Monday Morning Money Moment: Health and Your Money
Happy Monday Friends! I hope you stayed warm while it rained/snowed/sleeted/whatever’d all over you this past weekend. Today’s Money Moment is all about health and your wallet. This topic sucks, real bad. Anyone who has dealt with health problems in their life knows how absolutely shitty it can be. I’m going to talk about my health journey a little bit and show you how it affected my wallet. Health has shaped my life and continues to. I feel it is a lesson that can help other so read on.
When I was 13 I noticed I couldn’t keep up on the ice anymore while playing hockey. Doctor’s thought I had asthma at first but after a while, they diagnosed me with Ulcerative Colitis at the age of 16. High school was a nightmare for me. I was almost consistently having a UC flare. Teacher’s always thought I was skipping class and messing around. I was actually going to the washroom 15-25 times a day or just in too much pain to go to class. Despite missing a third of my classes I still had good enough grades to go to university. The bad health didn’t get any better during my Western days. The thing that did get better was that I didn’t get in trouble for missing class. What got worse was the stakes for missing it became more drastic.
At the age of 24, I came off my parent’s drug plan and had to pay out of pocket for my own prescription drugs. That was devastating for me. My 6 medications cost about $250 a month to purchase. During that time I didn’t have much going for me, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, and buying these drugs became difficult. I literally had to choose between paying bills and buying the medication that helped make me better. I chose to pay the bills and my health suffered. Working became difficult, everything became difficult.
How this related to my money was clear. I could barely make it through a 5-hour shift. I was already in debt and could barely pay my bills. My deteriorating health exasperated everything. Bills were neglected, debt levels grew, and life was shit. Things got better one magical day when I qualified for government grants to pay for my medication. This was vital as my doctor had just recommended that I use a biological medication for my illness. This medication costs over $40,000 per year. There was no way I could afford that. Things were starting to look up for me so I ran with it.
I started working like crazy. When I couldn’t work 3 hours before I now began to work 12-15 hour shifts. At one point I had 3 jobs and worked 7 days a week. There was a 10 month period where I didn’t have a day off at all, even worked on Easter yep. Sounds pretty rough eh? Well, I loved it! The days curled up in a ball from pain were hell, work set me free.
Why is this important? Health is not only about feeling good; it’s about your cash. Think of the horror stories of people losing everything when a loved one gets sick. That’s real, very real. Wonder why people in America are losing their minds over health care right now? The stakes are high! Most people wish they could work less. Sick people wish they were healthy enough to work. There is no factor affecting people’s livelihoods more in Canada than health. The sad part is that it all preventable and protectable.
Tomorrow I am going to show you the ways I could have prevented the loss of 6 years and thousands of dollars. Tune in for the “Tuesday Tip of the Week.” Thanks for reading friends and have an amazing day!
“He who has health has hope, he who has hope has everything.” – Thomas Carlyle
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Joseph James Francis is a Financial Advisor. You can find him on various social media platforms and at budgetboss.ca.