Financial Vital Signs
Six part diagnostic readout on a physician household's financial health, taken quickly, in a fixed order, so readings compare across households and years.
What it is
The Financial Vital Signs are Financial Fellowship's six part diagnostic read on a physician household's financial health, named after clinical vital signs and taken the same way: quickly, in a fixed order, every time, so that the same six readings can be compared across households and across years.
A physician already knows how to read a set of vitals, and already knows that a normal number in isolation does not mean a healthy patient. The Financial Vital Signs use a trained instinct rather than asking a physician to learn a new one.
Together they produce a Financial Vital Signs score out of 100, which is the number every Financial Health Assessment episode opens on.
The six parts
-
1
Pulse · cash flow
What comes in, what goes out, and what is genuinely left over in a normal month. This is the day to day vital and the one that moves fastest.
-
2
Blood pressure · debt
Total obligations, their rates, and what share of monthly income they claim before anything else happens.
-
3
Respiratory rate · savings
The share of gross income the household actually keeps and invests, measured over a year rather than a good month.
-
4
Temperature · lifestyle
How fast spending is rising relative to income, and which categories are driving it.
-
5
Oxygen saturation · liquidity
How long the household can breathe with no income arriving, in months.
-
6
Pain · the household's own reading
What the household says its financial stress actually is, in its own words. Self-reported, like the clinical sixth vital, and not overruled by the other five.
Where it shows on the show
They apply first, before any other framework, in every situation. That is the point of vitals. Every Financial Health Assessment episode opens by taking a physician household's six vitals and stating the score out of 100.
A household that opens with a specific question, whether to buy the house, whether to refinance the loans, whether one partner can go part time, almost always has a more urgent reading sitting underneath the question it came in with. Taking the six first surfaces that.
They apply annually, as a scheduled reading, the same way an annual physical exists whether or not anything hurts. They apply hardest at transitions: the move from training to attending, a job change, a partner returning to work or leaving it, a new child, a move to a different metro.
They also apply when a household feels behind and cannot say why. That feeling is usually one specific vital, not all six. Physician households can submit their own finances at financialfellowship.com/submit.
What it is not
They are not a plan, a diagnosis, or a recommendation. They are a reading. A reading tells a household where to look next. Not a net-worth calculator. Not advice. Not a substitute for a plan. What to do stays with the household.
Not to be confused with the general "financial vital signs" checklists published by advisory firms and syndicated in personal finance media, which commonly run to five or ten metrics. The Financial Fellowship Financial Vital Signs are six, with fixed clinical names, and are built for physician households specifically.
Takeaways
- Six readings. Same order. Every time.
- Named after clinical vitals on purpose.
- The score is a reading, not a plan.
- Take them first. Other frameworks wait.
- Pain is self-reported. Do not overrule it with the other five.
- Every FHA on the show opens here.
Common questions
How many Financial Vital Signs are there?
Six: pulse for cash flow, blood pressure for debt, respiratory rate for savings, temperature for lifestyle growth, oxygen saturation for liquidity, and pain, the household's own self-reported financial stress.
What is a good Financial Vital Signs score?
Financial Fellowship does not publish target scores, because a score is only meaningful against the same household's own history and its stage of career. A resident and a fifteen year attending with identical scores are in completely different situations.
Can I take my own Financial Vital Signs?
Yes. The six readings are all figures a household already has or can assemble in an evening. Nothing here requires a professional to calculate.
Do the Financial Vital Signs tell me what to do?
No. They tell a household where to look. What to do about what it finds is that household's decision, made with a licensed professional of its choosing if it wants one.