A financial checkup is a short review of how your household handles everyday money and prepares for surprises. It does not require a perfect budget or a large balance. The useful outcome is a clear next action, rather than a grade to compare with someone else.
Before you begin
Gather rough monthly income and expense figures, available savings, and debt-payment amounts. Use your own records; keep account numbers and passwords private. If you share financial responsibilities, agree on which household expenses you are reviewing together. Our printable workbook is an optional place to make notes.
Your 15-minute review
- Minutes 1–3: Cash flow. Compare take-home income with spending. Ask whether bills are current and whether you can explain the difference between income and expenses. Mark any expense you need to verify.
- Minutes 4–6: Emergency savings. Identify cash you can actually access for an unexpected expense. Calculate available savings divided by monthly essential expenses. This gives months of coverage, not a recommendation for how much you personally need.
- Minutes 7–9: Debt. List required payments and note overdue balances. Distinguish staying current from making extra payments. If borrowing is covering ordinary bills, review cash flow before setting an aggressive payoff target.
- Minutes 10–12: Protection. Check whether you know your current coverage and where the documents are. List questions about exclusions, deductibles, or support if income stops. You do not need to buy a policy during this review.
- Minutes 13–15: Future planning. Write one goal, its next action, and a review date. Choose something you can verify, such as recording one month of spending, rather than a vague intention to be better with money.
An example of a useful result
A fictional household estimates $4,200 in monthly take-home income and $4,050 in spending. It has $900 in accessible savings and $3,000 in monthly essentials. The $150 difference is a starting estimate—not all necessarily available for saving. Checking for omitted annual expenses comes first. Its savings cover 0.3 months of essentials: $900 ÷ $3,000. The household chooses to list upcoming annual bills this week and review the estimate next month.
How our educational score works
Our browser-based questionnaire assigns points to selected answers. Category maximums are cash flow 25, emergency savings 20, debt 25, protection 15, and future planning 15. Applicable protection and future-planning answers are scaled within their categories. When there are no scored applicable answers in a category, the current calculation assigns zero there. This limitation can make comparisons misleading.
Grades are A at 90–100, B at 80–89, C at 70–79, D at 60–69, and F below 60. These thresholds are the site's educational rubric; they are not a validated clinical or financial assessment, a credit score, or a prediction of future outcomes. Income predictability and unanswered/not-applicable protection items can affect results. Interpret the categories alongside your circumstances.
Choose one follow-up
If cash flow is unclear, try the irregular-income budget guide. If savings and debt are competing for attention, use the savings-versus-debt framework. If you need provider information, browse financial resources after you have defined the problem.
General education only. Examples are illustrative, not personalized financial, tax, legal, or investment advice.