Living The Long Life: Financial Wellbeing in Blue Zones

Diving into the intriguing secrets of life longevity in global Blue Zones – regions identified by National Geographic journalist Dan Buettner where people have extended lifespans. We’ll discuss the lifestyles and habits that contribute to their life longevity and how these insights can enhance our relationship with money for financial wellbeing. Curious about global life longevity hotspots or seeking financial wisdom, this episode will inspire positive change!

Welcomes & Introductions

Haven’t read Chris Budd’s Financial Wellbeing books? Take a look here

Want to have a chat with Tom Morris and the team at Ovation? Contact details here

Whats on Todays Podcast?

Exploring the places in the world where people have the longest life longevity – how they live and how it can inform our relationship with money for financial wellbeing

Tight Ass Tommo

Featuring shaving your beard in the garden and leaving the hairdressers with more hair than you started with

Tip of the week – exploit a family member or friend with excellent DIY skills to just spend on materials cost and a steady supply of tea

Blue Zones

Dan Buettner, a National Geographic journalist tasked with finding world mysteries found places around the globe where people lived considerably longer than average and asked why.

The 5 areas with unusually high life longevity

• Nuoro Province, Sardinia, Italy
• Icaria, Aegean Island, Greece
• Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica
• Loma Linda, California, USA
• Okinawa Prefecture, Japan

The triangle of good old age;

• Life longevity
• Without disability
• Dying quickly

Is it the geography? Yes, the hilly features and self propelled mobility mean they exercise through daily movement. The environment in which they live leads to a better outcome when it comes to keeping fit.

Life Longevity Factors common to Blue Zones

• Moving naturally
• Diet, less meat more pulses & beans
• Alcohol, 1-2 glasses of wine a day with friends
• Faith with regular meetings
• Keeping close knit as families
• Sense of purpose
• Downshifting each day, slow down and reflect to reduce stress
• Finding the right tribe, being around others who follow the same lifestyle

The Institute for Financial Wellbeing is a like minded community for financial planners

The Blue Zone project – applying the principles found in these life longevity communities in other cities around the world. By changing the environment where people live to help them succeed through making better choices.

Finding purpose – consider the following to help find options for your purpose and aid your financial wellbeing

• What do I enjoy?
• What am I good at?
• What are my values?
• Who can I help?

The importance of social interactions

It’s not about changing habits for a happier life. It’s about creating an environment in which we live so good choices can happen naturally.

5 Tips to create an environment for a better relationship with money for financial wellbeing

• Find what gives you purpose and enjoyment
• Analyse your spending, find what works for you
• Automate savings
• Mute adverts
• Mute stock market news, your money should work for you, not stress you out!

Want to know more?

• Dan Buettner Books
• Live to 100 on Netflix

 

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Episode Transcribe:

David Lloyd: Hello, lovely listeners, and welcome to another one in our long running series of financial wellbeing podcasts. This one is in fact, podcast number 111. How on earth have we been getting away with it for so long? And the people I’ve been getting away with it with are with me now.

Oh, my name’s David Lloyd, by the way. Probably better mention that in case this is the first time you’ve ever listened to this podcast and you’re thinking, who is this bloke whispering on? Well, that’s me. I live in Backwell North Somerset. I’m a friend of Chris Budd, who I’m about to introduce, who many years ago said to me, David, we should do a podcast.

I’ll talk about all the clever stuff to do with money, and you just be the stupid one that doesn’t know anything and keep asking me questions about it. And it’s a relationship that’s worked pretty well so far, Chris. Who are you?

Chris Budd: I think you have fulfilled the role admirably, David. so, yeah, I wrote the original financial well being book and then the four cornerstones of financial well being. I went to San Diego recently to a conference to talk about.

Producer Tommo: Did you, Chris? Where were you? In San Diego. Doing what now? Sorry, Chris.

Chris Budd: I should explain, David. So we had the Institute of Financial Wellbeing conference recently and I had flown back that day, so I made a point of that evening. We had a party in the evening with lot of members and, I just kept banging on about. I’m, sorry, I’m a bit tired. I just flew in from LA this morning.

David Lloyd: The red eye.

Producer Tommo: Sorry, Chris, I interrupted. What were you doing over in San Diego?

