Day 9 – Financial Health Check (30 Day Financial Wellness Challenge)

Welcome to Day 9 of the 30-Day Financial Wellness Challenge.

Each day will comprise of financial exercises, some short and others a bit longer, to help you become financially fit. The goal is to tackle different aspects of personal finances one day at a time.

After the 30 days, you’ll have a stronger understanding of your financial health and an action plan to improve your financial wellbeing. Review Day 8: Your Credit Scores

On Day 9, we’re going to review your financial health check results. But before we dive into the numbers, I want to congratulate you on getting this far.

What tends to stop us in improving our financial health is the lack of understanding where we actually stand. You need to know where you are today. It gives you the starting point for your journey ahead.

Now, you’ve done a good amount of work in Phase 1. It may have seemed like a lot of calculations but having these financial vitals will help you create better financial goals.

To recap, you calculated the following:

• net worth – shows your path to building financial wealth (Day 1)
• income number – highlights the actual money that flows into your life (Day 2)
• expenses – uncovers the priorities for your money (Day 3)
• cash flow – answers the question, “are you living within your means?” (Day 4)
• saving rate – sets a financial target for retirement (Day 5)
• cash ratio – gives clarity in your ability to cover expenses during income disruption (Day 6)
• debt-to-income – sheds a light about your relationship to debt (Day 7)
• credit score – provides an overview of your creditworthiness (Day 8)

All these financial vitals, are unique to you. They aren’t right or wrong but they do allow us the opportunity to have a more candid discussion about your finances.

Day 9 Assignment

Let’s get all your financial vitals on one sheet. Take a deep breath. Settle in.

1. You’ll need the numbers from Day 1 – Day 8.
2. Input those numbers in the following cells.
3. Take a moment to think about your numbers. Write them down in the comment column.

Financial Health Check

After entering your vitals, I want you to really think about the numbers you’re seeing. Answer the following:

• What are your thoughts about these numbers?
• What feelings do they bring forward?

I want you to capture your initial thoughts. This is helpful in uncovering an underlying money mindset and belief system that’s impacting your financial wellbeing.

Take the time to think deeply about the numbers. Doing so will help you move forward in the challenge with clarity.

And that’s it for today. Simple, right? If you’ve done all the work in the proceeding days, then you’re progressing well in the challenge.

Why is a financial health check important?

Your financial health check allows you to see your starting point. It’s important to know where you are today. You’ll get a better sense of the path you need to take. So, you’ll get to where you want to be.

What’s coming ahead?

Congrats again on completing Phase 1: Financial Health Check. In the coming days, we’ll compare your vitals to some benchmarks, do a deep evaluation, and discuss your financial wellness goals.

Phase 2: Financial Evaluation – we’ll get into more details and start asking the whys. We’ll cover the following:

• Your mindset, beliefs, habits, and behaviors
• Past financial accomplishments and why the future is bright
• Current financial relationships and finding the right partners

Additional Reading:

• 5 Money Beliefs to Improve Your Relationship with Money

Resources:

Personal Capital is a free personal finance app with a 360-degree view of your money. With Personal Capital, you can see all your accounts in one place with planning and analysis tools.

Next Daily Challenge: Day 10 – Your Earnings Statement: How much have you’ve earned?