The 15-Minute HENRY Financial Checkup

The 15-Minute HENRY Financial Checkup

Five questions. Three numbers. One score. Find out where you actually stand.

Most HENRYs have a rough sense they're doing okay. The 401(k) is getting funded. There's a brokerage account somewhere with some ETFs. The mortgage is manageable. Nothing's on fire.

But "not on fire" isn't the standard. The standard is: given your income, are you on track to build real wealth?

Here's a 15-minute diagnostic. You need your last pay stub, one credit card or bank statement, and your most recent 401(k)/IRA balances.

Question 1: What's your savings rate?

Add up everything you saved last year: 401(k) contributions (yours + employer match), IRA contributions, HSA, brokerage deposits, cash savings. Divide by your gross income.

• Above 25%: Excellent. You're outpacing most HENRYs.
• 15-25%: Solid, but verify it's enough (Question 3).
• Below 15%: This needs attention. At HENRY income, 15% is the floor.
• Below 10%: Something is off. Your lifestyle is consuming your income.

Question 2: What percentage of your income goes to housing, childcare, and transportation?

Add mortgage/rent, property tax, insurance, utilities, childcare, car payments, gas, and parking. Divide by gross income.

• Below 35%: You have breathing room.
• 35-50%: Tight, but manageable if you're saving adequately.
• Above 50%: Structurally tight. Your fixed costs are competing with your future. This is common in HCOL cities — but it means everything else (savings, travel, discretionary) is fighting for the remaining half.

Question 3: Are you on track for retirement?

Take your current retirement portfolio. Multiply your annual contributions by the number of years until your target retirement date. Add both. Now divide the result by your target annual retirement spending times 25 (the 4% rule proxy).

Or, more simply: at 35, you should have roughly 1-2x your income saved. At 40, 2-3x. At 45, 3-4x. At 50, 5-6x.

• Above benchmark: On track.
• At benchmark: On pace — keep going.
• Below benchmark: You're behind. But you can catch up — the series shows you how.

Question 4: Do you have a real emergency fund?

Not $1,000. Not "a few months of expenses if we cut back." Three to six months of your actual current spending, in cash or cash equivalents, earning interest.

• Yes, 6+ months: Well prepared.
• Yes, 3-6 months: Adequate for most scenarios.
• Less than 3 months: You're one layoff from selling investments at a bad time.

Question 5: Are you doing the Backdoor Roth?

If you earn over $161K (single), you can't contribute to a Roth IRA directly. Are you executing the Backdoor Roth every year?

• Yes: You're capturing $7,000-$8,000/year of tax-free growth space.
• No, but I don't have a pre-tax IRA balance: The door is open. You should be doing this.
• No, I have a pre-tax IRA balance and I'm not sure what to do: This is fixable. The series walks through the reverse rollover.
• I didn't know this was a thing: This series was built for you.

Your score

Give yourself a point for each answer in the top tier, a half point for the middle tier, zero for the bottom.

• 4-5 points: You're doing better than 90% of HENRYs. The remaining gap is optimization — the advanced stack (HSA, Mega Backdoor, asset location).
• 2-3.5 points: You've got the basics but there are leaks. Probably in tax optimization and emergency fund structure.
• Below 2 points: You're earning a lot and keeping too little of it. The good news: at your income, the fixes are high-leverage. Small changes produce large results.

Whatever your score, the full system is here.

The HENRY Plan is a 12-step financial system that walks through every piece of this checkup — and every fix — in detail. Budgeting without clipping coupons. Tax optimization without a CPA on retainer. Investing without stock-picking.

Subscribe to The HENRY Plan and start with Step Zero: The Budget That Doesn't Feel Like a Budget.

Disclaimer: This is educational content, not financial advice. Your situation is yours. Consult a qualified professional before making major financial decisions.