Chris Budd: I was talking at the Financial Therapy association conference, which is really, really interesting, where you’ve got a load of therapists who have realised that money is one of the biggest causes of stress and worry, and so they specialise in that. And lots of, financial planners who realise that they need to get a bit deeper in their conversations with clients and so kind of arriving at the same financial wellbeing type place, but from opposite directions. Really, really interesting, lovely people, had a really, really nice few days.

Tom Morris from Ovation Finance welcomes listeners to discuss financial issues on podcast

David Lloyd: Fascinating. Now that disembodied voice that suddenly interrupted Chris while he was in full flow. Disembodied voice person. Could you introduce yourself formally, please?

Producer Tommo: Yeah, of course. This is, this is the moment that we do the big plug, isn’t it? I’m Tom Morris, director, and chartered financial planner over at Ovation Finance, who support this podcast. If you ever need to talk to anyone about your financial planning needs. drop us a, drop us a line. Find us at www.ovationys.wpenginepowered.com. And now my marketing team will be very pleased that I’ve done my job.

David Lloyd: Very well done. And they will be even more pleased if I declare an interest and say that I am indeed a client of a vessel. Tom is indeed my financial advisor, and they do an absolutely brilliant job.

Producer Tommo: Brilliant. We’re nailing this, aren’t we?

Chris Budd: Can I just add something? We never really said this before because we’re always very British about this and slightly shy about being too pushy and all that, I reckon. I hope this isn’t inappropriate, Tom. Somebody could just phone up. They wanted to discuss something that they heard on this podcast, could they not? I mean, just get in touch. We’d love to hear from our listeners, whether it’s an email, which addresses in the show notes, or if, you’ve got really something deeper that you want to talk about, get in touch. We’d love to hear from people.

Producer Tommo: A big part of what we’re about ovation is trying to get this message of financial wellbeing out there and trying to support the wider community in that. So, yeah, if you feel you want to get in touch click here to meet the team. Absolutely. I echo what Chris said.

Chris Budd: I hope that’s okay. I’m basically saying, listeners, if you really like the idea and want to have a long chat with somebody, give Tommo a call.

Producer Tommo: Yeah, give me a call.

David Lloyd: See, I’m very blessed that already established I know nothing.

Producer Tommo: Well, thankfully, Chris, as you know, I’m not the only planner in the business, so, we do have the resource to speak to people.

Has this podcast driven more work your way?

David Lloyd: And I would be interested to know, has this podcast actually driven more work your way? Have you picked up clients as a result of people listening to this podcast?

Producer Tommo: That’s a very good question. I think the answer is yes, we have. I was only speaking to somebody recently who was listening to the podcast. It was about permission, and they got in touch specifically about you know what. This really resonated with me. I think I’m okay. I think I’ve got it, but I’m just. I’m just. I’m too scared to spend it.

I need somebody to give me permission or tell me I’m going to be okay. so, yeah, we’re doing a lot of financial planning work with them and trying to make sure that they are spending what they’ve diligently saved up all over these years. And you can see the weight’s certainly lifting already. So, yeah, it’s definitely happened, and I.

Chris Budd: Certainly speak to people all the time who’ve listened to it. quite a lot of advisors, I have to say, a lot of financial advisors and planners who, listen to it and change how they do things in their practise and pick up little tips and ideas. So even if it hasn’t been clients to ovation, one of the principles of ovation as an employee owned company, we have a very strong ethos and principle is that it’s not all about clients and money, it’s about making a difference to the world. So that’s a really big part to us as well. So, yeah, it has had a big influence, I think.

David Lloyd: Good. Well, we can all feel pretty pleased with ourselves.

Today we look at places where life longevity is higher than normal and how the people live

So, moving on. Chris, what’s on today’s podcast?

Chris Budd: So, today we are going to look at places in the world where people have the highest life longevity expectations and what those people and how they live can tell us about our relationship with money, about our financial, wellbeing.

David Lloyd: Oh, that’s interesting. So there are clearly defined places, are there? And you think there is a connection that can be established between that and well being?

Chris Budd: Absolutely. it’s been going on for 20 plus years now, so unquestionably excellent.

David Lloyd: Well, we look forward to hearing a little bit more about that.

Saving Money With TightAss Tommo

But before we do, obviously, obviously, the real reason that people tune into this podcast, week, in, week out, month in, month out, year in and year out, is to get the advice of the wise young man that is Tom Morris. A man so wise and so tight that he’s become a legend in his own lunchtime.

