Good Money Blog

Bills.com introduced the BillsIQ test to help people measure their financial health. Since I read that people who’d completed this test claimed that it is accurate, I gave it a try. The test consists of 25 questions and is separated into 5 major sections:

• Credit - Monthly bills, credit score, balance ratio, bankruptcy
• Debt - Credit card debt, credit card rates, loan, debt, monthly payments
• Budget - Emergency fund, budget, saving plan, insurance shopping, saving ratio
• Wealth - Housing, retirement, automatic savings plan, life insurance, investment decisions
• Life Plan - Career goals, retirement forecast, education fund, will, financial security

And… my check-up is complete:

Here’s a summary of my Bills IQ results plus some of my tips and comments:

• Paying Bills On Time - Taking advantage of automatic payments and E-mail reminders 
• Understanding Credit Score - Maximizing the credit score by combining credit cards and keeping oldest credit cards
• Debt Free (Excluding Mortgage) - Simply no overspending!
• Adequate Emergency Fund - Keeping 6-9+ months worth of expenses in high yield savings accounts such as E*Trade Bank and HSBC Direct
• Budget Tracking - Using a personal finance software like Microsoft Money (or Quicken)
• Comparison Shopping - Saving easy hundreds to thousands by shopping wisely
• Saving and Investing Plan - Saving and investing during both good and bad times with automatic plans
• Being a Homeowner - Affordable housing is the key (with at least 20% down, if possible)
• Retirement Planning - Maximizing all available retirement plans; Money and many online calculators are helpful tools to help forecast and plan into the future
• Insurance - It’s peace of mind and, more importantly, asset protection: Auto, home, health, life, dental, disability
• Diversified Portfolio - Asset allocation: Large, mid, small, international, emerging market, bonds, (and REITs when the time comes)
• Career Path - Understanding that young professionals should take experience and responsibilities over money