Preventive Health Checkups: What Is in It for You as an Investor?

Preface

Birthday and New Year’s Day are silent reminders that you have aged by one more year. I don’t celebrate my birthdays as I am sad about getting aged. However, I do undergo a preventive health checkup every year around my birthday ever since I am past 40. Of course, New Year’s Day is for celebrations but if you have crossed the 40s, at least your birthday should remind you that your organs are getting tired and worn out and are needing an inspection.

With a visit to the doctor and a preventive healthcare checkup under his guidance, you ensure that all is still well. Nonetheless, owing to the costs involved and due to the fear of opening a Pandora’s box, Indians avoid visiting a doctor unless they have an unbearable ailment. I think that should not be the case with you if you are a little prudent. Preventive checkups are a must for you for the following reasons.

Prevention is always better than cure

Remember the age-old proverb “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?” Major medical expenses mostly destroy your lifetime savings. However, note that most ailments that require surgery do not occur overnight but build up gradually. Late detection of any abnormality involves higher expenses apart from subjecting your family to anxiety and misery. Regular preventive medical checkups ensure peace of mind and can improve quality of life. You get to know the first information on what is not going well within your body, what is at the borderline limits of normal and accordingly can start, adjust or modify diet, medications or lifestyle well in advance before anything turns out to be damagingly disproportionate.

A stitch in time saves nine

Many lifestyle diseases can be prevented with diet and lifestyle modifications. Nevertheless, preventive healthcare doesn’t only mean having adequate sleep, eating right, exercising regularly, avoiding abusive substances, excessive oil, salt, and sugar but also having a peep into what is not okay within your body. Of course, those good habits ensure immunity against many ailments and long life. Indeed, they are helpful in keeping lifestyle diseases like type-2 diabetes and heart disease too at bay. However, abnormalities like cancer are beyond the scope of the said good lifestyle. The good news is that most cancers if detected early can be cured completely. In most of the cases, it is able to detect major anomalies like cancer early with regular screening and can be treated early. A stitch in time!

It is also worth mentioning here that chronic ailments raise your health insurance premium. With regular yearly or more frequent checkups, as you spot ailments right at the beginning and treat accordingly, you need to spend only less on hospital and medical bills and health insurance premiums. Money saved is money earned!

Income tax benefit

Whether or not you opt for a health insurance policy, while computing income tax from the assessment year 2013-14 (financial year 2012-13), preventive health checkup expenses are deductible from income under section 80D; Rs. 5000 for yourself, spouse and dependent children, and further Rs. 5000 for your dependent parents, out of the overall limits respectively. Payment to such expenses can be made in any mode including cash. Find more details here and here. The government too is concerned about your well being!

To enjoy compounded wealth

Now the most interesting part for you as an investor. We know compounding money through stocks is the way to riches. Time is one of the most important factors in compounding. The longer you live, the richer you become. The earlier you start and the longer you allow your investments to compound, the higher would be your final corpus. It is the last compounding that creates wealth. In order to enjoy the benefits of your compounded wealth in the last legs, you need to live the longest. Stay healthy and live longer to enjoy your own wealth. Or else, your offspring will be luckier one to enjoy your hard-earned savings!

Conclusion:

You need to live longer to enjoy your compounded wealth. Preventive health checkups aid that to a great extent by spotting any anomaly as and when it begins. Hence a preventive screening for yourself is not only beneficial for your family but also for you to enjoy your compounded wealth. However, make it a note to not undergo tailor-made checkups. Instead, go for what is needed as suggested by your doctor. Tests like x-ray and CT unless warranted pose radiation risk and are a waste of money especially if repeated unnecessarily yearly.

Therefore, preventive health checkups are not an unnecessary expense but insurance against the probabilities of odds or rather a low investment with high returns!