A lunchtime, of course, that was celebrated when he took Chris and a colleague out to lunch, told them to eat whatever they wanted, but strongly recommended a particular meal on the menu, which, which they then duly had and thoroughly enjoyed. Turned out that he had a voucher for that very meal and that very meal alone. And thus was the legend TighAssTommo born.

So, Tom, what have you got for us this week? No, before we do that, actually, Chris, I believe you might have something to tempt us with this week in the money saving department.

Chris Budd: You know, David, I was about to say that was some of the best podcast hosting I’ve seen you do, but you just ruined it all at the very end.

David Lloyd: Well, I just make it up as I go along it up, really?

Chris Budd: No. so I’ve got a fun, silly little tip. Save money on buying compost by making your own. Now, that’s not exactly a new tip, right? But I’ve got a and, I literally made this up myself. I wonder if you can tell. Add hair to the composting process. So I was shaving in the garden the other day because with electric shaver.

Producer Tommo: In the garden.

David Lloyd: My toenails in the garden, because it means they don’t all go all over the kitchen floor.

Chris Budd: Exactly. Exactly. So I was shaving with my electric shaving, my beard a bit shorter, and, I was watching all these hairs fall on the floor. Think, where do they go? Does hair decompose? Well, according to a website by ecologyaction, it takes hair two years to decompose. But if you put it into your compost pile, it helps the compost retain water four times, as well as putting soil into your compost, which nothing would do. It can also be used, when you plant, plants.

When you first plant them, it provides structural supports for roots to take hold. So next time at the barbers and you’re getting your hair cut, ask them to sweep up all of your hair and maybe some, somebody else’s as well. Why not put it in a bag so you can take it home and use it in the garden?

David Lloyd: Marvellous advice. Marvellous advice there.

So, Tom, David, we’re waiting for your tip.

Producer Tommo: Now. My tip is, and it’s find a family member or a friend who is really good, not even good. Great at DIY. And this is, my own personal experience. Wife’s stepfather is amazing at DIY, can turn his hand to most things. And we’ve just had our kind of kitchen renovated. Not a big massive change to everything, but some new flooring we needed to concrete a bit, some new lightings, that sort of thing. And he’s done pretty much all of it for cost of materials.

So there’s my tip. Make sure you either marry and marry somebody who has a family member who’s really good at this stuff, or go and find somebody who is, who could do it for free, out, of the goodness of their heart.

David Lloyd: Very good. So exploit a relative is this week’s Titus Thomas.

Producer Tommo: Yeah, if you want to summarise it, that’s probably a perfect way of putting it. So, yeah, Rob, if you’re listening, thank you, buddy. I really do appreciate all your hard work.

Chris Budd: Tomo, you’ve just given me an idea for a future podcast episode. Go for it. Time banking. Have you heard of this?

Producer Tommo: Yes.

Chris Budd: I think that might be worth exploring. And, it’s where you put your skills for a few hours to somebody in your community, and then you borrow somebody else’s skills for a few hours and they do something for you. it’s a bit just being neighbourly, you might argue, but it’s just formalised. Anyway, leave that there. Leave that with me. I’ll be on it.

David Lloyd: Excellent. Right. Okay, well, that’s all the tighter stuff out of the way.

There are some places in the world where people have higher than average life longevity 

Chris, tell us more about these happy places then.

Chris Budd: Okay, so these are called blue zones. it started with the work of a guy called and forgive, I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m pronouncing his name wrong, Dan Butner. Dan Buckner, who was a national geographic explorer and a journalist, and his job was to find interesting mysteries around the world and then solve them.

David Lloyd: Oh, what a cool job.

Chris Budd: I know, I know. so, he talked about, the expeditions of Marco Polo and nobody’s quite sure where he ended up and stuff like this. Anyway, one of the mysteries that he and his team uncovered was that there are some places in the world where people live longer than in other places of the world, and some particular places where considerably longer.

So the mystery that was to be solved was why? And what happened is team would look at all of the data, from censuses around the world, and as they found maps, sorry, areas on a map that fulfilled their criteria, they would put a blue, circle around them. So they started to refer to them as m the blue zones, hence the name.

David Lloyd: so what sort of places are we talking about?

Chris Budd: Well, they found five. one was a region of Sardinia in Italy, another was an aegean island in Greece. There was a peninsula in Costa Rica. Interesting. This one a community of 7th day Adventists in California in America, and the town of Okinawa in Japan.

