3,500 feet above the sleepy small towns of Maines Oxford Hills, I nudged the yoke on the rickety old Cessna 152 and banked into a lazy left turn back toward the airport after the days flying lesson. As much fun as I was having, I was relieved the hour was almost donesimultaneously keeping track of altitude, airspeed, heading and other factors is mentally exhausting, even more so when youre just learning. But little did I know, my lesson wasnt over yet.

Mid-turn, my flight instructor yanked the aircrafts throttle back and the small planes lone propeller slowed as the engine came to an idle.

You just lost your engine, he said. What are you going to do?

My instincts told me to reach over and try the ignition; try to restart. Or maybe call MAYDAY! MAYDAY! over the radio.

But both of those instincts were wrong.

If your plane loses its engine, the first thing you want to do is find a place to land. Then you want to adjust your airspeed to give you the most gliding time to the ground. Only then should you attempt things like restarting the engine, switching to a reserve fuel tank, setting an emergency transponder code, and calling for help.

Thats a lot to remember on a good day, never mind when youre minutes away from a crash landing. And this is in a tiny, uber-simple 40-year old trainer aircraft. Imagine the procedures in a modern airliner.

This is why pilots use checklists.

Aircraft are too complicatedand the potential cost of an error too highto be left to pilots memory.

As I progressed in my flying lessons, I learned to use checklists for everything: takeoff, landing, and, of course, simulated emergencies. Not only would the checklist remind me of what to do first (find a place to land), it would ensure I didnt miss a step. (Dont forget to try to restart the engine before plowing into a corn field!) As it would turn out, checklists have intriguing uses far outside the cockpit.

Im not telling you this story to lure you into learning to fly. As a financial decision, using a $3,500 credit card balance transfer check to earn my pilots license at 21 ranks among my most absurd. But unlike the countless Papa Johns pizzas and liters of bottom-shelf vodka I also financed during college, I cant say I regret the learning to fly experience.

Today I want to talk about how checklists can help you stay on track with your financial goals.

IN PRAISE OF CHECKLISTS

Atul Gawande is a surgeon, Harvard Medical School professor, and author. His most recent book, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right  got its start as this New Yorker article in which he explains the origins of the checklist in aviation before proceeding to document howif more widely used in medicinechecklists could save the average hospital countless patient lives and millions of dollars every year.

In The New Yorker piece, Gawande makes this observation about how checklists helped an intensive care unit reduce the number of infections related to central lines:

The checklists provided two main benefits…First, they helped with memory recall, especially with mundane matters that are easily overlooked in patients undergoing more drastic events. (When you’re worrying about what treatment to give a woman who won’t stop seizing, it’s hard to remember to make sure that the head of her bed is in the right position.) A second effect was to make explicit the minimum, expected steps in complex processesChecklists established a higher standard of baseline performance.

These observations are a bit obvious, but the results Gawande cites are eye-popping. The simple fact is that checklists save lives. So I postulate: If checklists can save lives, surely they can save money.

A CHECKLIST FOR YOUR FINANCES

As much as I and other financial bloggers try to simplify financial matters, the truth is: money is complicated. No two peoples financial situations are alike, and every day were overwhelmed with competing financial goals and ways to spend or save our cash. And investing? Forget about it. There are over 10,000 mutual funds alone, never mind stocks, ETFs, bonds, and countless other investment vehicles. Its no wonder so many of you just want somebody to tell you what to do!

I cant do a personalized financial checkup for everybody, but what I can do is provide a checklist to help you periodically review the state of your finances. Take a look, and let me know how you do.

Emergency Fund

• I have enough cash saved in a separate savings account to get me through six months of living expenses in the event I lost my income.

• Im earning the best interest rate possible on this money by taking advantage of an online savings account .
• I dont tap my emergency fund for non emergencies like months I accidentally spend too much on credit cards.

Credit Card Debt

• I am not going into new credit card debt. I pay off my new balance in full every month.
• If in debt, I know my interest rate.
• If in debt, I have tried to lower my interest rate either by calling my card issuer or transferring the balance.
• If in debt, I have a plan to pay off this credit card debt before putting money to other goals.
• If not in debt, I take advantage of credit card rewards.
• If not in debt, I understand my cards fee schedule.

Student Loans

• I understand how much student loan debt I have.
• I know the interest rate, term, payment, and owner of each of my student loans.
• I have my student loans set to automatic payment each month so I dont miss a payment.

• I know what one thing Im saving for next.
• I contribute at least enough to my employers 401(k) or other retirement plan to take advantage of any matching.
• If eligible, I contribute up to $5,000 to a Roth IRA.
• I have a certain amount of savings on auto pilot. In other words, I transfer or direct deposit money automatically to a savings account each week or pay period.

• My money is invested in a mix of stocks and bonds appropriate for my age and risk tolerance.
• I understand the fees associated with all of my investments and am comfortable with them.
• I am taking advantage of tax advantaged accounts (IRAs, 529s, etc. before investing in taxable accounts).
• I do not have idle cash that should be invested.
• I have decided on an investing strategy that I will stick to even when the markets are volatile.

• I know what I spend my money on each month.
• I dont have any unused subscriptions that I could have money on but Im too lazy to cancel.
• My monthly housing payment is less than 30% of my gross income.
• I dont have a car payment.
• If a homeowner, I have investigated refinancing at lower interest rates to save money in the long term.
• I make lists and look for coupons to save money on routine shopping trips.
• I plan big purchases and wait for sales to buy.

• I know my current credit score, at least roughly.
• I have checked my credit reports at least once in the last year for accuracy.
• I auto-pay or otherwise have a system for paying all monthly bills on time.
• I have 2-3 credit cards open for building good credit, even if I dont use them every month.

Relationships

• I regularly have open conversations about money with my partner.
• My partner and I know each others net worth and credit scores.
• My partner and I have joint financial goals.

• I have a second stream of income or a plan for diversifying my income.
• Im actively learning or increasing my skills and value to my employer.
• Im actively building my network.

• If I have children or a dependent spouse, I have level term life insurance.

HOW DID YOU DO?

Howd you do? Did anything surprise you? Is there anything you would add to this checklist? Let me know in a comment.