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Financial Elements

A quick, powerful, & private financial assessment for clients & friends

Elements are the building block of life. Your finances have elements too, and if you take a few minutes to share, we will immediately return a confidential financial health assessment - a quick, powerful, private summary of your finances that you can use today. 

Learn more at www.openwindowFS.com/insight/uncover-your-financial-elements.

Financial elements can help answer questions like:

How much wealth do you need to make work optional?

Tt (Total Term) indicates how long you could live on your current wealth if it did not grow.

Tt provides a conservative estimate of how many years you could survive if you stopped working today. It's calculated by dividing net worth by annual living expenses. It is also a summation of the four blocks to its left which represent each asset type: Lt (Liquid Term), Qt (Qualified Term), and Rt (Real Estate Term). There's also a bonus Element for business owners: Bt (Business Term).

Do you have the right mix of assets?

The three Elements to the left of Tt (Total Term) provide a clear view of your asset distribution.

These Elements represent three of the four asset types in a person's portfolio (the fourth is a business and Business Term is a bonus Element for business owners), and when added together, they create your Tt. They also help you and your advisor understand if there's an opportunity for better diversification.

Are you using your income wisely?

The middle row of the Elements table address your cash flow.

These Elements calculate the percentage of your total income that goes toward savings (Savings Rate), spending (Burn Rate), debt (Debt Rate), and taxes (Tax Rate). These are the only four places your income can go and it's important to keep them optimized to accelerate growth.

Are you taking the right amount of risk?

These Elements indicate the risk levels within your investment portfolio, estate planning, and insurance profile respectively.

The top row of the Elements table contains Er (Equity Rate), Es (Estate Status), and Ir (Insurance Rate). The amount of risk you should take in each area will depend on a number of factors including your tolerance for risk, career phase, liquidity, and financial goals.

Equity Rate

Helps us determine whether the client will experience too much volatility risk for their personal level of spending and age.

Equity rate (Er) is calculated by dividing your equity investment holdings by the total amount of investable assets you own.
Equity Holdings
Total Investible Assets

Estate Status

Helps determine how prepared you are to answer end-of-life financial questions.

Estate status (Es) is calculated by dividing the current amount of estate planning you've completed and had reviewed by the amount of estate planning you still need.
Current Estate Planning
Recommended Estate Planning

Insurance Rate

Measures how much insurance you have compared to how much you need based on annual spending and net worth. Coverage is evaluated for the following types of insurance: life, general disability, business overhead disability, buy-sell, key person, personal liability, and business liability.

Insurance rate (Ir) is calculated by dividing the life and disability insurance coverage you have by the coverage you still potentially need.
Coverage Held
Coverage Potentially Needed

Savings Rate

Indicates how much of your income is being saved for future expenses, emergencies and retirement. Also an indicator of your overall financial security.

Savings rate (Sr) is calculated by dividing your annual savings by your total personal income. Savings includes deposits made to investment accounts and other savings accounts.
Annual Savings
Total Personal Income

Burn Rate

Burn Rate indicates how much of your income is used for living expenses. It helps you understand your spending patterns and retirement preparedness.

Burn rate (Br) is calculated by dividing your annual living expenses by your total personal income. It indicates how much of your income is used for personal expenses.
Annual Living Expenses
Total Personal Income

Debt Rate

Indicates whether you are servicing too much or too little debt for your individual circumstances

Debt rate (Dr) is calculated by dividing your annual debt payments by total personal income.
Annual Debt Payments
Total Personal Income

Tax Rate

Tax Rate helps you determine if your tax liability could be reduced with better tax planning.

Tax rate (Tr) is calculated by dividing your annual total taxes by your total personal income.
Annual Total Taxes
Total Personal Income

Liquid Term

Estimates the number of years you could live on cash or cash-like assets outside of retirement plans. Also indicates the amount of after-tax money you could access if needed.

Liquid term (Lt) is calculated by dividing your total liquid assets by your estimated annual living expenses.
Total Liquid Assets
Annual Living Expenses

Qualified Term

Estimates the number of years you could live on the assets you have within qualified plans assuming withdrawals are for qualified purposes (ignoring inflation, taxes, and fees).

Qualified term (Qt) is calculated by dividing your total retirement accounts by your estimated annual living expenses.
Total Retirement Accounts
Annual Living Expenses

Real Estate Term

Estimates the number of years you could live on your current real estate equity and how much of your wealth is concentrated in real estate.

Real estate term (Rt) is calculated by dividing the sum of all your total real estate equity by your estimated annual living expenses.
Total Real Estate Equity
Annual Living Expenses

Business Term

Estimates the number of years you could live on your current business equity (ignoring inflation, taxes and fees). It also indicates how much of your wealth is concentrated in the business.

Business term (Bt) is calculated by dividing your total business equity by your annual living expenses.
Total Business Equity
Annual Living Expenses

Total Term

Estimates the number of years you could live on your current assets (cash, investments, business value, real estate equity, etc.) if they didn't grow.

Total term (Tt) is calculated by dividing your current net worth by your estimated annual living expenses.
Current Net Worth
Annual Living Expenses


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