David Lloyd: And people in those places live longer than any other places in the world.

Chris Budd: That’s right. Yeah. It’s a little bit deeper than just that headline. for example, the greek island Ikaria, also had the world’s lowest rate of middle aged mortality and the lowest rates in the world of dementia. The interesting bit about life longevity, you don’t really want to live a long time if the last 20 years of your life are, ah, with dementia or are infirm or what have you. So they actually talk about a triangle for old age, which is a combination of living a long time without disability and then dying quickly. And the best place in the world for that is Okinawa.

David Lloyd: Wow. I think that notion of someone that’s just experienced, the slow and tragic demise of my mother in law through dementia, and also went through that with my mother. and as you know, my late wife was very ill and lingered arguably a little bit too long towards the end. That notion of dying quickly is something particularly as I get older myself, that I think becomes really more appealing.

I think the notion of having to sit around watching somebody who’s, who’s, I don’t know quite how to put this, who should be alive any longer, really, to put it bluntly. still being alive, it’s really difficult. It’s difficult for them. It’s difficult for us watching them, you know, lingering and not dying. So I think this notion of dying quickly is a fascinating one and I’d love to hear more about that.

Trying to be healthy towards back end of life is important

The other one that strikes me there is living. Trying to, if you’re going to have life longevity, it is trying to be healthy towards that back end. and active, being active. But I think a lot, I’m sure it come up in these points you’re about to raise. But a lot of it is don’t leave it too late to get your body in shape because everybody will deteriorate from a certain level.

Let’s talk about muscle mass, for example. Your muscle mass will and strength will deteriorate as you get older. But the higher point you have that means that kind of landing zone is a lot further on and you can hopefully keep some of that bone strength and muscle. Anyway, we’re getting into my old degree.

Chris Budd: I think that does play very nicely actually. Tom Owens, to what we’re going to go on, look at, Because, Yeah, anyway, there we go.

David Lloyd: So let’s move it on then. Because you’ve established a very diverse range of places that were found by the blue circle guys. Is there anything about the geography, for example, that they have in common?

Chris Budd: Yeah, I mean, this kind of is going to play into Tomo’s point because they, for example, all of the places are hilly. So one of the common features of how people lived in these places, or live in these places was what researchers described as moving around naturally instead of being powered. So walking, not using cars or cycling, not using cars. So the fact that each of those areas is on a hill means that not only were they walking a lot, but they were doing so up and down hills.

Producer Tommo: See, I think this raises an interesting point. You’re not actually talking about a place where all the residents work out regularly, have high number of gym memberships, or everybody is out running as their hobby. I think you’re talking about places whose features just naturally make people live well and be fit.

Chris Budd: Yeah, exactly. It’s a key aspect and we’re going to return to this. it’s the physical features of the location, but also the way that the people there live their lives. Everybody lives their lives. So the culture that they live in, which then creates good habits, that this is so important because, I’d like to think that we don’t do this on our podcast, but we don’t want to be whacking our, fingers and telling people that they’re doing the wrong thing and they need to change their behaviours. That doesn’t work.

We all know that eating fast food and drinking too much alcohol is bad for us, but we still do it. So, lots of statistics that I’ve been hearing about how diets only work for something like seven months or so and then we revert back. So this is not about trying to necessarily change all of our behaviours. People in the blue zones live longer lives, not because they tried to, longevity just happened to them. So this is about the environment in which we live, which then automatically leads to good choices.

Producer Tommo: I don’t know why it’s popped into my mind is a quote that I’ve read before that I really liked. I can’t remember quite, who this is attributed to, so apologies. It says, if I’d have known I was going to live so long, I’d have taken better care of myself.

Chris Budd: So true, isn’t it?

David Lloyd: Very true. This bloke goes to the doctor, the doctor cheques him over, he says, you could live to be 100. And the patient says, well, what would I have to do? The doctor says we’ve got to give up smoking, give up drinking alcohol, exercise regularly and don’t eat meat. And the patient said, well, if I did all that, why would I want to live to 100? So, let’s have a look at what it was about these blue zones that distinguishes them from other places where life expectancy is not so high.

Chris Budd: Okay, so, the researchers, as I said at the beginning, this has been going on for 20 odd years, so there’s been a lot of work done on this many books, and so on. The researchers found that they categorised them down into nine areas of life that they found were common to the life and culture of these areas. So, we already touched on one of them moving naturally.

