Financial Fellowship · Financial Health Assessment
Score your own household while you listen. Seven areas, 100 points.
Full earns all the points for that line. Some earns part of them. None earns zero.
Every dollar gets a job: Safety Net, Wealth Engine, Accelerator.
Filling the buckets · 6 points. A 12-item checklist: positives minus negatives. Full Net five or more. Some · 3 pts Net three or four. None Two or less. A blank checklist scores zero.
Emergency fund · 4 points. The Safety Net, counted in months of expenses. Full Six months of expenses or more. Some · 2 pts Three to five months, or a fund with months unknown. None Two months or less, or no fund at all.
Every dollar in a named lane · 4 points. Full Every dollar you hold sorts into one of the three buckets. Some · 2 pts Most of it sorts. None They do not sort.
Goals funded · 6 points. Full Money flows to 100% of your written goals. Some · 3 pts Money flows to some of them, under 100%. None No money flows to your goals.
What your loans claim, and how hard your income is working.
The Debt Anchor · 10 points. Debt-to-income: what you owe vs what you earn, by stage. Full New attending 3.0x income or under; established 2.0x or under. Some · 5 pts New attending up to 4.5x; established up to 3.0x. None New attending above 4.5x; established above 3.0x.
Stretch saving · 4 points. Full Saving 25% or more, or 12% with $1M or more compounding. Some · 2 pts Saving 12% or more, or 6% with $1M or more compounding. None Under those lines.
Are you covered if something goes wrong?
Health insurance · 4 points. Full Every household member on a comprehensive plan. Some · 2 pts Someone uninsured, or coverage had a short lapse. None No coverage.
Disability · 4 points. Full Individual own-occupation coverage (covers YOUR specialty) on every earner. Some Group or employer coverage only. None No disability coverage.
Life insurance · 4 points. Full Individual term in force, any size; or written sizing saying no cover needed. Some Group-only or permanent-only cover. None No cover in force, no written sizing.
Umbrella · 4 points. A policy by itself is not full marks. Full Coverage at least equal to your rough total assets. Some A policy that falls short of your assets. None No policy.
Malpractice tail · 2 points. Full Occurrence coverage, or claims-made with the tail arranged. Some · 1 pt Claims-made with the tail left open. None Clinical work with no policy.
Estate documents · 4 points. Full Will, power of attorney, health care directive, named guardian if there are minors. Some · 2 pts Two or three of them. None One document, or none.
Each stage answers its own pair of questions.
Residents Student-loan strategy · 6 points. Full A federal plan with a payment that fits. Some · 3 pts A federal plan, but the payment is stressful. None Private loans, collections, default, or spiraling.
Credit cards and other debt · 4 points. Full Cards paid in full monthly. Some · 2 pts Carrying a balance but managing. None Drowning, or in collections.
New attendings The loan call · 6 points. Full Decided at end of training and executed: refinance, federal forgiveness plan, or employer payoff. Some No partial tier. None No decision made, or the loans drifted into the default.
Contract clarity · 4 points. Full Reviewed by a professional, or the pay structure fully understood. Some No partial tier. None Signed blind.
Established attendings Education debt finished · 6 points. Full Loans paid off, or a deliberate forgiveness plan is being executed. Some No partial tier. None Loans still lingering, with no plan being executed.
No lingering consumer debt · 4 points. Full No credit card, personal, or vehicle debt outside the mortgage. Some No partial tier. None Any of that debt remains.
Are your tax choices deliberate, or on autopilot?
Roth against pre-tax, chosen on purpose · 4 points. Roth is taxed now; pre-tax is taxed later. Full The choice carries a reason tied to your tax bracket. Some Picked one and stuck with it, without much thought. None Never thought about it.
Bracket plus deliberate moves · 4 points. Full Know your federal marginal bracket and run 2 or more moves: HSA maxed, conversions, harvesting, bunching. Some The bracket alone, or one deliberate move. None Bracket unknown, and no deliberate moves.
Goals on paper, so money choices can be tested against them.
Goals written down · 4 points. The goals themselves are never judged, only counted. Full Four or more written goals. Some · 2 pts One to three written goals. None No written goals.
Whether wealth is paid before lifestyle gets its turn.
The Savings Floor · 12 points. Full Saving 20%+ of gross income. Some · 6 pts Saving 10% or more, or saving regularly on feel alone (no numbers); feel never earns full. None Under 10%, or not sure whether you save.
The leak · 6 points. Full Zero dollars unaccounted for monthly. Some Mystery money under 3% of monthly income. None Not tracking at all.
Wealth paid first, automated · 4 points. Full Wealth building is paid first, automatically. Some · 2 pts A planned split that is not automated. None Lifestyle gets paid first.
Scoring as a resident. Same 100 points, same bands. These numbers change:
3-Bucket Framework: 26 points, not 20. Filling the buckets: 10 (full at net three or more, partial 5 at one or two, zero at zero or less). Emergency fund: 6 (partial 3).
Physician Wealth Equation: 6 points, not 14. Debt-to-income is not scored; stretch saving takes all 6 (partial 3).
Transition Blueprint: still 10. Residents use the resident pair above: student-loan strategy (6) and credit cards (4).
Decision Filter: 6 points, not 4 (goals partial: 3).
Protection Stack (22), Tax Efficiency Ladder (8), and Lifestyle Guardrails (22) count the same.
Protection plus Guardrails is 44 of 100: defense carries the rubric. Income Machine and Wealth Window are lenses, scored nowhere.