This is a question I posed on my social media channels last week, with some interesting responses. Ultimately there are different points in our life when each of these has more significance than the others. If you’re building a business or going for a promotion you might choose to sacrifice more free time and reduce your sleep or opt for convenience foods in order to increase your earnings. Equally, when you have a child you might choose to cut down on working hours and time spent exercising in order to see them more.

What struck me was the number of people under fifty willing to sacrifice health for wealth, whilst those older than fifty were happy to give up money for their health or to spend more time with people.

I believe, of course, that health should be the biggest priority. Spending time with people and wealth to me are secondary to having good health. Of course those things are important and I’m not downplaying their value, but there is plenty of research showing that healthy people are more productive, are able to work harder and are more confident, all skills which benefit in business. Equally, healthy people tend to be more present and more able to spend time with people, having less bouts illness and less physical limitations.

There is no correct answer to this question, but I do find it fascinating that health is dropped so readily of the three, when the reality is in the longer term it adds and enhances both of the other two.

So what do you value most; health, wealth, or time?