Before you suggest that friends or family members start to exercise or improve their diets, you might first want to ask a question: Are they saving for retirement?

What do retirement savings have to do with physical health? A new study from the journal Psychological Science finds that people who are good at planning their financial future are more likely to take steps to improve their physical health — and then actually become healthier.

The research, scholars say, offers a keen insight into the sorts of people who are likely to make short-term sacrifices in the name of a brighter future.

“It suggests that there is something very abstract and fundamental about caring for the future,” said Gretchen Chapman, an editor for the journal and a psychology professor at Rutgers University. “The sort of person who invests in retirement is the sort of person who takes care of their health.”