Financial Wellness Quiz: How to Take Control of your Money

As a money coach, one of my goals is to show you how to take control of your money.

Today, I am going to walk you through my financial control quiz to help you see if you really have control over your money.

Here’s how it works:

For each question, that you say “yes” to, I want you to give yourself a point. Then add up your score to see if you have financial control…or how to take control of your money!

1) Can you easily and quickly access your accounts and your money?

This is very simply and practically about the literal location of your money and how to access it. Do you know where all of your money is? And do you know your username and password to access it?

If you have money invested somewhere with fidelity, or my old work’s 401K but you’ve forgotten your password, it’s time to clean this up. You can’t control your money if you can’t access it.

So make sure that you know where it all is. Make a list of the different institutions that you use and make sure you have safely stored your username and passwords to all of your accounts.

If you share money with a partner and you don’t know how to access all of it, correct this. Hopefully everything is above board in your relationship, but the best way to guarantee that is to have transparency.

2) Is your financial life organized?

If you’re frequently caught off guard by unexpected payments or if you are missing payments, it is time to get organized.

Start a list of all of your bills, the estimated amounts and the days you pay them. As the month goes on, update the list with anything your forgot. If you do this for a couple of months, you’ll find that these “unexpected bills” start to happen much less frequently, because when you are paying attention to these things, you realize that most of them are actually quite predictable.

3) Do you spend time reviewing your money on a regular basis?

Even if you do organize your finances, if you don’t stay on top of it, it will quickly become chaotic and messy again.

You need to develop a regular rhythm of reviewing past transactions and predicting upcoming expenses, what we call a weekly money ritual.

We have a great article about how to set up a weekly money ritual — go read it after you finish this one! It’ll change your life!

4) Are you spending less money than you make?

If you don’t do this naturally, then you need to learn how to live within your means. The best tool for that is budgeting. We recommend trying the 50/30/20 method — it’s an uncomplicated way to keep your spending under control.

5) Are you spending money the way that YOU want to be spending it?

Did you know that on average, Americans are being hit with 4,000-10,000 ads every day? Companies pour thousands and thousands of dollars into researching the most effective methods to get you to spend money.

So, ask yourself -- are you spending the money the way that YOU want to…or are you spending money the way that the advertisers want you to?

Here’s a simple test to know: do you walk into a store knowing what you are going to buy in advance? Do you walk out with just the items on your list? Or with 10 other things you didn’t realize you needed until you saw that they were on sale?

The key to avoid wasting money on things that don’t add joy or value to your life is to define your core values and spend in alignment with those values. When you are in control of your money, you are spending it the way that you want to.

6) Do you have a specific and appropriate financial goal?

Knowing what you are trying to achieve financially is how to take control of your money. If you don’t know why you are doing something, it is very difficult to actually change your behavior.

My two qualifications for a financial goal are that it be appropriate and specific. Let’s dig in.

Learn more about setting financial goals.

An appropriate goal means that it is the right goal for your current situation. Pursuing this goal will make your financial situation better.

Start by following our financial roadmap. Here’s a quick overview: spend less than you make, pay off high interest rate debt, save up an emergency fund, and invest.

So, if you have $40,000 of credit card debt, buying a house is not the next appropriate goal. The first goal is to get out of debt.

A specific goal lets you know clearly if you are succeeding or not in achieving your goal. Instead of setting a goal to “buy a house one day,” set a goal to “save up a $250,000 down payment by December 2024.” This allows you to set monthly targets that help you know if you are on track to meet them.

7) Are you making the investments you want to make?

If you’re sitting on savings in cash, have some investments that your uncle set up but you don’t understand, or if you haven’t controlled your money to have enough saved to begin investing yet, give yourself 0 for this question.

Actually pulling the trigger and getting invested often trips people up. I talk to a lot of women who have money to invest, but feel like they lack the confidence to actually make the investment.

Getting control over your money means that you are actually using it the way that you want to be, including investing your savings so that they are growing for future you.

Here’s how you can start investing!

Alright, add up your score out of 7 and if you want to take better control of your money, scroll back up to the questions you had to say “no” to and follow the resources we’ve linked.

All the best!

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