Study: Regular Exercising During Middle Age Years Leads To Big Health Care Savings After Retirement

BOSTON (CBS) -- We have another reason for you to start a workout plan sooner rather than later.

A new study finds that regular exercise before old age could save you a lot of money during retirement. Researchers at Newcastle University in the U.K. looked at data on more than 21,000 older Americans and found that people who started to exercise before or during middle age saved anywhere from $800 to $1800 annually in health care costs after retirement.

The younger they began working out, the greater the savings, suggesting that being active when we're young can pay big dividends later in life. But even people who didn't really get started until after 40 saved a lot of money as they aged.