Open the financial health checker → · Test your understanding with the quiz →
Begin with one consistent household
Use after-tax cash income and costs for the same people. Convert both to an average month before comparing. Weekly amounts multiply by 52 and divide by 12; fortnightly amounts multiply by 26 and divide by 12. Calendar dates can still create a shortfall.
Count each outflow once
Enter mortgage repayments under debt, rent under essential costs, and annual bills separately if not already included. Credit-card repayments can double-count purchases recorded as living costs: decide how the same spending will be represented once. Exclude household transfers and voluntary savings from consumption. Cash flow here is before savings allocations.
Keep the buffer accessible
The checker divides available savings by essential costs, debt payments and the annual bill reserve. Flexible spending is excluded. All annual bills are conservatively included in the buffer scenario. Enter only savings available for that purpose; do not count cash committed to bills again as emergency savings. Super, property and a credit limit are not accessible emergency savings.
A worked example
$6,000 monthly income minus $2,500 essential living, $800 other spending, $700 debt repayments and $3,600 ÷ 12 annual bills leaves $1,700 before voluntary saving. Buffer costs are $2,500 + $700 + $300 = $3,500 monthly. $8,000 accessible cash covers about 2.29 months. A chosen three-month scenario equals $10,500, leaving a $2,500 gap. This does not establish a sufficient buffer for a particular household.
Recreate it in Excel
Enter monthly income B2=6000, essential living B3=2500, other spending B4=800, repayments B5=700, annual bills B6=3600, available cash B7=8000 and chosen months B8=3.
B9: =B6/12
B10: =SUM(B3:B5)+B9
B11: =B2-B10
B12: =B3+B5+B9
B13: =IF(B12=0,"No ratio",B7/B12)
B14: =B12*B8
B15: =MAX(0,B14-B7)
B16: =IF(B2=0,"No ratio",B5/B2)B11 is $1,700, B13 about 2.29 months, B15 $2,500. Format B16 as a percentage: 11.67%. This repayment share uses take-home income and is not a lender's debt-service calculation. No safe threshold is inferred.
Net worth is a separate lens
With $8,000 cash, $200,000 other assets, $50,000 super and $150,000 debt, net worth is $108,000. Enter full asset values and debts separately. Net worth is omitted until all optional fields are complete; unknown does not mean zero. A net-worth figure is neither cash available today nor a retirement target.
Review the assumptions
Check the figures against statements. Explore the budget lesson, emergency-fund lesson and debt lesson. There is no aggregate financial-health score: the tool describes entered figures and their limits.
Sources and review
Official references checked 1 November 2026. Independent professional review pending. General education, not personal financial, credit or tax advice.