in front of us when it is measured in days, months and years.

Unless we're very intentional about it, we often don't know how best to use our time, other than by doing the same things we do every other day.

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Warren Farrell is an American political scientist, activist and well-known psychiatrist. However, it's not his story that we're going to examine in this blog post.

Warren had a patient come to see him and (paraphrasing) said this; "this guy came to me, very successful man, head of a business that makes millions, really doing very well. And he said, he was unhappy because he had worked all the way through his son's childhood, and he hadn't bonded with his son because he'd just been away at work. I said "Ok, what are you going to do?." He said "Well, I'm going to give up my job for five years, and I'm going to be at home with my kid. I'm not doing any of my work stuff. I'm going to be with my kid for five years. Just be in that moment. And he did it. And he was very happy that he did it."

Who was that man?

It was John Lennon.

His decision shocked the world, and his decision to step away from the limelight was unprecedented. At the height of his fame in 1975, he made the bold choice to prioritise his family over his career.

The birth of Sean in 1975 marked a new chapter in Lennon's life. He embraced fatherhood with an unparalleled devotion, reveling in the simple joys of spending time with his son. Lennon, who had experienced a turbulent childhood himself, was determined to provide Sean with a stable and loving environment, especially as he felt he hadn't done a very good job with his first son, Julian.

In an interview with the New York Times (link), he had this to say.

"Sean will be 5 and I wanted to give five solid years of being there all the time. I hadn't seen my first son, Julian, grow up and now there’s a 17-year-old man on the phone talkin’ about motorbikes. I was not there for his childhood at all. I was on tour. And my childhood was something else."

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During his hiatus from the music industry, Lennon immersed himself in the role of a hands-on father. He relished in the everyday moments: teaching Sean to play the piano, taking him on outings to the park, and reading him bedtime stories.

He also said this about how it was to step away from his career.

"There was a hard withdrawal period, what people must go through at 65, and then I started being a househusband and swung my attention onto Sean. And then I realised, I’m not supposed to be doing something, I am doing something, and then I was free."

While some may have viewed Lennon's decision to step away from his career as a setback, he saw it as a necessary reprieve. The pressures of fame had taken a toll on him, and he longed for a sense of normalcy. Parenthood offered him the chance to reconnect with himself and his priorities, away from the glare of the public eye.

Lennon was asked if he feared not existing in the music world, because the saying goes "you don't exist if you're not in the charts", to which he replied:

"I just wanted to remember that I existed at all!"

Not long after his self-imposed break, Lennon's comeback was cut short when he was shot and killed outside his apartment in New York City, just weeks after the release of "Double Fantasy."

In a world obsessed with fame and fortune, John Lennon dared to defy convention and follow his own path. He showed that yes, the number of records sold or the accolades received can be measured and matter, but how you spend your time is also incredibly important, because you won't get time back. And for that, we will always remember him not just as a music icon, but as a devoted father and someone who was intentional about how we used his time.

Some observations and thoughts from this:

1. Lennon could empathise with what people must go through at retirement, when referencing "what people must go through at 65". That potential loss of purpose and sudden ample amount of time.

2. That period of 1975 - 1980 was to be the last 5 years of Lennon's life. If you could ask him posthumously whether he would have preferred spending those last 5 years with his wife and son, or making hit records and living the life of fame, which do you think he would have chosen?

3. Lennon could afford to take 5 years away, because he had earned well enough in his career and from ongoing royalties, that he didn't need to work. For those aspiring to be in this position (financial freedom), what will you end up doing with your time?

4. Work seemed to demand so much from Lennon that he craved normalcy and much simpler life. Sure, work for him was being a leader in the most successful band of all time at that point, but it was ultimately still work. The sights, sounds and smells might be different to what we all do for work, but ultimately it's not so different. His balance had tipped too far the wrong way and it needed to be corrected.

5. Following the last point, a direct question for you: are you spending your time truly intentionally, or are you doing the same as you always have, because that's what you've always done and is expected of you?
   

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At first, you might think it a little odd for a financial planner to be talking about time and not money. The way I see it, these are just different currencies, which in the right circumstances can be traded. Money can be traded for time, such as building up enough money to retire early.

Being able to spend your time how you want is how I would define 'true wealth', so really our time and money are very much linked!

If you'd like to talk to us about your situation to see if Financial Planning can help, you can book in an initial consultation here: https://calendly.com/labfp/intromeeting

Otherwise, see you next time.

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The information contained within this blog post should not be taken as financial advice, as it does not take account of personal circumstances, which would affect advice given. Should you wish to talk to us about personalised advice for you, we'd be happy to do so.