how the YouScore™ Snapshot is scored.
The Snapshot is the free, self-reported estimate of the YouScore. This page lists every item it asks, every weight it applies and every rule it follows, so that the number can be checked rather than believed.
YouScore™ is an educational financial measure — not a credit score and not financial, investment, tax or legal advice.
1 What the Snapshot measures.
The YouScore is a 0–1,000 measure of where your money stands, the sum of two halves: Foundation (0–500), the structure you've built, and Trajectory (0–500), what this month's habits are doing to it. The Snapshot approximates both halves from 18 self-reported answers given in one sitting. It doesn't measure rolling 30-day or six-month windows; a Snapshot number is an estimate, labeled as such wherever it appears.
Every scored number is a ratio or a length of time — months of essentials, savings as a share of what comes in — so you're scored on how you handle what you have, not on how big the numbers are.
2 The 18 items.
Six screens, in this order. Every choice item offers "prefer not to say," which is scored at the center of its scale. Currency items accept whole dollars.
Screen 1 · Money and housing
- 1How much money comes in each month?Dollars a month, from any source. Zero isn't accepted — everything here is measured against what comes in.
- 2How predictable is that money?Same amount on the same day every time · Small variations, but I can predict it · It varies by a fifth or more from month to month · I can't predict next month's income
- 3What's your ZIP code?Used only for a cost-of-living adjustment; only the first three digits are kept.
- 4What do you pay each month for housing — rent or mortgage payment, including HOA?Dollars a month.
Screen 2 · Cushion
- 5Essential monthly expenses besides housing — groceries, transport, phone, internet and energy bills, insurance, minimum debt payments, clothing, childcare?Dollars a month.
- 6Total across checking, savings and cash you could reach within 48 hours?Dollars. Shown back as months of essentials.
Screen 3 · Debt
- 7Total debt, not counting a mortgage?Dollars. Zero skips items 8–9 (bucket "none," trend "shrinking or none").
- 8Which best describes that debt?All of it under 5% interest · Mostly moderate — 5–12%, like student or auto loans · A meaningful share above 12% — for example a card balance I carry · Mostly high-interest, or any payday loan
- 9Over the last three months, your total debt has…Been shrinking · Stayed about the same · Been growing
Screen 4 · Saving
- 11Do you put money into retirement each month — 401(k), IRA or similar? Roughly how much a month, including any employer match?Dollars a month.
- 10How much do you put away each month — savings and investing outside retirement accounts?Dollars a month.
- 12What moves on its own each month?Nothing moves unless I move it · Some bills or savings move on their own · Savings and bills move by themselves every time money comes in; I do nothing · …and they rise on their own when more comes in
Screen 5 · Protection and household
- 13Does anyone depend on you financially — children or other dependents?Yes / No. Without dependents, life insurance is credited automatically.
- 14How old are you?18–90. Outside that range the Snapshot still computes, calibrated for working-age adults.
- 15Which of these do you have?Health · Disability · Home or renters · Life insurance
Screen 6 · Patterns
- 16Compared with three months ago, your spending is…Lower · About the same · Higher
- 17Is money tight in the last few days before new money comes in?No, it isn't · Yes, it is
- 18In a typical month, roughly how much goes to… food delivery and takeout you didn't plan · rideshares and other convenience premiums · impulse purchases, online or in store · subscriptions you don't really useFour amounts, summed. Some people see a single-total form instead (section 9).
Three unscored sliders (financial anxiety, confidence, how much you think you spend without meaning to) follow the last item. They never affect the number; they're used to study how the score compares with how money feels.
3 Element weights.
Foundation elements sum to 500. Trajectory's four elements sum to 460; a graded momentum bonus of up to 40 completes 500. The maximums are design choices we made, published so they can be argued with.
What these are called on your Snapshot. The white paper uses the formal name for each element; the Snapshot shows a plain-English label for the same thing. Both refer to the identical quantity.
