Optimists live longer. They also invest better

I have written before about a counterintuitive truth in investing: pessimists sound smart, and optimists make money. As it turns out, optimists may also simply live longer – long enough to collect those returns. A recent social media post drew my attention to a body of research worth careful examination because it connects two things I care about deeply: good health and sound investing. The research by Lee and colleagues tracked participants over a long period and found that those in the most optimistic quartile lived 11 to 15 per cent longer and had 1.5 to 1.7 times the odds of reaching age 85 compared to the least optimistic group. Crucially, these findings held even after the researchers controlled for smoking, diet, exercise, alcohol consumption, depression, BMI and socioeconomic status. In other words, the longevity advantage of optimists was not simply explained by the fact that they don’t smoke and go for morning walks. Suggested read: