HealthSpan + WealthSpan
Trevor B. HansonWealth manager · Co-author of UNSPLODE
Caleb O. Pinegar, D.O., A.T.C.Orthopedic surgeon · Co-author of UNSPLODE5 min read
Here’s the trap. Optimize your wealth and neglect your health, and you’ll have money for a life you can’t live. Optimize your health and neglect your wealth, and you’ll have the life and none of the freedom to live it.
One of us is a wealth manager. The other is an orthopedic surgeon. Comparing notes, we kept noticing the same thing: the people we serve are up against systems that weren’t built with their best interests in mind. Patients don’t see doctors until they’re sick. Investors barely plan with advisors at all. This page explains the two ideas UNSPLODE is built on and why we think they belong in the same plan.
What is HealthSpan?
Your lifespan is how long you live. Your healthspan is how long you live well: the years you can move, think, travel, and show up for the people you love without illness or injury getting in the way.
“HealthSpan” is a word that combines health and lifespan. It is the recognition that your overall health, longevity, and sense of purpose and fulfillment requires that you take control of your physical and mental wellbeing.
Caleb O. Pinegar, D.O., A.T.C., UNSPLODE
The distance between those two numbers is getting wider. A Mayo Clinic study of 183 World Health Organization member states, published in JAMA Network Open in December 2024, found that the gap between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy grew to 9.6 years worldwide by 2019. The United States had the widest gap of any country in the study: 12.4 years, up from 10.9 years in 2000.
Put plainly, the average American can expect more than a decade of life with disease or disability at the end. That decade is exactly the stretch most financial plans call “retirement.”
What is WealthSpan?
Most financial plans aim at a number. WealthSpan asks a different question: how long will your money actually fund a life you want to live, starting now?
WealthSpan is how long your wealth actually funds a life that feels good.
Trevor B. Hanson, UNSPLODE
You may see the word WealthSpan used elsewhere. In UNSPLODE, it means a balance that isn’t about risk and reward. In Trevor’s words, it’s a balance “between a life deferred and a life experienced.” Money is a tool for the people, moments, and memories that matter, while you still have the health and energy to enjoy them.
Why they belong in the same plan
Health and wealth usually get planned by different people, in different offices, years apart. Your doctor rarely asks about your retirement goals. Your financial advisor rarely asks whether your knees will hold up for the trips you’re saving for. But the two spans are tied together in both directions.
Improving your health gives you the energy to gain more wealth. Improving your wealth lets you invest more time and capital into your health. One needs the other.
Trevor B. Hanson, UNSPLODE
The book tells the story of a client Trevor calls Frank. (Like every client and patient story in UNSPLODE, Frank is a hypothetical composite.) Frank did everything the traditional model asked: he cut spending, delayed travel, and saved for “someday.” He never invested in his health. By his sixties he couldn’t keep up when his kids invited him hiking.
His wealth could have bought him plane tickets, guides, gear, and more. But it couldn’t buy him the mobility to enjoy it.
Trevor B. Hanson, UNSPLODE
The reverse happens too. People who take great care of their bodies but never plan their money often find their options narrowing just when they finally have the time to use them.
Explode vs. unsplode
In the book, to “explode” a plan means making choices, large and small, that undermine the longevity of your health or your finances. Some explosions are fast: an injury, a lawsuit, a market panic. Most fast explosions started as slow ones: years of skipped checkups, no written plan, no one asking hard questions.
What Caleb and I mean by “unsplode” is to reverse any negative impacts that you could knowingly or unknowingly be placing on your personal success with your health and wealth.
Trevor B. Hanson, UNSPLODE
Unsploding is mostly unglamorous work done early: a clear purpose, an honest inventory, the right team, and small adjustments made on purpose.
How the book mirrors both spans
UNSPLODE is two books in one. Side 1, by Trevor, is about WealthSpan. Side 2, by Caleb, is about HealthSpan. Every chapter on one side has a twin on the other, so you can read straight through or flip between them.
- Finding longevity: what each span means and why it matters now
- The new purposeful mindset: rethinking how you approach money and health
- What’s the prognosis? Taking stock of your goals
- Asset protection: safeguarding your finances and your body
- Preventative care: keeping both in good shape
- The longevity team: the professionals who should work together for you
- Exit strategy: planning for income, and for a healthy retirement
Where to start
You don’t need to overhaul your life this week. You need a baseline, then one small move.
- Get a baseline on both spans with the free Unsplode Score. The Two-Span version takes about two minutes.
- Write down your why with the Define Your Why worksheet, then take stock of your body with the Health Portfolio worksheet.
- Pick one thing to change this month: one checkup you’ve been putting off, or one money conversation you’ve been avoiding.
About the authors
Trevor B. Hanson is a wealth manager, the founder of ApexFlow Wealth Management, and co-author of UNSPLODE. He wrote the WealthSpan side of the book.
Caleb O. Pinegar, D.O., A.T.C.
Caleb O. Pinegar, D.O., A.T.C., is an orthopedic surgeon at C.O.P. Orthopedics and co-author of UNSPLODE. He wrote the HealthSpan side of the book.
From the book UNSPLODE: The Bold New Approach to Reconstruct Your WealthSpan and HealthSpan. Read both introductions free.