I just read this post on Rockstar Finance about The Five Most Important Numbers You Need to Know. In the spirit of transparency, and just for fun, I’m going to test myself to see what I know.

The 5 Numbers I Should Know...But Do I?

1 - Your Take-Home Pay

I do know this one, rounded down to the nearest hundred or so. Mr. GFB’s checks are pretty consistent but can fluctuate a bit since he’s hourly. He got a bit of a Raise this year, so I know what number to expect to be deposited, but I still estimate our income based on the lower number to keep our spending in check.

2 - Your Retirement Contributions

This one I think I know, but Mr. GFB keeps changing it on me. I don’t have access to his 401k and have tried to convince him to contribute the max, but I think he’s at around 8-10% right now. Enough to get the employer match, but I think we could do better. He’d rather not change anything until the house drama is behind us.

As for other retirement savings, I’ve got a Roth and IRA that I haven’t funded much since deciding to get out of debt. I’m actively budgeting to try to fully fund by the end of the year, but I’m not actually depositing those funds right now. And I don’t think Mr. GFB has any IRAs set up so that’s something we’ll need to look into as well.

3 - Your Debt (And Interest Rates)

This I know. Currently sitting at just over $16,000 in credit and student loans and about $182,000 on our mortgage. Fortunately, the credit card debt is at 0%, the student loan at 2.6% and the mortgage at 4.6%.

4 - Your Credit Score

This is more of a rough estimate since everywhere reports something different. According to Credit Karma and Credit Sesame, I’m around 780. According to the free FICO scores I see when I log into my credit card accounts it’s around 820. Either way, it’s good and I’m happy with it.

5 - Your Savings Account Balance

I answer not applicable to this one. Technically we have a couple savings accounts we transfer into monthly, but that’s only so we keep free checking for those accounts (or keep the account active in the case of Little GFB). But as a YNAB enthusiast, I don’t really care where my physical money is, I care where it’s budgeted. Instead of a lump sum sitting in a savings account, I have savings categories in our budget. Not all of them are fully funded, but I prefer to give those saved dollars a job instead of just letting them hang out in an account tempting me with their presence.

Overall, I’d say I’m probably sitting at a 3.5 out of 5 in awareness of my numbers. I feel pretty good with what I know but would definitely like to sharpen my knowledge with the retirement numbers.

So how about you? How well do you know your numbers? Let me know how you score in the comments.