If you are like me, (I’m in my mid-50s), please take my message to heart: start investing in your brain health because doing so will pay huge dividends.

It’s in our 50’s when our cognitive ability usually begins to decline. If we don’t intervene, this decline will only accelerate as we age. One consequence of cognitive decline is that we become prone to making stupid financial mistakes that can cost us a lot of money! I have seen this happen with my clients, my clients’ parents, and even my own parents. The total amount lost is in the millions. The parents of one of my clients lost their entire life savings to scams. They lost half ten years ago to an email scam. One would have thought they had learned their lesson. No, just this year, they lost the remainder to a telephone scam. 

Luckily, this decline is not inevitable. Our brain is like our other muscles, the more we exercise  it, the more we maintain, even build up, its strength and power. Here are a few things I have done in the last few years to exercise my brain:

1. In 2019, I attended the EMBA program at Oxford. Most of my classmates were in their late 30s. I had to work to keep up with them. And I did: in the Finance final exam, I scored 98 out of 100, the highest grade in the history of the EMBA program at Oxford. 
2. In 2020, I started to learn free-style Hip-Hop,  the art of spontaneously making up verses as the music plays.  The verses must be on beat and land on rhyme! It’s extremely strenuous since English is not my first language and my brain has to work extra hard. 
3. In 2021, I started to learn a new language – German. Two and a half years later, I can speak German, although not yet fluently. 
4. In January of 2023, I went to London to study improvisational musical theater. It’s the art of collaborating with fellow actors to create a musical story on stage, all based on just a suggestion from the audience with absolutely no time to prepare. 

Now when I look back, I notice the brain fog which I experienced quite often five years ago is totally gone. My memory is better. My sleep is better and overall I am in a happier mood. I am not a physician, but I attribute my better brain health to all the activities I have undertaken in the last five years.

What can you do in 2024 that will give your brain a good workout?

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