Pod Insights The $100 MBA Show MBA2662 Why Making Money is Good For Your Health About this episode Think earning more is just about the extras—cars, travel, upgrades? Think again. In this episode, Omar digs into something most people miss: how financial stability directly impacts your physical, mental, and emotional well-being. You’ll learn how money stress affects your sleep, your decision-making, even your relationships—and why wealth isn’t about luxury, but about creating peace of mind and real freedom. From choosing better habits to showing up stronger for the people you love, this lesson connects the dots between income and long-term wellness in a refreshingly practical way. Curious how earning more can actually help you feel better, live smarter, and thrive? Tap the play button at the top of the page and dive into this must-hear episode—your health (and future self) will thank you. Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://lm.fm/GgRPPHiSUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 These days, you can get an answer from the internet, an influencer, or AI in seconds. But when it comes to legal matters for your business or your family, a quick answer is not the same as the right answer. With 25 years of experience, LegalZoom knows how to start you off right. When you need a legal hand, visit LegalZoom. Go to LegalZoom.com to get started. LegalZoom provides access to independent attorneys and its law firm, LZ Legal Services. LegalZoom is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Ever invest in something that seemed incredible at first, but didn't live up to the hype? For example, I really wanted to love the show Mad Men. I really tried to watch it and love it, but it just didn't do anything for me. As a marketer and business person, the show was a little bit of a disappointment. Marketers know that feeling.
0:45 Speaker 00 They optimize for the numbers that look great, like impressions. But then we don't see revenue. LinkedIn has a word for that: bullspend. Instead, you can get the highest ROAS of major ad networks with LinkedIn Ads. Cut the bullspend, advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/MBAShow. Terms apply. If you think making money is only about buying the nicer things in life, think again, because the truth is, making money is good for your health. In fact, not making enough money might be the biggest hidden health risk you are ignoring right now. We don't talk about this enough.
1:28 Speaker 00 How financial stress quietly eats away at your physical, emotional, and mental health. How it damages relationships. How it affects every decision you make. This episode is extremely personal to me because I grew up in a household where money was tight. And as I was growing up, I told myself for a very long time, "I gotta solve this money issue in my life so that my life is improved in many ways, especially my health." I've seen firsthand what a lack of financial abundance can do to a person and to a family. So today, let's talk about the real cost of staying broke and why making money is one of the most generous things you can do for yourself
2:13 Speaker 00 and the people you love.
2:20 Speaker 00 Welcome back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host, Omar Zenhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, to help you start, grow, and scale your business.
2:34 Speaker 00 Let's start with number one: Money stress literally damages your body. Let's start with some facts. A study published by the American Journal of Epidemiology found that people with high financial strain were 20% more likely to develop chronic health conditions, including heart disease and diabetes. Another report from the APA, the American Psychological Association, consistently shows money is the number one source of stress for Americans year after year. Chronic stress is linked to high blood pressure, poor sleep, weakened immune function. How do you think cancer develops? Depression, anxiety, digestive issues. That's not just an inconvenience.
3:18 Speaker 00 It's slow cumulative damage. And it's also invisible, right? Until it breaks something in your life. Number two: Financial pressure destroys relationships. And let's be honest, money problems break people. They break relationships up. A study that was done by Ramsey Solutions found that money fights are the second-leading cause of divorce after infidelity. The crazy thing about that study is that they found that couples will more likely stay together after infidelity than consistent money problems. That's a blow. When you're financially stressed, you don't argue about money, right? You argue about everything else because of money.
