As you get older, it's good to know the important data metrics about your health. What are your cholesterol levels like? What's your blood pressure? Is your BMI (body mass index) too high?
It's even more crucial to keep track of your health during this health crisis to ensure we don’t have any of the ever expanding list of Covid-19 symptoms.
Finance is no different, so call me Dr Zach today, because I'm going to show you how to give yourself a financial physical. I can't promise it will be painless, but it will help you assess the real state of your finances and offer solutions. Here are the five money metrics you must keep track of:
Your net worth
Your net worth is the most important number you must track. It lets you know if you are doing the right things to achieve your long-term financial goals, and it's pretty simple to calculate. Simply add up the worth of all your assets and then minus your liabilities.
Your emergency fund
This is cash you have set aside in case for an unexpected life event such as job loss, a health problem or your car breaking down. Many experts recommend holding three to six months of your expenses in the fund, depending on how quickly you can get a job and what amount of cash makes you sleep better at night. If you can, deposit it in a high-yield savings account to keep the money safe and earn some interest at the same time. In financially uncertain times like now, it may be better to have a larger emergency fund just in case. Personally, I’m more comfortable having one to three year's of cash stored up. If things get better, I can always invest the difference.
Your savings rate
This is a little harder to figure out. Your savings rate is the amount of money you save as a percentage of your income. Let's say you earn Dh20,000 a month, and you manage to save Dh5,000 of that, then your savings rate is 25 per cent. The higher your savings rate, the quicker you will fill your emergency fund, save for retirement and become financially independent.
The amount of time you spend "at work"
This includes the hours you are actually at work, but it's more than that as well. How long do you spend getting to and from work every day? How long do you need to de-stress from work? How much time at home do you spend thinking about your job? Are you happy with this number? If you're not, how can you fix it? You could live closer to work, find a different job once this crisis is over or meditate. If you want to figure out how much you make, per hour, you need to take this into consideration, or else you're not getting an accurate picture of your hourly wage.
The physical effects of your job
While this isn't a number you can measure, per se, it can help you assess if there is an issue. Are you sedentary, sitting in an office chair all day? Are you working on a construction site and carrying heavy loads all day? Are you constantly stressed out, with elevated cortisol levels that could lead to heart attacks, strokes, and insomnia? Are you letting your job shorten your life? Ask yourself these questions and if you don't like the answers, change something.
Just like someone's physical health can't be summed up in just one statistic, your financial health is a puzzle comprising many pieces. I have listed the key pieces that will help you make better financial decisions. For example, if your savings rate is really low, you can look at ways to cut back on spending or increase your income. If you're spending too much time at work, you need to figure out ways to bring balance there. If you have gradually gained a lot of weight because of a job where you sit for up to 10 hours a day, you need to ask yourself whether your job is worth the effects on your health.
I can't tell you what the right number is for any of these categories. You need to think that through on your own. Everyone has different goals, but until you know all the information, and deal with it in an honest manner, you can't make informed decisions to guide your life to where you want it to be. So, assess your financial health today.
Dubai schoolteacher Zach Holz (@HappiestTeach) documents his journey towards financial independence on his personal finance blog The Happiest Teacher
