The best midlife investment you can make has nothing to do with money

April 19, 2026 — 5:01am

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We are quite sophisticated, as a nation, about investing our money. Most people know they have superannuation. Some talk about compound growth at dinner parties. And on the whole, most people know that starting early and staying consistent is how you build real wealth over time.

And then we entirely ignore the same logic when it comes to our bodies.

I’ve spent the past decade or more talking to Australians in their 50s, 60s and 70s about what they wish they’d done differently. And when people get to retirement, financial regrets are there, sure, but more significantly, there’s an awful lot of health regrets.

Nobody says, “I wish I’d saved less.” Plenty of people say “I wish I’d started taking my health seriously ten years earlier.”

It’s time we started thinking about our health the same way we think about our money, as a compounding investment. One where the returns grow quietly in the background, and where starting early makes an extraordinary difference to what you end up with.

Let’s face it: a 50-year-old Australian today has a one in four chance of living into their mid-90s. That is a long runway. And what the science of modern ageing is telling us, with increasing evidence, is that the habits you build in your 50s are the primary determinant of how you’ll live in your 70s and 80s.

The habits built consistently in your 50s have decades to compound into better health outcomes.

It’s not your genetics, or your luck, or your bank balance that make the most significant difference. It’s the effort you put into your health, early.

I think we need to be focused on our health span: the years we spend genuinely healthy, mobile, independent and cognitively sharp, living our lives to the fullest. It’s far more important than our lifespan, how long we simply exist.

And unlike lifespan, health span is something we can meaningfully........

© Brisbane Times