How Much Should CEOs Invest Annually in Their Health?
Every CEO knows the value of reinvesting in their business. Capital is poured into innovation, strategy, and talent because the returns justify the spend.
Yet when it comes to personal health, arguably the most valuable asset a leader possesses, the investment rarely matches the stakes.
The average executives calendar is relentless: travel, board meetings, investor calls, strategy sessions. It’s easy to think of health as something you can “fit in” around the margins.
But the truth is, the quality of your decisions, your stamina in the face of pressure, and even the length of your leadership runway are all directly tied to how you invest in your body and mind.
Neglect carries a price tag. Fatigue dulls clarity. A missed diagnosis shortens your tenure. And when energy, focus, or resilience falter, the ripple effect touches not only the bottom line but also your legacy and your family.
So the question isn’t whether you should invest in your health. The real question is: how much?
Key Principles for Annual CEO Health Investment
1. Think in Percentages, Not Flat Costs
Just as companies allocate a percentage of revenue to R&D, CEOs should allocate 1–3% of personal income toward health optimization.
For many leaders, that equates to $20,000 to $50,000 annually, a fraction of what’s at stake.
2. Cover More Than the Basics
Annual physicals and standard labs aren’t enough.
A comprehensive health operating system should include advanced diagnostics (such as MRI, calcium scoring, and genetic testing), personalized nutrition, stress management, and circadian alignment strategies.
3. Treat Health Like Portfolio Diversification
Spread investments across prevention (testing, imaging), optimization (training, recovery, biomarker tracking), and support (coaching, nutrition, stress resilience).
This ensures you’re both preventing problems and actively expanding capacity year after year.
The ROI of Health
Some leaders hesitate when they see a $ 20,000–$ 50,000 figure attached to their health. However, one bad decision made while exhausted, or one health crisis detected too late, can cost exponentially more in terms of deals lost, diminished shareholder value, or time away from the role.
Viewed through the proper lens, health isn’t an expense. It’s insurance against decline and a compounding asset that strengthens every other domain of life: business, community, and family.
Executive Health: Your Trusted Partner
At Executive Health, we help forward-thinking CEOs, entrepreneurs, and other A-level leaders build health systems with the same precision they bring to their businesses. Our mission is simple: to ensure your body and mind are never the bottleneck to your success.
If you’re ready to explore how to align your health investment with the true ROI of your leadership, start with the video below. When the timing is right, consider booking a private diagnostic call with our team.
Transcript (May Not Be Exact)
Julian Hayes II
(0:05) How much should a CEO actually invest in their health each year? (0:10) Not just in a gym membership, not just a few supplements, but in the entire system and strategies that ensure that they stay sharp, resilient, and capable of leading at the highest level no matter what comes their way. (0:29) Welcome, I'm Julian Hayes-Sasaket, founder of Executive Health.
(0:33) Our mission here is to help CEOs, entrepreneurs, and other A-level leaders optimize their billion dollar asset so they can thrive in business, lead in their communities, and be more present with their families. (0:44) And here's the reality, CEOs, entrepreneurs, or any other A-level decision maker, they're going to think in terms of their return on investment, but when it comes to their health, though, the numbers usually don't add up. (1:01) The average leader's schedule is relentless, and for most of them, that's putting it mildly.
(1:07) You have board meetings, you have travel, you have constant decision making on various aspects of the business, and not to mention, you still have this thing called a personal life that you have to manage. (1:19) So the wrong health investment, or worse, neglect, it doesn't just mean personal fatigue. (1:27) It doesn't just mean that you gain a little extra weight and that you have higher levels of body fat, no.
(1:32) It also means that you have lower quality thinking, you have missed opportunities, and in some cases, you have to step down earlier than you expected. (1:43) That's totally a worse case, but it's happened to some. (1:46) So the real cost isn't the dollar that you spend on your health.
(1:51) It's the millions, potentially, that is being left on the table if you don't. (1:57) So I want to get even more practical with this. (2:00) So how much should you invest annually in your health when you are a top performing leader?
(2:08) And to no surprise, spoiler alert, the answer is it depends. (2:14) Now, that's not a sexy answer, and that answer is kind of a cop out. (2:19) So I'm going to give you three things to actually think about, three principles of sorts that will kind of help you think about how to think about how much should you allocate and invest in your personal health and well-being.
(2:34) So the first principle that I would advise you with is think in percentages, not flat cost. (2:42) So most CEOs would not flinch at investing 5% to 10% of their company revenue into innovation or risk management or any other types of measurements that could bring back strong returns. (2:58) Now, you can also apply this same type of mindset personally.
