I recently read an article about the different “phases” of retirement that people go through and how it affects their happiness, level of activity and spending over time. It noted some studies that discuss who tends to be “happier” in retirement – things like:
- People that maintain a daily routine tend to be happier in retirement since we grow accustomed to routines through our working years
- People with higher levels of social activity (like meeting with friends often) tend to be happier
- And, people that are relatively healthy tend to be happier than retirees with health complications
This last point is pretty obvious and I feel like it applies to anyone, not just retirees, but the article did a good job of noting that for most people health complications don’t arise until later in life and often not until in retirement when your lifestyle starts to slow down. Good health is one of those things that are easy to take for granted until they’re gone so it’s just as important to invest in your health as it is to invest in your retirement accounts. There’s no point in having tons of money if you aren’t physically able to enjoy spending it!
This is something everyone already knows though and you can see it over the last decade with the growth of “healthy” trends. You can basically find food to match any dietary goal – organic, dairy free, gluten free, non-GMO, etc. etc. You can also see it in the out-performance of stocks like Chipotle, Hain Celestial and Whole Foods.
So what are some other ways we can invest in the theme of people trying to lead healthier lifestyles? One way that I’ve been looking into is mobile health (mHealth as it’s called). Just about everything these days is tied to your smartphone, right?
Nike has been making products that track the data of your fitness workouts and Google is developing a contact lens that tracks your glucose levels and sends the info to your computer or smartphone. There are now nearly 50,000 apps related to mHealth that you can download and the industry has seen about $4 billion of funding over the past few years. Unfortunately most are created by small start-ups that aren’t publicly traded and the ones that develop popular products are being bought-out by some of the big tech or health companies like Qualcomm, Medtronic and Thermo Fisher. Early signs are pointing to these bigger companies as the best way to invest in the growth of mHealth but my concern is how small it currently is as percentage of existing business – it barely moves the needle…
Healthcare costs continue to rise so I’m betting people will continue to look for ways to monitor and improve their health. It’s been tough to find a specific company that’s a pure play on mHealth but I’ll keep looking. Please feel welcome to share any ideas or leads you might have like popular apps and I’ll work it backwards to try to find a way to invest in it.
Thanks for following!
-Nick
Like what you see here? It’s easy to subscribe using the box in the top-right or share this post with friends using the buttons below.