Financial Health – Its importance and Relevance

The old adage ‘Health is Wealth’ is as relevant today as it was years ago. But with the proliferation of major illnesses and advancement in medical sciences and medications, costs of medical treatments and general healthcare are spiraling beyond affordability.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for families to meet burgeoning healthcare costs upsetting family budgets and completely wiping off savings and driving them to borrowings and financial ruin.

In our country, the State is unable to provide complete healthcare to our citizens. Stray efforts which Governments have made or are making are peripheral and very marginal. These initiatives hardly reach the masses.

Governments are finding it difficult to expand healthcare assistance given the pressures on budgetary allocations. Even developed countries like the USA and the UK which run successful healthcare programmes like Obamacare and National Health Service are beset with severe budgetary constraints.

There are many social and philanthropic organisations in our country which help the needy with healthcare initiatives but these are still insignificant to meet the needs of the vast population.

Self-dependence and self-financing for meeting costs of healthcare is the need of the hour. Pay your taxes but do not expect governments to meet your medical expenses leave alone even to subsidise them.

What best you can do is to protect yourself and your family with a reliable health insurance cover.

Fortunate are those whose employers provide health cover. But such covers are also limited to working tenures and seldom extend beyond retirement. So at some point in time dependence on own resources or a self-arranged reliable insurance becomes necessary.

Health insurance in India covers only in-patient or hospitalisation expenses and that too subject to limits in coverage and costs. Unlike in some other countries, health insurance in India does not cover out-patient costs.

This being the scenario, the need for building a financial reserve for meeting medical expenses is imperative. For achieving and maintaining good health, a sound and solid financial good health is absolutely necessary. If financial health is not good it will ruin physical health.

Truly speaking, Health is Wealth and Wealth is Health.

Good financial health is not just necessary for meeting costs of healthcare; it will also provide peace and security, a better quality of life and above all affordability for fulfilling lifetime goals and aspirations.

How to build wealth and how to achieve and maintain good financial health?

These questions look perplexing or even challenging as many in this age despite the availability of information, tools and sound professional advice remain inhibited and shy away from the subject or attribute their aloofness to lack of time.

Reluctance to address these questions and get involved will, in the long run, do more harm to the individual and the family. There are simple ways of doing it with a combination of 3 Ds – Determination, Dedication and Discipline.

We will discuss these as we go by and as I share my thoughts, perspectives, insights, and experience in personal finance and in the fields of banking, finance, investments, capital markets, mutual funds.

This article represents the author’s personal views. The author is not an investment adviser or financial planner but an individual investor. Readers should consult their investment adviser or financial planner before making an investment or other decisions. HeartSense or the author is not responsible for the readers’ decisions.

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Padmanabh Shenoy

Padmanabh Shenoy is an ex-Senior Vice President and Head of Credit, National Bank of Dubai / Emirates NBD Bank, Dubai. He is a retired senior banking professional with wide experience in Banking, Finance, and Investments in India and abroad. He brings to bear in his writings his extensive knowledge and expertise from his professional assignments and more importantly his experience in managing his own personal finance. He resides in Bengaluru.

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