The Health Pitfalls of Making Money

December 13, 2011 by smsadmin
Filed under: Uncategorized

When I worked at a restaurant in the trendy part of central Chicago, I was making more money than I knew what to do with. My rent, car, and other expenses were paid with ease, so I decided to go out to party every night after work. After a year of slinging drinks and taking orders, my body started to feel worn out and I looked about ten years older than I actually was.

While making money and working at a hummingbird’s pace, I totally neglected my body’s needs. Because the minimum wage for restaurant workers was so small, I relied on tips and took any shift I could get my hands on. In a capitalist culture, it is easy to get so caught up in the money making process that we forget our bodies need proper rest and nutrition.

Most people think they can slow down later on in life, but find their bodies have taken so much damage that their pensions won’t cover their medical bills. Here are some of the ways working to hard can harm your body later on in life:

Poor Nutrition Decisions

While working hard, some of us decide to skip out on certain nutrients are bodies need. We may be sitting in an office all day and not moving much, so we completely eliminate carbohydrates or fats out of our diets under the guise of South Beach or Atkins. But the fact of the matter is that our bodies run like machines and we need certain elements in food to power and properly fuel them.

Reliance on Health Care

The best part about having a steady job is without a doubt the healthcare. Some people would work without a paycheck if it meant that they could have access to good healthcare. While you are busy checking money market rates and analyzing pie charts, it can be easy to neglect health issues and just go to the doctor to get a pill to fix whatever might ail you. Some people use healthcare as an excuse not to proactively go to the gym or watch caloric intakes.

Too Much Stress

There is a reason why psychiatrists and therapists are prescribing medications like Xanax, Valium, and Zoloft more than ever. People are working too hard and taking their jobs too seriously. In order to keep up with the Jones’, we work ourselves too long and start to snap at minor office discrepancies if we are not loaded up with some sort of medication.

Bad Advice From Financial Sources

A recent article appearing on the website for Forbes suggests different ways you are purchasing items that are bad for your health. They point out things like organic peanut butter for being too fatty and soy milk for being too sugary, as two of the worst offenders to your diet and budget.

Most of the Forbes readers are professionals who make an average income of $217,000. Peanut products have amazing health benefits and soy milk is great for lactose-intolerance, but the people who read the magazine won’t get that information if they trust Forbes for their news.

Lack of Personal Life

If you spend all of your time at work and none of it doing the things you want, then you are missing out on a big part of life. Labor unions have fought hard over the years to reduce the working day to a sensible eight hours.

This leaves eight for sleep, eight for personal time, and eight for the office. Proponents of the eight hour day often get labeled as socialists, even former president Teddy Roosevelt, by the right-wing. This type of thinking promotes longer and more inefficient work throughout industry.

Roosevelt was right when he suggested working an eight hour day because it will make productivity skyrocket, morale boost, and health to increase. Unfortunately we lose sight on what is important in life due to what seems like a necessity, but is really a burden. If your health is starting to suffer because of work, slow down and try to analyze your situation before clocking in for your next shift.