My Path to Immortality

 

I think the question of immortality is an important one in personal finance because we do not know the time when we will leave the earth. That inability to predict when we will die forces academics to rely on mathematical models to simulate safe withdrawal rates. 

One standard idea I don't subscribe to is the concept of consumption smoothing, a futile modelling exercise that determines your standard of living given multiple variables like your income, your portfolio size and risk appetite. In my worldview, if you can establish a standard of living assuming that your lifespan is infinity, then that should be the way you should live - the excess should go into FIRE.

So I'm actually very interested in Longevity and the idea of living forever. Adding years to my life gives me a bigger incentive to load more money into CPF Life and take on the Basic plan that produces more monthly income every year. 

Sadly, in practice, I probably would live a life much shorter than most readers because I am a type II diabetic. Worse, thanks to CNY and poor discipline, my HBA1C leapt from 7+ to 8+, which means that I need to act quickly to bring it down again. 

The hikes I have with my young friends are not really helpful (but it is still fun) because the highlight of these events is often the food, and there's nothing to erode your willpower to resist good food more than a 12km hike.   

So I'm creating some lifestyle changes this week :

a) Bringing back intermittent fasting

I have tried IF on and off in the past but could never muster the willpower to sustain it. This is complicated by the cocktail of drugs I eat because it drives me ravenously hungry. Still, I have attempted to bring it back and so far reduced the number of meals I take to two a day.

b) Some swimming and hiking will be maintained with some resistance training

The moment I get comfortable on IF, I need to find a way to bring some resistance training back into my life which means that somehow, in addition to swimming, I have to start planking which is something I dread. I can barely plank 30 seconds but, according to my new physiotherapist friend from SIT and some googling, this is the best way to do resistance exercise. 

c) Added Resveratrol to my daily cocktail of nutraceuticals.

My drug cocktail is almost maxed out and my specialist now encourages me to do my own research into nutraceuticals. I discovered Resveratrol which is made from grape skin which has anti-aging properties and can improve my insulin sensitivity. 

The problem is that resveratrol is super expensive. $70 a month from GNC and my doctor pal tells me that my dosage is not as high as dosage researchers use in their experiments. If any reader has a cheaper way to get more of this, do let me know. 

d) Added Rybelsus into my drugs cocktail

This is the big one. Rybelsus is the latest and greatest diabetic drug that works on a new vector and can lower my weight further. It is also free because manufacturers are offering it to Singaporeans as a trial to convince hospitals to stock it. 

Right now I expect results in about 3 months and my doc explains that even if it works, the drug may not appear in government pharma for a while so I have to buy them from Guardian. 

I expect this to cost a bomb later, but then again, it may not even work for me. Maybe I should worry about the finances later. 

Sometimes, I wish that my fiscal discipline and savvy can transcend boundaries and make me fitter and healthier, but who am I kidding right? If this is easily applied to other domains, physical trainers can also become top hedge fund managers. 

There should be new content from me coming up on the Dr Wealth Blog this week. You can also sign up for my previews this week by clicking the links on my blog sidebar.