The average cost of gym membership is $50 a month. This works out as $600 per year. $6000 per decade.
Another way of looking at any regular expense, is to work out how much you would have to save to cover that expense forever from your FI fund (at the 4% safe withdrawal rate).
This helps put spending in perspective. In this case gym membership for life needs invested savings of $15,000.
Based on average take home pay in the US of ~$50k someone would need to work for an additional 3.6 months, saving everything they earned, to cover gym membership.
This might sound like a good deal or they might prefer to take the time instead and retire ~1/3 of a year earlier.
How much do you need to cover this for life
Working out the extra savings you’d need, to cover anything you regularly spend money on, is a great way to discover the things that are genuinely fulfilling (the things you’re happy to work for):
FI Fund Required = Annual Spending x 25
Increase your financial strength
Basically it comes down to a different way of answering the question:
“When can I afford this?”
Your financial strength increases as you move through the following list of answers:
- I have just enough spare credit on my card to buy this thing
- I could buy it on finance and can afford the monthly payment
- I have a deposit and I can fund the rest with finance
- I can buy it cash from savings
- I have cleared all non-mortgage debt and can buy it cash
- I have cleared all my debt (including mortgages) and can buy it cash
- I am FI and this spending is covered by my passive income
The world is your gym
Getting back to gym membership. If you get fulfillment from your gym membership, it feels worth the cost, then it gets to stay.
I personally would rather spend my time hiking on mountain trails, out on my road bike or running, swimming in lakes, kayaking in the ocean, lifting weights at home, or climbing (which are all pretty much free).
If you want to use the world as your gym there are plenty of ways to burn calories whilst spending no money at all.
Doing push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, yoga, weights at home, and just walking, running, or cycling in the fresh air are all you need to stay fit.
Calories burned by exercise
As you can see from the list below one of the best ways is simply running up some stairs:
Calories burned for 45 minutes of exercise (average weight):
Running 5mph (12 min/mile): 554
Running 6mph (10 min/mile): 693
Running 6.7mph (9 min/mile): 762
Running 7mph (8.5 min/mile): 797
Running 8.6mph (7 min/mile): 970
Running 10mph (6 min/mile): 1109
Running up stairs: 1040
Walking 2mph (30 min/mi): 173
Walking 3mph (20 min/mi): 229
Walking 4mph (15 min/mi): 347
Walking 5mph (12 min/mi): 554
Cycling 12mph: 554
Cycling 16mph: 832
Cycling >20mph: 1109
Rock Climbing: 762
Martial Arts: 693
Swimming: 416 to 693
Skiing: 416 to 554
Kayaking: 347
Dancing: 312
Vacuuming: 243
Surfing: 208
Improve your spending
Take a look at each of the things you regularly spend your money on:
Work out how much you need to save to cover that spending in your life forever.
Work out how long you need to work to save that amount. Then decide if that feels like a good deal to you.
This is a simple way to immediately improve your spending.
Looking for ways to achieve the same goals without spending money increases your financial strength.
As an example you could save yourself $15,000 and use the world as your gym.