Producer Tommo: I’m assuming diet’s going to be one of them.

Chris Budd: It is, although they’re quite specific. So, in the blue zones they eat much less meat, on average, only five times a month. they eat lots of pulses and beans and, fish. Actually, not quite as much as one might have imagined. About three times a week.

David Lloyd: Yeah. M. And what about the amounts? What about portion size?

Chris Budd: Yeah, that’s a big factor as well. They all ate their smallest meal early evening and then didn’t eat again. And we’re going to come back to that point. Any other guesses?

David Lloyd: Well, I’ll, bet they’re not allowed to have a drink.

Chris Budd: Actually, no. One of the common factors, one to two glasses of wine per day, which is generally taken with friends, all with a meal.

Producer Tommo: Can I just jump in a light hearted, anecdote just to break this up? I once had a client who’s putting through a life assurance application and you kind of have to put all the medical details and they ask you about how much alcohol you drink. And he put, 24 units of alcohol a week. You know, I questioned him on this. I said, that’s twelve pints a week. He said, yeah. And he said, yeah, yeah. He promised me it was accurate. He said, but he didn’t drink anything in the week. He just drank twelve points on a Saturday night. He’s very proud of that. I don’t drink of the week.

David Lloyd: Takes my liver a week to recover.

Chris Budd: That is definitely not somebody. what are the habits of the blue zones? I can tell you.

Producer Tommo: So come on, David, we’ve done. Was this episode, 111. So we’ve done 110 before these. We should be able to get these, I would, I reckon so. We got so far. Move naturally. A glass of wine. I love that one. Eat healthily. And portion sizes, I’m going to go with the quality of social relationships and.

David Lloyd: being involved in a community as well.

Producer Tommo: Sense of purpose. It’s got to be in there, surely. Sense of purpose.

Chris Budd: Yeah. All three. Correct. Again, a little bit more specific. So, on social relationships, they found that this particularly related to family. the people in these blue zones keep ageing. Parents nearby, for example, who had very close knit family relationships. Community is a biggie. definitely a big one, but again, actually really quite specific. All but five of the centenarians that they interviewed, and there’s hundreds of them, all but five of them belonged to a faith based community which had regular meetings.

Producer Tommo: so that sounds like being a Bristol Rovers fan or Bristol City fan. They have the faith that they might be good next year, but they never are. Sorry, sorry. That was a dig at both of you, isn’t it?

Chris Budd: Equal opportunity insulter. I like that.

Producer Tommo: I mentioned Gloucester rugby as well, so don’t worry.

Chris Budd: and then finally, sense of purpose. Yep. they reckon having a strong sense of purpose can add up to seven years onto your life longevity.

Producer Tommo: Seven years.

Chris Budd: Incredible.

Producer Tommo: She did. I mean, this is. We talk to clients all the time about how purpose fits into their lives and we can see that it makes a positive impact from this. 110 episodes before this, but seven years, that’s amazing.

David Lloyd: Anyway, talking of seven, and we’ve got, I think now, seven of the nine that you talked about, two left. You mentioned before, I think, Chris, that buddhist monks are found to be amongst the healthiest people, which is put down partly to meditation. Is that part of it? Because I can’t imagine meditation is big amongst the 7th day Adventists.

Chris Budd: It’s not specifically meditation, but that’s an example of it. It’s a period of what call but Nichols downshifting each day. So it could be meditation, it could be taking a nap. My personal favourite thing to do. or even just having a moment before a meal to say grace, something that just slows you down, stops you, makes you just reflect on the good things in life and therefore reduces stress. Come on, one more.

Producer Tommo: I’m drawing a blank here.

I think you might have to give us this last one.

Chris Budd: this one especially interests me. it’s about being around other people who are also following the above. Healthy behaviours. they call it finding the right tribe. For example, if all your friends are obese, you are far more statistically likely to also be obese. The same goes for the other criteria. For example, just if you’re a student and all your housemates eat poorly, you’re probably going to be eating poorly too. But if one or two of them cook healthily, then others are more likely to follow and you will be more likely to eat healthily. when the blue zone team.

I’ll tell you more about this in a bit. But when they go into cities and put this into practise, they reckon they need about 15% of the population to follow, one of the new things. and then everybody else will start to follow. That’s the figure, which is really interesting. This is actually the reason why we founded the Institute for financial wellbeing, so that financial advisors interested in the theories of well being and then applying that to the financial planning process will be shared with a like minded community, and therefore we get to that 15% figure and everything else will start to follow.

