April 15 was Tax Day in the USA. While the financial deadline makes some people cringe, it can be the perfect time to consider the gains, losses, and recalibrations to make on your health and wellness journey. To help, GW alumna Kelley Vargo founded her wellness brand and coaching platform in 2025: The Health Investor. It is built on a simple, powerful idea: Your health is your greatest asset.
“At its core, The Health Investor helps adults create sustainable health habits by applying principles from finance — like compound interest, consistency, and long-term investment — to their everyday behaviors,” Kelley says.
To mark the financially focused month, Kelley provided more insight on The Health Investor. Here is what you should know about investing in your nutrition and wellness.
How did the idea of The Health Investor come about?
I am an American Council on Exercise Certified Health Coach and Behavior Change Specialist, with graduate degrees in Exercise Science, Public Health Communication and Marketing, and Business Administration. I also serve as faculty at GWSPH, teaching courses in behavior change, communication, and marketing.
While I value the academic setting, I recognized a gap: Many people don’t have access to this knowledge—or struggle to apply it consistently in real life. That realization led to the creation of The Health Investor.
By combining my expertise in health science, behavior change, and business strategy, I help clients build what I call a “health investment portfolio” — small, intentional daily actions that compound over time into meaningful, lasting results.
Because while many people understand the importance of investing financially for their future, they often overlook doing the same for their health.
How can people get started “investing”?
There’s no better time than now to start investing in your health. When I work with clients, we begin by looking at the six pillars of their health — Mission, Mindset, Meals, Movement, Mindfulness, and Maintenance — and identifying one small, meaningful action they can take.
The key is to start simple. Trying to improve everything at once can feel overwhelming, so we typically focus on just one or two pillars. Meals, for example, can be a great place to start. Improving nutrition can be as simple as adding more whole foods, fruits, and vegetables. This is where food safety also plays a role in health investing. Simple, important steps such as washing those fruits and vegetables and ensuring meats are cooked to the right temperature count as steps toward wellness. Focusing on meals can also address meal prep — another intersection of food safety, nutrition, and wellness — as nutritious meals are prepared, kept refrigerated, and eaten timely.
What is the interest accrual?
The idea of interest accrual aligns with the idea of compound interest. That the more we consistently add to a specific pillar, the more it will grow and have benefits — like a solid, diversified portfolio. So, again, looking at the Meals pillar: If we consistently fill our plates with nutritious foods, prepared safely, stored properly, etc., we are compounding benefits for our overall wellness.
What about withdrawals?
Life happens and I see withdrawals as setbacks or relapses, which is totally normal. But the stronger that we have are health investment portfolio the less we will be dramatically impacted by those withdrawals. Take that Meals pillar: Consistent investment in making that the strongest pillar means that if you are on vacation or life gets super busy, and you wind up eating less nutritious foods for a day or two, you probably are not going to face as big of a setback at the scale or in the gym as you would if you had not invested heavily in strengthening that pillar. Getting sick is another example: If we’ve got a good health investment savings account, our body is likely to have the resources to help us recover quicker.
— By Kelley Vargo & Mariah Walters Orose