(3:03) You know, after all, if you really think about it in a nutshell, the strongest, the best investment that you can make is yourself. (3:13) Nothing outside of you. (3:15) You are your best investment at the end of the day still.
(3:18) So a reasonable benchmark that you can think about is maybe 1% to 3% of your annual income directed toward optimizing your health, your performance, and your life in general. (3:29) Now, for someone that's earning, let's say, seven figures, that can mean $20,000 to $50,000 per year. (3:38) And that's conservative, if you actually think about it, compared to what's actually at stake if the health isn't optimized.
(3:46) And the second principle that I want you to think about is covering more than the basics. (3:53) Now, the bare minimum, an annual physical, some basic labs, it's not enough. (4:00) You need a health operating system that covers advanced diagnostics, personalized nutrition, circadian alignment, fitness training, and just overall executive performance coaching.
(4:14) And so some of the more surface-level assessment types of things is you're thinking maybe full-body MRIs. (4:22) You're thinking coronary calcium scores. (4:24) You're thinking genetic testings, so you can learn about epigenetic markers.
(4:29) You're thinking sleep and stress optimization. (4:32) You're thinking neurocognitive assessments. (4:34) And there's so much more that you can add here, deuterium testing.
(4:40) And so some of these are, to most people, these are luxuries. (4:46) To some people, these are nice-to-haves. (4:51) But to someone such as yourself, someone where the margins absolutely matter, someone where the 1% to 3% edge that you could potentially have over your competition, this most definitely matters.
(5:07) These are tools that actually can detect problems early on. (5:11) They can extend your runway. (5:13) They can give you the edge over your competition.
(5:16) They can give you the edge of the market to gain extra market share. (5:20) And these also give you the edge in your performance on a day-to-day basis that help you. (5:28) And cumulatively, they offer a strong return on your investment.
(5:33) So the third principle is to look at this as portfolio diversification. (5:40) So just as you are going to diversify your assets to reduce your financial risk, I want you to diversify your health investments. (5:49) So you're allocating.
(5:50) So this is what I mean by this. (5:52) I'm not sure this has been talked about as much. (5:54) So you are allocating funds toward one category, which you could call it prevention.
(6:01) And that's your labs. (6:02) That's your imaging and different specialists. (6:06) There's another category.
(6:07) We can call this optimization. (6:10) So this is like your training. (6:11) You can throw fitness training in here.
(6:13) This is recovery. (6:14) This is biomarker tracking. (6:17) And number three, we have support systems.
(6:21) So how do we make all these things run? (6:24) That's coaching. (6:26) That's nutrition.
(6:27) Stress management. (6:28) These are the support systems that help those other two categories operate as they should. (6:36) And so this types of balance ensures that you're not just, quote, unquote, preventing disease, but you're actively expanding your capacity year after year.
(6:47) And as I've been saying for a while now, capacity is the most necessary attribute that leaders need going forward in the modern business era. (7:00) Now, to some, this may sound like a lot. (7:04) I totally get that.
(7:08) And this especially sounds like a lot to someone who's not used to spending much on themselves. (7:13) But the reality of the situation, if we expand out here, one bad decision that's made while you're exhausted or one health crisis that's caught just a little too late, it's going to cost far more than that $20,000 to $50,000 that we talked about.
Julian Hayes II
(7:36) So let's reframe that and think about it this way. (7:39) What's the value of a deal that slips away because you weren't at your sharpest in that room? (7:47) What's the value of that shareholder value loss when you aren't able to perform?
Julian Hayes II
(7:55) And compared to those stakes, investing a fraction of your income in health isn't expensive. (8:04) It's pretty much a form of insurance. (8:08) It's also the only investment guarantee to compound in every area of your life, whether that's your business, whether that's your legacy.
(8:18) Whether that's your family. (8:20) So let's revisit our big question again. (8:24) How much should CEOs invest annually in their health?
(8:29) Well, enough to make sure that their most valuable asset that you own, which is your body and your mind, never become the bottleneck to your success, to the trajectory of what's possible both inside the boardroom and outside the boardroom. (8:48) And so if you're a CEO, you're an entrepreneur, you're a top-level leader, and you're considering this seriously, do not just focus on cost, focus on the return on investment. (9:01) And that's exactly what we focus on here at Executive Health, building leaders who are optimized today so they can fully lead with confidence tomorrow.
(9:11) And so if you'd like to explore this further, there's a link below to schedule a private Executive Health diagnostic call think of this as your chemistry meeting to see if working together makes sense. (9:23) And until next time in the next video, stay awesome, be limitless, and optimize today so you can lead tomorrow. (9:31) Peace.
