Let’s just do a little math. 

To keep it simple, let’s compare Johnny, a habitual exerciser as a kid, to Steve, a video-game junkie who rarely left the couch. Let’s say they both finished school and entered the workforce at age 30. Johnny got a nice job starting at $70,000, while Steve got a job paying 20% less than Johnny, or $56,000. 

If we apply these study statistics, using a 20% difference in annual earnings, by the time they’re 40 years old, Johnny will have earned $140,000 dollars more than Steve. If we take it a little further and assume they each get a cost-of-living pay raise of 3% each year and they each invest 20% of their income at 5% annual return, by the end of the 10 year period, Johnny has over $200,000 more than Steve.  

That’s a lot of dough, and all because he exercised more as kid.