Why An Ounce of Prevention Is The Best Financial Investment

Why An Ounce of Prevention Is the Best Financial Investment

By

Marsha Walker Eastwood, B.S.Ed., MSHSVC

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is one of Benjamin Franklin’s most often quoted axioms and is as applicable today as it was the day he wrote it. According to ushistory.org, the Franklin quote appeared in the February 4, 1735, issue of The Pennsylvania Gazette, Franklin sent an anonymous letter to his own newspaper entitled “Protection of Towns from Fire”. Writing as an "old citizen" he admonished: “In the first Place, as an Ounce of Prevention is worth a Pound of Cure, I would advise 'em to take care how they suffer living Coals in a full Shovel, to be carried out of one Room into another, or up or down Stairs, unless in a Warmingpan shut; for Scraps of Fire may fall into Chinks and make no Appearance until Midnight; when your Stairs being in Flames, you may be forced, (as I once was) to leap out of your Windows, and hazard your Necks to avoid being oven-roasted.” 

Franklin’s quote resulted not only in the formation of the Philadelphia Fire Department but an entire fire safety program for the citizens as well. That investment in prevention saved countless lives which is the goal of any prevention program, and the biggest problem in selling a prevention program is the irrational pushback from those who could benefit the most. This is especially true when it is packaged as an investment because we have all become so accustomed to the term being used as a revenue generating system that will create or enhance a portfolio. Not only is that type of thinking extremely flawed in its shortsightedness, but it is also a design for failure on many levels as outlined in the following scenarios:

Scenario #1:  Tom landed a great job. It was the perfect fit for his skill set, except the location mandated that he has a reliable car. Tom plunked down a sizeable chunk of cash and bought a great running used car. All seemed right in Tom’s world, but underneath the surface disaster loomed. Tom ignored all the mailings to have the oil changed. He also ignored the mailings for other routine preventive maintenance procedures. Tom’s great running car was no longer running so great, and as the problems mounted Tom began missing days from work while the car was in the shop. Tom also had to take a short-term loan to pay for the repairs and eventually he had paid more for repairs than the car was worth. If Tom had invested a much smaller amount in routine oil changes, wheel alignments and tire rotations his great running car would have served him well for who knows how long.

Scenario #2:  Emily was an amateur photographer who made a decent living selling her pictures at local art shows. When the home of her dreams in the neighborhood she had dreamed of living in since she was a child became available for sale, she bought it without hesitation. The well-appointed rooms gave her a panoramic view of the lake and mountains and provided countless opportunities for some amazing photo opportunities. As her first winter in the house approached, she began receiving door hangers and phone calls from a local heating and cooling establishment offering a full furnace check-up for $99. Since the furnace seemed to be working well, she politely asked the company to stop contacting her. Her extremely frugal father always drilled home his point that  if something wasn’t broken, it was best to leave it alone, and for the most part she considered his admonition as words of wisdom. One evening as a winter storm approached, Emily noticed that her house seemed very cool and attempted to adjust the thermostat. The house got colder as the outside temperature dropped. She knew something was terribly wrong and decided to call the furnace company. After what seemed to be an endless wait, she was told the soonest appointment would the three days away. The furnace needed several small but costly repairs, and after waiting additional days for a part to arrive, that previous offer of the $99 haunted her for weeks. If she had just done the preventive check-up, she would not have to live in a cold house for over a week.

Scenario#3:  Janet Baxter always remarked to her family and friends that she would rather walk on hot coals than go to the dentist. The sheer thought of the sound of  dental drill or the scraping sound of that annoying little metal thing picking at the plaque buildup on her teeth was something she didn’t want to deal with. Even when a local dental franchise offered free exams and cleanings at her job, she opted out. A few weeks later she developed a headache that never seemed to really go away. Over the counter medication offered a little temporary relief. After going through an entire bottle of the pain relievers, her mother suggested that perhaps her teeth were the cause of her headaches. She relented and made a dental appointment where she learned that a raging infection had almost become life-threatening, and she was admitted to the hospital for massive doses of antibiotics to clear the infection.

Scenario#4:  Like many men William Jefferson rails against going to the doctor. His oftentimes colorful description of the medical industry as being a money sucking machine that trains people to sit like robots who don’t really listen to anything patients say, has completely undermined his faith in that profession. Even as a young man he attributed any ache or pain to the normal aging process, and that visiting the family doctor would just be a waste of good money. The one-time heavy smoker quit 25 years ago and as far as he was concerned the chances of developing lung cancer, or any other smoking-related disease was no longer a worry.

Amanda Jefferson was just the opposite of her husband. She was meticulous about preventive screenings and maintained a journal of her visits and results. In addition to her annual mammogram, PAP test, vision, and dental screenings, she was constantly scouring the internet for any other health screenings. She would be the first to admit that she was not medically savvy, but she felt that if technology were available, why not take advantage of it? As she made her appointment for some newly discovered preventive vascular screenings that could even look at her abdominal aorta, whatever that was, and blood screenings that her doctor never mentioned she thought how much William needed them but would never get them. She knew he had high blood pressure, and she also knew that he would check it at Walmart and then blame the high numbers on the inaccuracy of the store machine. Not long after Amanda made her appointment William became suddenly ill and was taken to the emergency room where he was diagnosed has having suffered a dissection of his  abdominal aorta due to an aneurysm. The man who refused to “plunk down” a couple hundred dollars for preventive healthcare was now dead.

These scenarios have demonstrated two things – the importance of an ounce of prevention and the long-term benefits of the attendant financial investment strategy. Due to his refusal to take advantage of routine automotive maintenance at a reasonable cost, Tom ended up spending a lot more money, had to deal with several instances of inconvenience and could have very well lost his job. Emily’s belief in her father’s admonition could have turned deadly living in a house during a winter storm with no heat. In hindsight she no doubt realized that the $99 would have been a small investment compared to the costly repairs she incurred later. Janet’s impatience and irrational disdain for dental exams could have had quite a different ending had she not acquiesced and paid the dentist a visit. Sadly, William Jefferson died without realizing the importance of making that financial investment in life-saving preventive healthcare screenings. The saving grace per se is that Amanda makes it a point to keep her annual healthcare screenings and took the initiative to seek out others that could give her peace of mind and enhance her quality of life.

Financial investment strategies go far and above the idea of stock purchases, mutual funds and the like.  By mapping out a financial investment strategy for preventive measures, an individual or family can reap the kind of returns that educate – creating one’s ability to pay for college rather than taking on the burden of student loans, enhance the quality of life – meaningful travel opportunities rather than being housebound during retirement….or worse yet, forced to take on a low-paying job at a time of life when the enjoyment of lifelong work should have been a well-deserved reward, and finally….increase the opportunity for longevity that comes from the personal satisfaction of a financial life well-lived, or as Mr. Spock would say, “Live long and prosper!”

©Marsha Walker Eastwood

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