You started off as a rookie 24 year old in your first job. You promised yourself you will save once your salary increases. Some of you did it, some of you did not. You had an educational loan. You added on a car loan. You obviously went and bought a house. You have some investments.

You now have no clue whether you are financially stable or not…so here is a crude checklist…try it:

  1. You can handle a financial emergency: suddenly you have a Rs. 30k emergency, and you handled it well. Good show.
  2.  You pay your credit card bill on or before the due date IN FULL.
  3. You are saving / investing a regular amount every month.
  4. You have a very nice debt:income ratio. Say all your debt put together is about 3 years ctc.
  5. Your friends turn to you / your spouse for financial advice
  6. You have no financial fights with your spouse, parents, or children.
  7. You and your partner know everything about your finances – nothing is hidden deliberately
  8. You and your spouse have a lot of your financial details written down well
  9. You can take off on a holiday with your family without worrying about your financial goals or budgets
  10. You CAN splurge on a thing you love…BUT YOU CHOOSE not too.
  11. You have no addictions
  12. You take good care of your health and wealth!!
  13. You monitor your NET WORTH..and it keeps going up every year
  14. You made much larger down payments for every asset that you bought
  15. You drive a sensible car and do not believe the car industry myth of ‘one car only 5 years’ kinda shitty myth.
  16. A job loss will worry you, but it is not the end of the world.
  17. Your parents / and children are also financially stable
  18. You have good, solid, sensible life and medical insurance
  19. You and your spouse have held steady jobs for long and HAVE BEEN PROMOTED in that organization

Scored a yes in 15 of the above? Great show…way to go…

 

  1. Points 11 & 12, not strictly financial in nature, need heavier weightage. There are some things which will hurt you unimaginably even if you acquire immense wealth.

  2. Subra sir, scoring 19 points – hugely reassuring. Started 11 years ago at the age of 26, currently networth stands at 4 Crore. 60% of the portfolio was from return via investing. Living in rental home; not purchased a flat/house. Followed what you have been writing – keep investing with longer horizon.

    Sir, I have a request – and feel sorry to ask this via this forum too. I feel for long that I should involve a good financial planner – unfortunately I couldn’t find one yet. Due to 25% allocation to debt, there is close to 1 Crore in FD/Debt/Liquid mutual funds; which I am not quite sure how best to deploy. Take it as a request and see if you could pass my info to a financial planner who might help me.

  3. Wow Subra….take a bow! Very well said…

    My self evaluation gives me more than 15, so feeling incredible – just because the checklist came from you!

    Regards,
    Prasanna Rao

  4. Subra Sir,

    Score: 16/19 :). Feels good.

    I have been reading your Blog for last 5 years. This is first website I open when I start work. That has helped in reaching here.

    Please keep writing.

    Thanks and Regards
    Shobha

  5. 9/19 — Long way to go…
    Following your blog since last 9 months… Thanks Subra Sir for your enriching financial knowledge.. 🙂

    Thanks,
    Nikhil

  6. 14/19…dont have a car…I use my two wheeler or public transport…
    Hope i will score more in the near future
    Started reading your articles just from a week…seems like there are so many articles to read…great work sir!

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