Most financial plans have a line for savings, a line for investments and a line for retirement. Few have a line for the doctor and other investment into health and wellbeing.
Banker and financial literacy coach Patrick Baah Abankwah says that gap can quietly undo the years of financial discipline.
The Customer who Withdrew His Future
Patrick Abankwah traces his conviction to his years as a relationship manager in banking. A regular customer came in week after week, but not to fund a dream, travel or enjoy his golden years. He was making withdrawals from his retirement fund to pay for expensive prescription drugs and medical care.
One afternoon, looking exhausted and visibly regretful, the man opened up. He did not blame bad luck or genetics. He pointed to his younger days: decades of poor dietary and lifestyle habits, the food, the drinks and the daily choices he took for granted.
Those habits, he said, had slowly engineered the chronic illness now consuming both his body and his life savings. With a heavy sigh, he wished he could turn back the clock and rewrite history.
The conversation, Patrick Baah Abankwah says, has stayed with him long after he left the bank. It changed how he views wealth building.
The Blind Spot in Our Money Talk
“We talk endlessly” about interest rates, asset allocation and savings targets, he observed. Yet financial planning, in his view, is incomplete if physical well-being is left out.
Consider the arithmetic. A young person investing GHS 200 a month puts away GHS 2,400 a year. This is real sacrifice because this young person has skipped outings, delayed purchases, discipline that many peers never attempt.
But the same savings can flow in the opposite direction if a preventable, long-term illness arrives. The retired customer’s story shows how quickly that can happen, with money meant for rest going to the pharmacy and the hospital.
What it Means in Everyday Life
Healthy living is not only about gym memberships or fashionable diets. It starts with ordinary choices most of us make without thinking: what lands on the plate at lunchtime, what fills the glass at the weekend, and what we breathe in.
Patrick Baah Abankwah’s advice for those building wealth is that they should watch what they eat, drink, and inhale.
Here is one way to put it. If you would never skip your monthly contribution, treat your daily habits with the same seriousness. A medical bill is a withdrawal nobody budgets for, and it often arrives at the worst possible time, when income is shrinking.
Protect the Asset Behind Every Asset
For Patricak Abankwah, health is the foundation under every other investment. “Your health is your ultimate primary asset,” he said, urging young people to protect it fiercely today so they can enjoy the wealth they are sacrificing to build tomorrow.
The financial literacy coach’s advice to young people starting their financial journey is that whether with GHS 200 or far more, the savings plan and the wellness plan belong in the same conversation.
One builds the nest egg. The other makes sure you are around, and well enough, to enjoy it.