Foundation · 500
Trajectory · 500
| Element | Shown as | Input | Curve or points |
|---|---|---|---|
| F1 Liquidity Shield | Your cushion | liquid ÷ (housing + other essentials), in months | (0,0) · (1,15) · (3,55) · (6,85) · (12,100) × 1.1 |
| F2 Debt Load | What you owe | non-mortgage debt ÷ annual money in; × bucket multiplier 1.00 / 0.85 / 0.70 / 0.50; no debt → 100 | (0%,100) · (5%,100) · (35%,65) · (75%,30) · (150%,0) |
| F3 Savings and Retirement Velocity | Your savings rate | (monthly savings + monthly retirement) ÷ money in, × cost-of-living factor, capped at rate + 0.10 | (0%,0) · (5%,20) · (10%,45) · (15%,70) · (20%,85) · (30%,95) · (50%,100) |
| F4 Protection | Insurance | four toggles | health 25 · disability 15 · home/renters 10 · life 10 |
| F5 Housing Burden | Housing cost | housing ÷ money in | (0%,40) · (28%,40) · (35%,25) · (45%,10) · (60%,0) |
| F6 Income Stability | Steady income | four-level item | 50 · 38 · 22 · 12 |
| F7 Habit Infrastructure | Set and forget | four-level item | 0 · 16 · 34 · 40 |
| T1 Capture Rate | What you keep for a rainy day | capture c = (monthly savings + monthly retirement) ÷ max(surplus, floor), where surplus = money in − housing − other essentials and floor = max($250, 10% of money in); T1 = w × curve(c) + (1 − w) × 85, with w = surplus ÷ floor clipped to 0–1 | (0%,0) · (10%,25) · (25%,68) · (40%,117) · (60%,170) · (100%,170) |
| T2 Drift Burden | Drift | drift total ÷ money in; reported zero → 50 | (≤2%,100) · (4%,75) · (7%,35) · (10%,15) · (14%,8) · (≥20%,3) |
| T3 Debt-Paydown Velocity | Paying it down | debt trend | shrinking or none 100 · same 58 · growing 17 |
| T4 Depletion and Direction Signals | How this month is going | spending trend + crunch | lower/same/higher 50 / 30 / 5 · crunch no/yes 40 / 5 |
| Momentum | Momentum | favorable directional items: debt shrinking or none; spending lower | 0 / 15 / 40 for zero / one / two |
Curves are piecewise-linear between the listed knots. Components are rounded for display; totals are computed from unrounded components.
4 Scoring rules.
The weakest-link factor
A plain weighted sum lets excellence anywhere hide collapse anywhere else. So if any of the three structural pillars — your cushion (F1), what you owe (F2) and insurance (F4) — is below 15% of its maximum, Foundation is multiplied by 0.85 + weakest share, where the weakest share is that pillar's score as a fraction of its maximum. A pillar at 4% of its maximum scales Foundation by 0.89. The rule looks only at structure: a low savings rate or a high housing cost never triggers it on its own. The Snapshot says so plainly when it applies, because the low pillar is also the fastest lever.
The health-coverage cap at 749
Without health coverage, the total is capped at 749 — the top of Climbing. People aged 65 and over are treated as covered. A single uninsured medical event can undo everything else the score measures; the cap says that nobody is Cruising while exposed to it.
The graded momentum bonus
Two directional items — debt shrinking (or none) and spending lower than three months ago — earn a bonus of 0, 15 or 40 points for zero, one or two favorable answers. It's small on purpose: direction of travel should be visible without letting a good month mask a weak structure.
The drift-zero rule
A reported drift of exactly zero scores the neutral center of Drift Burden (50 of 100), not the maximum. Almost everyone drifts a little; a zero more often means the question was skipped than that drift is absent.
"Prefer not to say"
An absent answer is scored at the center of its scale: the middle option for three-level items, the average of the two middle values for four-level items. It's never treated as the worst case.
5 The Future Self Tax.
The Future Self Tax is what your monthly drift would grow to over the next ten years if you put those dollars to work and they generate you an average return. It’s a simple illustration to show how small actions add up. Compounding works. It’s the future value of a monthly contribution:
FST(d, h) = d × [ ((1 + i/12)^(12h) − 1) ÷ (i/12) ]
where d is monthly drift in dollars, h is the horizon in years — ten for the headline figure, twenty-five for the figure in the fine print; i is the assumed 6.6% annual return above inflation. It’s compounding in action.
6 The five bands.
The 0–1,000 range maps to five bands named for a direction of travel rather than a verdict — seasons, not sentences. Thresholds are design conventions, not percentiles.
- Grounded0–149On the ground. Nothing yet to absorb a shock.
- Maneuvering150–299On the ground, handling what you have. Not airborne yet.
- Airborne300–449Off the ground. Not much altitude yet.
- Climbing450–749Gaining altitude. Not yet at cruising height.
- Cruising750–1,000At altitude. The work now is staying there.
7 Cost of living.
A ratio to income absorbs part of a regional price difference, not all of it. The Snapshot multiplies the savings-rate input (F3) by a cost-of-living factor derived from the first three digits of the ZIP code — the only use made of it, and the only part of it kept.
8 What the Snapshot can't see.
18 answers in one sitting leave out things the member version measures:
- Any investments you may have and how they match your goals
- Where your money actually goes day after day
- Shared finances and bills, if any
- Access to affordable credit
- Any impulse buys after a long day
- A real rolling day-to-day view, not a single session
9 Experiments and retakes.
Split-ballot disclosure
The drift item is randomized between two forms — four parts that sum, or one packed total ("Rough monthly spend on food delivery, rideshares, impulse buys and subscriptions you don't really use?") — and its helper text between three states. The form and helper each person saw are stored with the response, and the packed form carries its own label, snapshot-0.2-packed. The results of the comparison will be published here.
The provisional "steady" rule
Retakes are unlimited and the latest Snapshot is the one displayed. If you come back, you'll see the change against your last one; movement of fewer than 20 points is labeled "steady," not a trend. That threshold is a placeholder until the test–retest study reports a measured minimum detectable change.
10 Status of this method.
Version 0.2 is the launch version. Every released Snapshot carries the methodology version that produced it, and any change will be listed here with its date. The full YouScore White Paper v1.0 is in review with our founding members and will be published here.