David Lloyd: Great. Okay. So far so good. But I think there’s one key question I think it’s only right to ask, has this been tested at all? Because it’s all very well saying that people in one place lived a long time because of certain reasons, but there could be other factors or it could be a coincidence. So have they put what they’ve learned into practise?

Chris Budd: Yes, they have. As I just touched on, the results of their interventions are absolutely extraordinary. And to be honest, this is, I said, not new, and some of our listeners will have heard of this before. It’s fairly new to me and the impact of some of this has absolutely made my jaw drop. So it’s called the blue zone project. and they’ve gone to over 50 cities around the world and they have applied the principles that they’ve learned from these blue zones. So they do things like they get councils to change their policies, so might be promoting cycling, for example.

They have sessions with groups of people. Well, they’ll teach them about nutrition. They talk about, having sessions where they teach people how to find a sense of purpose and how to act upon it. But what’s really important is they do it not by education, necessarily, or not just by education, not by nagging, by changing the environment in which people live. Just to give one example, David, you mentioned earlier on portion size. They went into restaurants and they changed the size of the plates from twelve inches to eight inches so the portions that were served were automatically smaller.

David Lloyd: Yeah, that’s fascinating, isn’t it? I mean, I’ve over the last couple of years taken various steps to just make myself a little bit healthier. One of those has been, cutting back on the amount of alcohol that I drink, but also eating less as well. And I find that that smaller plate thing really, really works.

So if I have a great big dinner plate and I put food on it and it’s not as much as I’m used to eating, I go, oh, that’s not enough, and I’ll spoon more on. But actually, if I have a smaller plate, it looks to me like that’s, a good amount of food. And through having done that for two years now, I’ve re educated my stomach to expect less food. And if I do have a great big blowout, like I feel really bad and feels wrong.

Chris Budd: Yeah, yeah. They talk about 80% rule where when you’re 80% full, that’s when you should stop because the, digestion process will actually fill up to 100% full, but because we don’t know that, we keep going past the 80%. So, that’s something that’s kind of the science behind it. There’s loads of examples of things that they changed. We got restaurants to not automatically put bread and butter on a table. you can get it if you ask for it, but you don’t automatically put it on the table. Things like the snacks, near as a checkout at grocery stores, they change to healthy snacks, not chocolate and crisps.

David Lloyd: Well, interestingly, there’s been a government intervention on that because at my local Tesco, other supermarkets were available a year or so ago. They completely reorganised the shelving and they moved all of the chocolate and the biscuits and all of that towards the back of the stool. And, I said, well, why are you doing that? I’ve just worked out where everything is. It was for that very reason. It’s to take it away from the checkout so that you don’t have that last minute temptation to just slip something into your trolley that you shouldn’t need.

Chris Budd: Exactly. another thing they did, they ran purpose workshops, which I touched on, and, they asked the following questions. What do I enjoy? I mean, listeners might actually just write these down and ask yourself these questions. Really, really simple. What do I enjoy? What am I good at? What are my values? And then who can I help? So once you’ve listed those down, you’ve got some criteria to apply to things that you could go and do. that’s seven years. People with a strong sense of purpose live seven years longer than people who called themselves rudderless. It’s worth spending the time on.

David Lloyd: Wow. Crucially, did it work?

Chris Budd: Yeah, the effects were incredible, especially on health and life longevity. In one city, they reduced the average wage size of the entire population by four inches.

David Lloyd: No way.

Chris Budd: Lower obesity, highest fitness levels, higher life satisfaction being reported. And one city, in southern America of 1 million people, they save $250 million a year in healthcare costs.

David Lloyd: God, that is staggering. It makes you wonder why we don’t just do it worldwide for everybody. I want more of these tips. I want them now.

Producer Tommo: No, I’m going to hazard a guess. I think I might know why they don’t happen everywhere. And I think there might be something to do with.

Chris Budd: Yeah, let’s add a word in. Let’s add a really, really important word in yet.

So, people, another one. People in the blue zones had six to 7 hours of social interaction every day. Isn’t that interesting? Six to 7 hours of social interaction. And ah, I think there’s a really interesting, point there about working from home, which is much more common these days where we don’t have that social interaction.

