Stage check: which stage of your path to financial freedom are you on?
The path to financial freedom has eight stages — from setting out (stage 0) to freedom (stage 7). Answer nine questions honestly with yes or no — at the end you know where you stand and which single condition separates you from the next stage.
0 of 9 questions answered
Do you have an account where your money sits – a current account, savings account or brokerage account?
Do you know your net worth and your monthly expenses roughly – to within about ten percent?
Over the last three months, was your income in total at least as high as your spending?
Has your savings rate been ten percent or more for at least three months?
Do you have an emergency fund of at least three months of expenses, instantly available – in a current account, a savings account or as cash?
Are you free of consumer debt – overdraft, instalment loan or a credit card balance beyond the month’s spending?
Is your invested wealth at least as large as twelve months of expenses?
Does your invested wealth cover your pension gap – at least 25 times the annual gap between your current monthly expenses and your statutory pension from your pension statement, with a flat 20% deduction for tax, health and long-term care insurance?
Is your invested wealth at least 25 times your annual expenses?
Your answers stay in your browser. Nothing is stored – neither the answers nor your stage.
Your inputs stay in your browser. Nothing is stored or transmitted.
How to go about it
- Answer honestly. Answer the nine questions as things are today — not as they should be in three months. Estimates are enough.
- Read your stage. The check shows the highest stage whose conditions are all met. A gap further down counts — the stages build on one another.
- Tackle the one condition. Exactly one thing is missing for the next stage. The check names it and links the matching guide and calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Where do the stages come from?
They are our own model, “Your path”, inspired by the seven levels in Grant Sabatier’s “Financial Freedom” but built for Germany: setting out, clarity, standing on your own, breathing room, solid ground, headroom, future secured, freedom. New are the account as stage 0 and a covered pension gap as stage 6; the emergency fund is three months of expenses, and “abundance” beyond freedom is not a stage.
Why is there no score?
Because a stage is a condition, not a grade. Either the emergency fund is in place or it is not — a score of 62 does not tell you what to do next. The stage does.
Are my answers stored?
No. The check runs entirely in your browser; neither your answers nor your stage are stored or transmitted. With your consent we only count that a check was completed.
What if I cannot answer a question precisely?
Then the answer is usually no — and the next stage is clarity. If you do not roughly know your net worth and your spending, that is exactly where to start. The net-worth calculator helps; for the pension gap, the pension-gap calculator does.
Related
Clarity is the overview — and it is the first step for everything after
Every stage starts with the same question: where do I stand? That is exactly what we are building sum for: accounts, portfolios, property and debt in one place, automatically categorised spending, detected fixed costs and your net worth with its history. Today you bring your transactions in via CSV import; the automatic bank connection (PSD2) is in the works.
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The first step toward your financial goals is the overview — that's exactly what we're building sum for. Secure your access early.