Managing your personal finances is a game of numbers. But which numbers? Are the numbers you track the right ones?
Some people use the wrong metrics to assess their financial health. Whether it’s tracking cash flow, investment performance or saving for retirement, it’s important to monitor the most relevant, revealing data to draw accurate conclusions.
For example, most workers know their salary or annual income. But far fewer know how much of that pay goes into their savings bucket every month — or how it gets spent. “They tend to focus on the top line and not the bottom line after taxes and expenses, especially their discretionary spending,” said Alex Vela, a certified financial planner in Bethesda, Md.
Vela helps clients understand their debt-to-income ratio and liquidity ratio. As a result, they have a deeper awareness of their debt level and current assets and liabilities.
“We also run through different cash flow scenarios,” he said. Assembling a comprehensive cash flow statement and net worth analysis gives a better set of financial planning tools — and more precise measures they can use to evaluate their financial wellbeing.
For example, before seeking a loan, consumers may check their credit score. (Some credit card companies make it easy on their website for cardholders to get credit score updates.) Diligent folks might also request a copy of their credit report from the three biggest credit reporting companies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) and scan them for errors.
It’s also useful to calculate your debt-to-income ratio. This involves dividing their total monthly debt payments (from home mortgages, auto loans, credit card, student loans, etc.) by your monthly after-tax take-home pay.
“If the result is under 30%, that’s good,” Vela said. “If it’s over 30%, we start asking questions on how they can lower their personal debt.”
Some savers gain false reassurance by the number of bank accounts they maintain and what they perceive as healthy balances in each account. They may figure that the more accounts they have, the better.
“It’s better to look at your cash flow as a whole,” Vela said. He finds that some people miss the forest for the trees. They may tie each savings account to a specific goal (such as retirement, saving for a child’s tuition or a vacation fund) without tracking the total amount of money flowing in and out of their accounts.
“Using that mental accounting, they may not be looking at the overall picture,” he said. “They may be compartmentalizing” rather than tallying where all their cash is going.
Homeowners insurance is also an area where numbers can be deceiving. At renewal time, a policyholder can glance at their insurer’s “dec page” — the summary of coverages including their dwelling and personal property — and conclude that they’re all set.
“But many people are underinsured,” Vela said. He makes a point to review clients’ homeowners coverage, especially with higher inflation affecting the cost of rebuilding a home if it sustains severe damage.
Investors might also apply the wrong measures when evaluating their investment portfolio performance. With investing apps, you can see gains and losses at a glance. But that’s just one piece of the puzzle.
“People get hung up on their short-term investments,” said Curtis Crossland, a certified financial planner in Scottsdale, Ariz. “They may miss tax efficiencies” to lower the capital gains tax or use tax harvesting strategies to their advantage.
Similarly, investors might judge the performance of each mutual fund or exchange-traded fund in their portfolio by checking if it produced market-beating returns. Many fund companies make this easy: They provide a two-column graph that pits its fund’s fee-adjusted average annual return against an industry-wide benchmark.
Yet many advisers caution clients not to place undue emphasis on such comparisons. A fund can beat the market for six months or a year but still underperform over time. A better measure for long-term investors is to focus on five-year performance or even longer, depending on their time horizon.
More: How much do you believe in this market? Your gut feeling matters more than the stocks and bonds you like.
Also read: ‘I like Warren Buffett’s approach — keep investing and just believe in America’: I’m about to retire. How do I invest a $400K windfall?
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