A financial health check sounds like something that involves a spreadsheet, an appointment and an uncomfortable afternoon. It does not have to. Most of us have never actually checked our finances — we carry a rough feeling instead, usually somewhere between “probably fine” and vaguely guilty, and we make decisions based on that feeling. This article explains what a financial health check actually looks at, why checking before fixing matters more than it sounds, and what the three possible answers mean.

Why Nobody Checks

There are three reasons people skip this step, and none of them are laziness.

The first is that checking feels like it might produce bad news. If you suspect a gap, not looking at it preserves the comfortable version. The trouble is that the gap carries on existing either way, and it is usually cheaper to close early.

The second is that people assume a check requires expertise they do not have. It does not. The questions that matter are mostly factual — do you have a Will, do you know what your pension is invested in, would you cope for three months without income — and you already know the answers.

The third is the most common: nobody has ever shown them what a complete picture looks like. It is very hard to audit yourself against a standard you have never seen. That is what the five areas are for.

What a Financial Health Check Actually Looks At

A financial foundation is made of five areas. We call this the Make It Model, and a proper check covers all five rather than just the one that has been bothering you:

• Make It Safe — protect what matters. Do you have the cover that would keep life’s surprises manageable, and would your household cope if income stopped?
• Make It Grow — grow your money over time. Do you know the difference between what you are saving and what you are investing, and why each pot is where it is?
• Make It Home — renting and buying, unpacked. Does your current arrangement still fit your life, financially, behaviourally and practically?
• Make It Last — plan for your future self. Do you know what you are contributing, where it goes, and roughly what it is on track to produce?
• Make It Count — make your wishes clear. Is there a Will, is there a Power of Attorney, and does anyone know where to find either?

Read those five questions slowly and something usually happens: two or three you can answer immediately, and one or two you cannot. That is the check doing its job. The value is not in the areas you have covered — it is in noticing, precisely rather than vaguely, the ones you have not.

How to Check Your Finances in About Five Minutes

Our free 5-minute Financial Foundations Check walks through all five areas and gives you a downloadable report of where you stand. There is no jargon, no score you cannot interpret, and nothing to buy at the end of it. It is a structured version of the conversation you would have with a sensible friend who happened to know what questions to ask.

It produces one of three outcomes, and they are deliberately plain:

• Wobbly foundations — several areas have not been addressed yet. This is the most common result by some distance.
• On the right track — the basics are largely in place, with one or two gaps worth closing.
• Solid foundations, standing strong — the groundwork is done, and the useful question becomes whether it still fits the life you have now rather than the life you had when you set it up.

Wobbly is not a failure, and it is worth being clear about that because the fear of getting that result is exactly what stops people checking. A wobbly result is simply an accurate description of the most common situation in the country, and it comes with a short specific list attached. A vague sense that you ought to be doing better comes with nothing attached at all.

Why Checking Comes Before Fixing

The three steps are learn, check, then act, and the order is not decorative.

Acting without checking is how people end up over-insured and under-pensioned, or paying down a low-rate debt while carrying no life cover. Each individual decision looked sensible. None of them were made with a view of the whole picture, so the effort went wherever the anxiety was loudest rather than wherever it would do the most good.

Checking first also makes any advice you seek later dramatically more useful. Walking into a first conversation with an adviser already knowing which two of the five areas are thin turns a general chat into a specific one, and specific conversations are shorter, cheaper and better.

Where to Start This Week

Take the free check. It is five minutes, there is nothing to buy, and you will finish with a written picture of where you stand rather than a feeling about it.

Then take the single weakest area from your report and give it twenty minutes. Not all five. One. For most people the weakest area turns out to be Make It Count, because wills and power of attorney feel morbid and distant, or Make It Safe, because insurance feels like money spent on nothing. Those are also the two that people most regret leaving late.

Whatever you decide to do next, you will be deciding it with information instead of with a hunch. That is the whole difference the check makes.

LEARN → CHECK → ACT

LEARN — Explore our free financial education, covering the five basics of a solid financial foundation, and watch a short video on each part of the free Make It Model on our website (mymoneymade.com).

CHECK — Take our free 5-minute Financial Foundations Check and get a downloadable report of where you stand.

ACT — If you would like personalised advice, ask MoneyMade to help you connect for a free initial chat with a regulated, qualified financial adviser, with absolutely no obligation.

www.mymoneymade.com

FOOTER DISCLAIMER — This article is for educational purposes only. MoneyMade does not provide regulated financial advice. Always consult a qualified financial adviser.