Author Topic: This is strange.  (Read 4831 times)

ACyclist

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This is strange.
« on: December 25, 2017, 09:10:49 AM »
Get your FIST score. 

The graph for me shows a higher recommended debt load.  <chuckle>  Not sure what to make of this.  I scored an 88% My life insurance was lower score.

http://www.fistscore.com/do/fist




Morning Glory

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #1 on: December 25, 2017, 09:29:06 AM »
This is idiotic. It says that ideally I should have zero times my annual income in retirement accounts, yet on the suggestions to improve the score it says to save more for retirement??? It also wants me to have way too much life insurance and cash reserves.

ACyclist

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #2 on: December 25, 2017, 09:42:16 AM »
The debt load thing made me laugh and think of boarder42's suggesting to keep the mortgage.  :)

Fomerly known as something

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #3 on: December 25, 2017, 10:20:05 AM »
I'm a SINK, I got 54% because I self insure on life insurance.  I also got no credit for my investments/retirement.

fattest_foot

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #4 on: December 25, 2017, 10:43:02 AM »
It asks for mortgage balance, but nothing about its value, which I felt was strange. I apparently took a huge hit for having a mortgage. And like above, took a MASSIVE hit for insurance; except we have no kids and many multiples of our household income and absolutely no need for life insurance (we could definitely use some umbrella insurance soon, however, but it didn't ask about that).

Ended up with a 26.1 which is a "somewhat unstable" financial situation, despite being about halfway to FIRE.

I dunno, whole thing reeks of being made by an insurance company to me.

ACyclist

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #5 on: December 25, 2017, 10:55:12 AM »
Yay, so it isn't just me that thinks it is strange.

Retirement calculators are odd too.  They fluctuate wildly.

Zikoris

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #6 on: December 25, 2017, 11:50:39 AM »
I got 38, or somewhat unstable. Lol! They bash me for not having life insurance or much in cash savings. I don't need that, I have a six figure liquid net worth!

ysette9

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #7 on: December 25, 2017, 12:10:02 PM »
Weird. Apparently I am financial unstable despite being 80% of my way to our FIRE number. What nonsense

sol

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #8 on: December 25, 2017, 12:41:16 PM »
Ridiculous nonsense.  I'm already technically FI by the 25x rule, and it says my finances are "somewhat unstable".

It didn't ask me about income from my rental houses, just my total debts.  It thinks my emergency fund is too small because it doesn't know I have a huge taxable brokerage account (an investment, not cash savings) that I can access at any time.  It thinks I need more life insurance despite being financially independent, which I'm pretty sure is just because it was written by someone selling life insurance.

Totally worthless assessment for this community.  If you save a large percentage of your income, that test is bunk.

aceyou

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #9 on: December 25, 2017, 12:46:01 PM »
Says I have way to little debt, way too much in retirement savings, and not nearly enough life insurance:) 

Shoot, apparently I have my priorities really messed up!

marty998

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #10 on: December 26, 2017, 02:31:45 AM »
Sounds to me they are trying to sell you all Life Insurance (or their advertisers are).

Villanelle

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #11 on: December 26, 2017, 02:59:41 AM »
I currently have no income (well, about $1200 a year, but I didn't even enter that in).  I have $300k in life insurance, which I consider far too much.  We have no kids.  And yet it says I need more than twice what I have??!?!  I'd cut back but Husband has a thing about it and it's cheap enough that it's not worth the argument.  And they think I need about $750k? 

It seems like people may be misreading the debt portion though.  "With the debt multiple, the closer your current multiple is to zero the better, since less debt is better for your financial stability."  So the recommended debt multiple is not an aspiration.  I think they are saying that level would be acceptable, but that less is better. 

BTDretire

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #12 on: December 26, 2017, 07:02:00 AM »
I consider us FI but still working.
I got a 96.4 score, but it want's me to have
more than $30k cash reserve. Nah!

scottish

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #13 on: December 26, 2017, 08:35:00 AM »
Me too.  It criticized my excessive cash reserve and said I should have at least twice as much.

Looks like the cash reserve is based on income rather than spend...

Dicey

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #14 on: December 26, 2017, 09:01:10 AM »
From these comments, I wasn't going to bother, but what the hell, I'll give it a whirl and report back...

Okay, that was unexpected. I got 100%, despite putting in zero for life insurance. We do have some through DH's work, but the quiz only asked about me, despite asking for spouse's age and income. I suspect it has more to do with our age. The older you get, the less you need it, perhaps.
« Last Edit: December 26, 2017, 09:08:02 AM by Dicey »

10dollarsatatime

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #15 on: December 26, 2017, 09:14:28 AM »
"The graph above compares your current multiple of combined income with the recommended multiple. For example, the recommended multiple of income for your retirement needs is 0, meaning that you should have 0 times your combined income of $55,000 or approximately $0 currently saved/invested for retirement."

Apparently I have unstable finances, even though I have a 50%+ savings rate.

Um... what?  It also says I should have 4 times my annual salary in debt.  And 14 times in life insurance.  Someone is trying to sell something...

honeybbq

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #16 on: December 26, 2017, 09:20:27 AM »
It gave me a 0 for my retirement savings. I don't think this thing works.

PoutineLover

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #17 on: December 26, 2017, 05:20:31 PM »
This is nonsense. Why is the recommended multiple for retirement savings 0? Why do I need 13 times my income in insurance with no debt and no dependents? I'm not basing any financial decisions on this..

accolay

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #18 on: December 26, 2017, 05:43:16 PM »
Hot Garbage. We have a high savings rate, and large emergency fund, but still lists as unstable.

Edit to add that it lists mortgage debt as hard bad.

Edit edit to add that it must calculate on hypothetical spending proportional to your income. I can only get 100% score if I enter $70,000 in emergency savings.
« Last Edit: December 26, 2017, 05:51:37 PM by accolay »

ACyclist

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #19 on: December 26, 2017, 10:45:45 PM »
Yup, I should have posted this in the comedy section.  :)

MrsPete

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #20 on: December 27, 2017, 01:13:38 PM »
Yeah, no trust in this thing.  It assigned me a score of 100 /says I'm "stable" ... but it also recommends that I save more, sell some assets and invest the profits, set up an IRA (didn't ask me if I already have one), get more life insurance, get more life insurance from my company (do they know whether it's even offered?), set aside more for my savings /checking accounts, forego discretionary spending, pay down debts (I have no debts -- unless you count the electric bill that arrived in yesterday's mail), and increase my income. 

GnomeErcy

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Re: This is strange.
« Reply #21 on: December 27, 2017, 01:35:06 PM »
I put $50k in cash savings, $150k/yr salary and 40% savings, $10M in existing retirement accounts, and it says I'm "somewhat unstable".

As far as I can see, the 'Retirement' bucket is 100% broken and the 'Insurance' bucket only uses what you put in for 'Retirement' account values - if you change just that, the Insurance score changes.

Broken and crappy.