Where you stand: your money snapshot

Set aside an hour with your bank app, your last few pay stubs and every bill or loan statement you have. Most people have never written all of this down in one place. That's normal, and it's why this is the first lesson.

• Own. Money in checking and savings, plus anything you could sell for cash: your truck, a trailer, tools, a retirement account. Use what it would sell for today, not what you paid.
• Owe. Every balance: vehicle loans, credit cards, medical bills, student loans, buy now, pay later plans, back taxes, and money borrowed from family.
• Take home. What lands in your account in a month after taxes and deductions, from every source: paychecks, side jobs and cash work.
• Spend. Everything that goes out in a month. Your bank and card statements show most of it. Add the cash.

If your pay changes with the season, write down take-home and spending twice: once for a busy month and once for your slowest month. A single summer month makes the year look better than it is.

Example (made-up numbers): Marcus is 24. He works on a sealcoating crew, paid weekly from spring to fall, and does a few cash driveway jobs on weekends.

His net worth is $9,000 minus $11,100, or negative $2,100. It's below zero mostly because he owes more on the truck than it would sell for, which is common in the first years of work.

His monthly gap fills in the rest. In July he takes home about $3,800 and spends about $3,000, so he's $800 ahead. In January, with a few snow calls, he takes home about $500 and spends about $2,500, so he's $2,000 behind. That's where the card balance and the loan from his brother came from. The snapshot puts a number on what he already felt: January is the problem month.

The numbers are half the picture. The other half is how money feels week to week. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) offers a free 5-question version of its Financial Well-Being Scale. You rate five short statements, such as "I am just getting by financially" and "I have money left over at the end of the month," by how well or how often they fit you. Then you add up your answers and use the worksheet on the form to turn the total into a score of roughly 20 to 90. Higher means you're in better shape.

There's no passing grade, and nobody needs to see it. Write your score at the top of your snapshot and take the scale again in 90 days, after you've worked through this course.

Most money teachers start in the same place: a small cushion for surprises, then getting out of high-interest debt, then a full emergency fund and long-term investing. Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps are the best-known version of that order:

1. Save a $1,000 starter emergency fund.
2. Pay off all debt except the house, using the debt snowball.
3. Save 3–6 months of expenses.
4. Invest 15% of household income for retirement.
5. Save for your kids' college.
6. Pay off your home early.
7. Build wealth and give.

The National Pavement Maintenance Contractors Association (NPMCA) Money Milestones checklist follows that order and adds two things this trade needs. First, a tax set-aside: if you're paid on a 1099 or in cash, part of every payment is tax you'll owe, so starting with your first payment, that share goes into its own account the day it arrives (lesson P101.2). Second, the Winter Fund: if your work slows every winter, build the $1,000 starter cushion first. Then feed a Winter Fund from every in-season check, in its own account, alongside whatever Baby Step you're on (lesson P101.8). Find the checklist at npmca.org/learn/money-milestones.

• CFPB Financial Well-Being Scale, 5-question version (en español): print it or fill it in on your phone and score it yourself.
• NFCC: nonprofit credit counseling, 877-360-6322, if your snapshot shows more debt than you can handle alone.