Producer Tommo: Yeah, that’s an interesting one. I can only really speak of our experience, or my experience, really, because the team can. The team can speak for themselves. But obviously, Covid, we’re all working at home, and then we ventured back into going into the office, and really we’re only in altogether one time a week. And in between that we’d sporadically go in, if we need to see clients, and it’d be a bit of a skeleton staff job.

And on that day that we go in, I personally get really invigorated by it. I really feed off the energy of the rest of the team. I enjoy it, I enjoy their company, I enjoy all the things that come with collaborating with people in that way. and yeah, we are thinking about, should we be having more time together?

I think the answer is probably yes, but there’s a lot of complicating factors to that, and it is a question that we keep asking ourselves, and I think we’re seeing that across the board with employers and companies are really trying to work out what works in a post Covid world with this flexible working. Not an easy answer, but it’s quite telling. That evidence there.

Chris Budd: Chris. I think flexibility is the key word, by the way. It doesn’t mean to say everybody has to be in every day. You know, you can have flexibility. I mentioned my record selling that I started over the last 18 months. So regular listeners probably remember that I started, buying and selling vinyl. I’ve always been a big vinyl junkie, and now I sell at, markets two to three times a month. And after I’m doing it this weekend on Sunday morning at the tobacco factory in Bristol. And I love it. The chats I have with people.

I could do an entire podcast episode with hilarious things that people say to me. And the lovely conversation a guy the other day, I played drums in a band. We supported girls school once, you know, I love it. I love that. Telling me all about on tour with the female heavy metal band girls school. I absolutely love it. And for the rest of the day, I feel better, I feel nourished, you know?

David Lloyd: Yeah, I think it’s really important. I’ve always part of the work that I do, or perhaps I should say used to do, because I’m kind of moving towards retirement now, is working as a writer. Obviously, that’s a fairly solitary, job. So I’ve always looked to find things where I can get out and be part of a community. I was, governor at my son’s school. I was involved, as Chris knows, with my local cricket club for 18 years.

But, I’ve stepped away from that now. I’m, on the local parish council, so I’m always looking for opportunities and talking about the cricket club. I kind of. I don’t miss the day to day engagement because having done it for 18 years, I felt it was time somebody else had a go.

But I miss the people that I used to, meet there because I’ve now retired from playing as well. I don’t have that interaction on a Saturday afternoon or a Sunday afternoon that I had for, you know, 40 years of my life, and I do miss that. So I’ve taken up playing golf again, which I always said I would do when I stopped playing cricket. And, that’s been really good because it gets me out, it gets me meeting people.

And because my golf has now deteriorated to the point that a round of golf takes me at least 2 hours longer than it used to, I spend more time interacting with other people as well. There’s lots of things, lots of things that you can do out there. But community has always been a very, very important thing for me. And as I say, as I move into retirement, I think it will become even more important that I don’t put myself in a position where all of those things that naturally come your way through work aren’t there anymore. So you need to go out and find them.

Chris Budd: And, you know, David, so this is the heart of it, isn’t it?

I want to wrap this up by handing over to Tomo, who’s been patiently waiting in the wings, because this is a financial wellbeing show, not about life longevity, although you’d expect a healthy life to be a happier life. But the major takeaway for me about researching about these blue zones is that this idea that we discussed earlier of not expecting people to change habits, although, you know, you’ve just mentioned, David, we can put a bit of effort in to do some of these things, but to create an environment in which we live.

Producer Tommo: So that this is staying in listeners. Chris’s doorbell has just rung again. I wonder what that sneaking suspicion. Is it more records, Chris, by any chance?

Chris Budd: I don’t know. I can’t. I’m doing a podcast. I can’t go and find out. I just hope that there’s a little record cheekily leaving against the, front door when I get there.

Anyway, a major takeaway for me about the blue zones is this idea of not expecting people to change habits, but creating the environment in which we live so that good choices are more likely to happen by themselves. So, Tommo, what can listeners do to create an environment which will lead to them having a better relationship with money for financial wellbeing?

Producer Tommo: Yeah, I’ve, thought, you’ve asked me to think about this before this podcast, and it’s really hard to not just run to the habits and run to the tips. That’s all. We’re forced down our throats with financial stuff. So I’ve tried my best to make this an environment type of, tips. So I’ve got five for you.

