Grade your finances!

Jan15

Posted at 6:37 PM • 5 Comments

money OMG! I found a new money calculator on CNN money and I am in love. It allows you to type in your financial status in all areas of your life, and it gives you a grade at the end. It goes above the usual debt and mortgage/rent payment calculations. It mentions employee stock and life insurance, too!

You know I’m a sucker for a good graphic/gadget! I like pretty things. Forgive. LOL

Let me know your grade below. I’m at a B-. Mr. Calculator wasn’t happy with the retirement savings. I agree. However, I got a good score for my living expenses and debt ratio. Yay! Frugalizing is a process.

What’s your grade?

5 Responses

I got a B+ (my retirement savings is also underwhelming) This score doesn’t consider that I am recently unemployed, or else I would’ve got an F-! Hopefully that will change soon.

✭ Coco on January 16, 2010 at 2:09 am.
You will get a great job! Nuff said!

✭ Frugalista on January 16, 2010 at 2:11 am.
This is actually an absolutely positively awful website to figure out about your money if you’re not single.

It’s just downright bizarre, to be honest with you. They ask your age and gross income, but not if you’re married. Let’s say, for the sake of discussion, you enter your info like a single unit (one income–and one age–the average age of you and your spouse). Even still, the survey doesn’t take in enough information to give you even a cursory grade for your financial health.

It doesn’t ask if you have health insurance or not. I’m not saying you’ve got to have it or not, but if you plan to self-insure, you need to have a lot more financial stuff going on than if you’re not. Then, it asks that totally bizarre question about life insurance. If you are single and no one depends on you for income, you need no life insurance. The point of life insurance is to protect your survivors against the loss of your income (or for at-home mothers, what it would cost to do the things they do for no income). Why even ask the question if you don’t have enough information to evaluate the answer. A person with $0 life insurance is fine if they’re single. A person with $0 with four kids is woefully uninsured.

Strangely, it didn’t ask about disability insurance, which seems more important than life insurance. To me it seemed woefully inadequate for giving you a true financial health grade.

✭ Rasheeda on January 18, 2010 at 11:05 pm.
@Rasheeda: I didn’t think of it from the married angle. Most of the calculators are just a snapshot. I’m sorry you didn’t have a better experience.

✭ Frugalista on January 20, 2010 at 6:45 pm.

Grade your finances!

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