4:03 Speaker 00 You snap at your partner. You say no to your kids more than you want to. You make small decisions feel like life or death calls. Listen, I watched my own parents, that I absolutely love, argue about money a lot. Not because they were bad people. They were really hardworking people, but because they were scared. They were consciously and consciously... consistently anxious every dollar was a debate the margins in their relationship and in their life financially were so razor thin and i remember thinking when i grow up i want money to be the last thing i fight about okay i don't want to fight at all but money should not be something
4:46 Speaker 00 we should be fighting about this thing called money needs to be solved in our life and again the primary reason is not so i could be rich is because i want peace i want peace in my life number three being broke makes healthy choices harder whoo that is so true it's the harsh truth being broke is actually expensive it's really hard to stay healthy when you're living paycheck to paycheck let's break it down real quick here are some things you know are true healthy food costs more gym memberships aren't free and if you need guidance and training trainers are not free taking time off to rest and go on holiday and mentally recharge not an option if you don't have money therapy forget about it who's got budget for therapy when your
5:30 Speaker 00 paycheck to paycheck getting eight hours of sleep when you're grinding two jobs absolutely unrealistic you're not lazy you're exhausted you're not eating poorly because you don't care and you don't know that this food is unhealthy it's because junk food is cheap it's fast it fills the gap it fills the need when you need it making money gives you options it gives you the room to take care of yourself for example one of the first things i started to do when i started to reach a certain level of income and wealth is i started to order prepared healthy meals meals that athletes get sent to themselves to make sure their macros are right and they got
6:11 Speaker 00 the right protein and everything's super clean that's all i eat at home is prepared delicious organic fresh meals yes it's more expensive than me getting fast food or takeaway it's a lot more expensive than me going to the grocery store and cooking for myself but i get the best quality and i save time and i get everything i need to be healthy because i am basically throwing money at the problem because Money is available. And when money is not available, you can't make these choices. It's just the truth. Let me say that again. Wealth buys you wellness. And that's the truth. I don't know anybody who is healthy and poor. Seriously. Look back at your friends. Look at your family.
6:55 Speaker 00 Who is in top shape? And is really struggling financially? If it exists, it's a blip. It's a temporary period. But most people that can afford the time, the energy, the guidance, the resources to be healthy are wealthy. So in order for you to have a foundational level of health, that where you're eating right, you're exercising, you have time to rest, you have time to go for walks, you need to have a standard of wealth. It's not about luxury. It's about meeting the standard if we are going to prioritize our health. The holidays are the season business owners get pulled in six directions. More calls, more requests, more chances for things to slip through the cracks. Hoping you catch it all isn't a plan.
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9:40 Speaker 00 Number four, being poor makes you more likely to make bad decisions. Who here, as soon as I said that, were like, "Woof, I know exactly what you're talking about." I can think of two, three, four, five different bad decisions I've made in my life because I was under financial pressure, right? It's the truth. This isn't about intelligence, it's about mental bandwidth. Listen to the study that was done by Princeton University. "Being in poverty can reduce cognitive function by the equivalent of 13 IQ points." That's the same thing as pulling an all-nighter and being exhausted and you can't think clearly and you gotta make tough decisions. Why? Because when your brain is constantly occupied with how you're gonna pay the bills, it can't think long-term.
10:24 Speaker 00 You skip better opportunities because they don't pay immediately, right? They don't pay, you know, this week or next week. You stay in a toxic work environment because you're scared of what's out there, out of fear that you're gonna miss that next paycheck that you desperately need. You take on debt just to survive. How? Many of us have been there with credit card and loans. You're stuck in this reactionary mode, not creation mode. That's not weakness, it's the trap of not having enough money. I know it because I was in it, I lived it, right? For a very long time, until I got serious about my career as an entrepreneur. I started investing in myself, I started working harder and longer and smarter on what I'm building.
11:09 Speaker 00 So that way, I can be able to make some inroads and start making some leaps in my revenue. I'm not saying this is easy, but what I found is if you don't make being wealthy a priority, then you will never be wealthy. That's just the truth, okay? A lot of people say to me, "Hey Omar, I want to be wealthy, I want to have financial freedom, I want not to worry about money anymore, I want to solve this problem, but this, but that, but that." Then I say to them, "Those things are true, those buts you gave me, 100% true." But if you are choosing those buts over your priority, your goal to be financially free, then it's not a priority. Priority means you choose it before anything else.
11:52 Speaker 00 And the thing I have found, and this is why I decided to make it a priority, is because once I made it a priority and I really worked on it and started to achieve levels of financial freedom more and more as I grew, I started to realize, "All those buts got solved!" Isn't that interesting? Money solves a lot of problems, you know this. And the reason why I'm sharing with you bluntly is that all those excuses you're making, "I don't have time, my family, my health, I don't have the motivation", all these excuses you're having, whatever they might be, all of a sudden they go away when you're successful, when you start making leaps and bounds of financial freedom.
12:34 Speaker 00 Number five, you can't recharge if you can't afford to stop. When was the last time you took a real break? A real holiday? I'm not talking about a weekend where you checked your emails every hour or every day even. I'm talking about a total reset, a slow down trip, a breath, right? Taking a breath, time to reconnect with yourself, time to realize that, hey, life is to be lived. Most people can't afford that. Vacations aren't just about indulgence, it's about recovery. It's about understanding that business is a lot like a high-impact physical sport, like rugby or American football, right? In American football, they only play a game once a week because it's so high-impact, right?