I think the first one chimes with what you’ve been talking about. What we’ve been talking about is find what gives you purpose and enjoyment. I think that’s so crucial to get right, because, if we get that right, we’re creating this environment that our finances are geared towards. We’re creating our life environment that our financial finances can be geared towards.

And the next four stages are all pretty much geared to this first one. And it’s really important, not necessarily financial, but I have to reiterate this point. It’s so important. You know, they talk about cart before the horse. That’s what we’re talking about here. Figure out where you want to be heading before you start doing things with your money.

The second one is, analysing one’s spending is an important factor in financial planning. But take some time to figure out a way that works for you so that you’re actually creating the environment that you feel comfortable and it’s easy for you to go and do it. So here’s some examples. You now got a lot of what’s called open banking. So there’s apps available where you can actually link your bank account and the transactions automatically create this breakdown of your budgeting needs a little bit of input from you, but it’s very light touch, but you can go in every couple of months and see what’s happening.

Chris Budd: Is that a little bit of input just to set it up in the first place?

Producer Tommo: Yeah, set it up, but also to make sure it’s going in the right categories. Might need a little bit. It’s like AI. Once it’s learned what’s right for you, it kind of starts to do it automatically. You’ve got the good old fashioned looking at your bank statements and poring over them using a spreadsheet, whatever it might be, find what works for you. Again, that creates the environment that you’ll actually feel as though you want to go do it. I say want or feel. It’s easy to go do it.

Third one, you’ve worked out what you want to do in life, or what gives you purpose and enjoyment. You’ve worked out how you can understand where your money’s going and how much might be left over. Next bit is automate your savings. Create an environment where you’re automatically saving for that future and what you’re trying to achieve. So I’m thinking here, direct debits set to certain savings accounts. Also, a great way of automation is looking at your workplace pension through your pay slip. If you’re employed, you can turn up your contributions there and it’s automatically done for you every month.

Tip number four. I really like this one. And Chris, I’m stealing this one from you. Mute adverts. Mute adverts. Chris, you won’t mind me saying this, but when you go to the cinema, you wait right until the last moment to walk into the cinema to watch the film and won’t watch the trailers and the adverts because, you know, marketeers adverts, they’re there to try and make you buy things you might not necessarily need. So maybe mutant adverts isn’t. Isn’t a terrible idea of creating an environment where you’re not sucked into spending money that you don’t necessarily, necessarily need to spend.

And the fifth and final one is mute. Stock market news. Create an environment where you’re not worried about the vagaries of what’s going on, with various asset prices going up and down. They do. They go up and down. Look at it. Maybe every six months to a year. Cheque in. If you’ve got an advisor, lean on them. But try not to worry and focus too much on stock market movements. It’s not particularly fun experience if you do so. Create an environment where your investments are, in the background working for you, but not overtaking your life. There are my five tips.

David Lloyd: Well, that’s great, Tom. And I think that that’s really good, because as Christie points out when he asked you to speak about it, this is a financial wellbeing podcast, and I think we’ve talked a lot about the well being. And I think what you’ve done there, very succinctly is to give us some good tips for how we can apply that to the way in which we look after our money.

Chris: I’m fascinated by life longevity in blue zones and finding new information on them

so just to finish, Chris, because I’m absolutely fascinated by this topic. it’s not entirely new to me, but I have found a lot of new information. Is there anywhere we can go to find out even more about these blue zones and life longevity?

Chris Budd: Yeah, loads. Dan Butner is on lots of different podcasts talking about Blue Zones and life longevity. I’ve listened to him talking quite a lot last week. He’s, written four books, including the Blue Zone cookbook. and there’s probably the easiest way for people to watch it. see it is the Netflix series called Live to 100.

Producer Tommo: And I don’t have to read watch a tv show. How amazing. Live to 100. I know what I’m watching next.

Chris Budd: That’s the environment, isn’t it? You know, you create an environment that works for you.

Producer Tommo: Yes.

David Lloyd: What are the other tips? Watch less telly, Tom.

Producer Tommo: Yeah, but I don’t get out much these days. I’ve got a young family, haven’t I? So just chilling out on the couch, isn’t it?

David Lloyd: Excellent? So, yeah, different strokes for different folks, as they say. Well, that’s been a really, really interesting chat today. I mean, not that they aren’t always, obviously, but I think this is one that’s particularly chimed with me. And I hope it helps with you at home too. And I also hope that you’ll join us next time we present another one of our, financial wellbeing podcasts.