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Assessing Your Financial Well Being
By JLP | April 16, 2007
Good morning! I hope everyone had a nice weekend. I spent a lot of time outside trying to get my yard back in order. I also spent a ton of time putting together this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance. The carnival’s popularity makes it a bear to assemble becuase there’s a LOT more submissions.
While putting together this week’s carnival, I came across a relatively new blog, Money and Such, Shadox, the blog’s author put together a pretty good post titled 17 Critical Questions for Assessing Your Financial Well Being. Of course these aren’t all the questions you should ask yourself, but it’s a good start. Anyway, it’s worth a read and it will introduce you to a new blog.
Topics: Blogging | 2 Comments »
April 16th, 2007 at 11:07 am
Thank you for the warm recommendation! It is appreciated.
I am a regular reader of AllFinancialMatters. In fact, your blog is one of the things that inspired me to get on my own little soap box.
Much obliged.
April 16th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
1. What are my goals in life and am I on the right track to achieving them?
- Objective is to be healthy, happy and wealthy. And also leave something behind that makes the world a better place.
2. Am I maximizing my earnings potential?
- No. There are plenty of oppty’s for me to make more money, but I’ve decided those would violate the healthy/happy objective. I do well enough.
3. Am I saving enough money for my old age?
- Yes, I think so, but difficult to plan for so many variables. I know I won’t starve, but not sure how much I’ll be able to live it up either.
4. If I die tomorrow, will my family have enough to take care of their needs?
- Yes, I’ve made sure of that via insurance.
5. If I am disabled tomorrow, will I have enough to support both my dependants and myself?
- Yes, thru savings and insurance.
6. Is my family financially and physically prepared to handle a natural or man-made disaster?
- Yes, I live in NYC. Unexpected disaster is a way of life here.
7. If I lose my job tomorrow, do I have enough liquid assets to support my family for several months?
- Yes, definately.
8. Do I have enough medical insurance coverage to handle a catastrophic health problem for a member of my family?
- Yes.
9. Is my investment portfolio sufficiently diversified?
- Yes, reviewed annually with fin’l advisor.
10. Is the asset allocation of my investment portfolio proper for my risk tolerance?
- Yes, reviewed annually with fin’l advisor.
11. Am I getting a sufficiently high return on my investments, compared to the level of risk I am accepting?
- Yes.
12. Am I spending too much of my income?
- No, I don’t think so. I saved over 50% of my income last year, I feel good about having a little fun this year.
13. Is there a way for me to reduce my spending?
- Well yes, but where’s the fun in that.
14. Can I handle my current level of debt?
- Yes.
15. Do I need to be carrying any debt?
- How do you define “need”. I think carrying some debt (i.e. mortgage) gives me greater financial flexibility.
16. Is there a way for me to reduce the level of interest I am paying on my debt?
- Only by paying it off.
17. How do I rate my financial well being and the way I manage my finances?
- On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best, I give myself a 9.