3 Ways to Check Your Financial Health by yourself

Financial health is like an annual physical health check, which if we want to know whether our financial health is good or not, can be easily done by doing three methods of self – check. Let’s get to know these 3 ways together.

1.How much wealth do we have?

The assessment of net wealth can tell how well we have a financial basis compared to the “net wealth that should be” which we can calculate as follows.

Current Assets = Assets – Liabilities

What are the assets?

Liquid assets, such as cash and savings accounts, or money that is the easiest to be used to circulate in our daily lives.
Investment assets like fixed deposits, savings lottery, stock values or what we spend on investments.
Personal assets such as houses, cars, valuables or valuable assets that can be resold.

What are the liabilities?

Short-term liabilities up to one year, such as credit card debt, installment debt, and other cash cards debt.
Long-term liabilities that are more than one year old, such as home loans, auto installment loans.

Example

Miss A has total assets of 15,000,000 baht and total liabilities of 1,000,000 baht.

So current net wealth = 15,000,000 – 1,000,000 = 14,000,000 baht.

After knowing “current net wealth”, compare it with “net wealth that should be” calculated according to this formula.

Preferred Property = Age x Annual Income x 10%

For example, 40-year-old Miss A has a salary of 70,000 baht (x 12 months is 840,000 baht per year).

So Miss A should have = 40 x 840,000 x 10/100 = 3,360,000 baht.

Comparing “current net wealth” = 14,000,000 baht with “net wealth that should be” = 3,360,000 baht means that Miss A has more “current net wealth” than “net wealth that should be.” Therefore, Miss A is considered to have good overall financial health.

2.Is there too much debt per month?

Another reminder of whether our financial health is good or not is debt. Debt is not always bad if it’s at the right level, but if it’s too much, it can be difficult to live. Debt can be calculated according to this formula.

Monthly liabilities=Monthly income x ⅓

In other words, no debt more than 1/3 of monthly income is allowed. For example, Miss A, whose monthly income is 70,000 baht per month, has a limited debt of approximately 23,333 baht. If there is more, it will be necessary to find ways to increase income or reduce expenses.

3.Is there enough emergency savings?

Emergency savings are the first money that everyone should have and can be used immediately if an unexpected event occurs, whether in an accident, illness or a sudden job loss. The amount of emergency savings that should be available can be easily calculated as follows:

Emergency Savings = Monthly Fixed Expenditure x6

For example, if Ms. A has 35,000 baht per month, she should have 210,000 baht in emergency savings for the time when unexpected events such as job loss and accident occur, Miss A can live for six months.

These are all simple financial health assessments that can be done on your own, and financial health is like physical health, which we should check and examine to catch up on the problems and find solutions before they’re bad, debt accumulation, and cannot fix anything in time.