The most important factor driving the need to start retirement planning early is the magic of compounding. Compounding may seem slow in realtime but its long-term effects are so powerful that it forces one to plan finances decades in advance. A book that I read recently on longevity—Outlive, by Dr. Peter Attia—made me think the same way about health too.

In “Outlive”, Dr. Attia argues, based on extensive medical research, that the four prominent categories of old age diseases (heart-related, cancer, diabetes, and brain/memory-related) take decades to develop. Their onset is never sudden. Also, current medicine guidelines don’t evaluate risk to patient’s life beyond 5-10 years. And as a result, doctors often do not intervene until these diseases have taken a strong foothold. By then, it is too late as there is already significant damage and medicines offer limited help in extending life.

He explains that these diseases are not inevitable consequences of aging, as commonly believed, and that we can control our risk of developing them to a large extent. However, to do that, we must make some adjustments—adopt healthy eating habits, exercise regularly, take supplements and preventive medications—starting in our 30s-40s. Dr. Attia also argues that many a times the risk from not doing anything outweighs the one from being overly cautious and taking some aggressive actions.

The parallel between his advice on longevity, and retirement planning is uncanny: it’s critical to save a substantial portion of your income and invest in the right (sometimes seemingly risky) instruments throughout your life to ensure financial security during your golden days. Also, the temptation to overspend is not too different from that of unhealthy habits such as not exercising, or frequently munching on yummy burgers which are loaded with empty calories.

Both health and wealth compound over decades. A chance at having healthy, happy, and prosperous 80s and 90s, requires advance planning and consistent effort, and the earlier we start, the better .