13:18 Speaker 00 They have to recharge and train and rehab so that they can make it next week. Business is much like that. You're gonna go through a series of really hard sprints, right? But because you're working so intensely on whatever you're building, you need intense rest as well. But if money's tight, guilt sets in. How can you justify spending when you barely have enough, right? So what happens is we buy with money we don't have, with credit cards and things like that. And here's the irony. The harder you work, the more you need a break, right? But the less money you have, the less able you are to take it. That's a brutal cycle, a brutal one. Making money gives you the margin to rest, to recover,
14:01 Speaker 00 and come back sharper, better than ever. Number six is really just me sharing what I learned watching my own parents. My parents worked incredibly hard. They were immigrants from Egypt, moved to the US, and they knew nobody. They had to build their own community, they had to learn a new language. My mom had to do her degree all over again in the US because the employers in the US didn't recognize her degree from Egypt, right? They're like, well, we don't know where this university is, so you gotta do your university degree all over again. They had to do menial jobs until they got to that level where they can get a decent job. So my mom was an elevator operator for a long time. You know, she was doing housekeeping in hotels. This is the strong
14:44 Speaker 00 struggle my parents went through and they were honest and they gave us love and they gave us everything they could but life was hard bills were late my mom stretched every dollar that she could at the grocery store we never had any name brand items in the house you know like we never had like an actual name brand cereal or right if we ever had cereal in the first place right we never had name brand bread or peanut butter it was always the no frills brand the store brand because she was trying to make sure that we had food in the house and that we saved money here and there to make up for other areas and I remember watching them both age before their
15:23 Speaker 00 time not because of bad luck because of the weight of constant financial strain I made a decision like I said early on never again I'm breaking the cycle not just for me but for them and for everybody around me and my partner in my life and my extended family I wanted to make sure that they knew that their sacrifice for me and hard work was not for nothing right that it paid off because I don't want to be 60 and stressed out I want to be 60 and free and enjoying myself and having the health to enjoy my life and I believe you deserve that too but you don't just get what you deserve you have to go after it you gotta work for it and you gotta earn it
16:06 Speaker 00 number seven making money isn't greedy it's smart you've been fed a lie and many of us have right that working more selfish that wealth is corrupt that ambition is arrogance but here's what I believe making money is how you protect your peace making money is how you serve your family making money is how you buy back your time making money is how you can afford to be generous making money is how you stay healthy mentally and physically making money allows you to make an impact on a greater scale you're not chasing money you're chasing freedom you're chasing health you're chasing better life you're chasing what money can allow you to do that's not greed that's
16:48 Speaker 00 wisdom listen I've been around a lot of entrepreneurs I've been around many that were not wealthy They were grinding and building their business and then became wealthy, very wealthy, because either they built an incredible business that fund that wealthy life, or they actually sold a very valuable business that they built and became instant millionaires and never have a work a day in their life. And the crazy thing I've noticed in all of them is that what money does, it amplifies who they already are. So if they were kind and generous and thoughtful people, they became more of that when they had money. And if they were selfish and greedy and manipulative, they were more of that when they had money. So if you believe that in your core, you're a good person,
17:33 Speaker 00 you're generous, you're kind, you're helpful, then you're going to be even more of that. You're going to be 10x of that when you have some wealth, when you have the money to fund all those great qualities. Money can't buy you happiness, sure. But let me tell you what it can buy. It could buy you therapy. It could buy you groceries that don't come in a box. It could buy you time with your kids. It can give you a break when you need it. It can give you a soft bed that gives you the best rest you ever had, quiet mornings, it can give you peace of mind. That's not luxury, that's health, right? So let's stop apologizing for wanting to make money. Let's stop pretending that staying small and broke is some sort of virtue.
18:17 Speaker 00 No, you're not selfish for wanting more. You're smart, you're protecting your health, and that's something worth fighting for.
18:26 Speaker 00 Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. If you made it this far, you're my kind of person, okay? You're a doer. You are somebody who wants to invest in themselves and is a learner. And I believe that I'm in like-minded company, so thank you for being here. If you found today's episode helpful and you want more practical business lessons to help you start, grow, and scale your business, the best thing you could do is subscribe to this podcast. Hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app, the one that you're using right now, whether it's Apple or Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. By hitting subscribe, you get our next episode automatically, and it's the best way to support the show. It's absolutely free, and it's a way for you to commit to growing your business.
19:09 Speaker 00 And now that you've subscribed, I'll check you in the next episode.
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