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How the Wealth Score Is Calculated
This page explains exactly how your scores are calculated, in plain terms: what you answer, how answers become a 0–100 score for each dimension, how those scores combine into your overall Wealth Score, and where the model has limits.
Model Scope
The Wealth Score covers eight dimensions, each with its own two-minute assessment:
- Financial Wealth
- Retirement Wealth
- Security Wealth
- Medical Wealth
- Physical Wealth
- Mental Wealth
- Social Wealth
- Time Wealth
Each dimension is scored from 0 to 100. Your overall Wealth Score is the average of the dimensions you have completed.
1) Domains and Questions
Seven of the assessments split their dimension into domains. Security has five domains; the others have four. Each domain has three or four multiple-choice questions and ends with a self-rating slider.
- Financial: Cash Flow Clarity & Control, Debt & Credit Behavior, Savings & Investing Systems, Financial Optimization.
- Security: Financial Security, Digital Security, Physical Security, Legal Security, Contingency Planning.
- Medical: Insurance & Coverage, Emergency Preparedness, Preventive Care, Directives & Documentation.
- Physical: Fitness & Movement, Nutrition & Diet, Sleep & Recovery, Health Habits.
- Mental: Mindset & Resilience, Learning & Growth, Stress Management, Purpose & Fulfillment.
- Social: Close Relationships, Community & Belonging, Communication & Boundaries, Support Network.
- Time: Autonomy & Control, Work-Life Balance, Efficiency & Focus, Margin & Flexibility.
Retirement Wealth has no domains or questionnaire. It asks for your age, household income, and current retirement savings (see section 4).
2) From Answers to a Domain Score
Every multiple-choice answer has a point value, and better answers earn more points. The steps are not always equal: in Physical Wealth, sleeping 7–9 hours consistently earns 4 points, 5–6 hours earns 2, and under 5 hours earns 0.
In Security, Medical, Physical, Mental, Social, and Time Wealth, a domain score is the average of two halves:
- Question score: the points you earned divided by the points available, times 100.
- Self-rating score: your 0–10 slider answer times 10. In Security the slider asks how quickly you could recover if that area failed; in the others it asks you to rate the area yourself, such as how rested you feel or how supported you would be in a crisis.
Financial Wealth adds the points instead: each domain has three questions worth 0–2 points and a 1–5 confidence slider, for up to 11 points per domain.
3) From Domains to a Dimension Score
A dimension score is a weighted average of its domain scores, rounded to a whole number. Domains that matter more to the outcome carry more weight:
- Security: Financial 25%, Digital 25%, Physical 20%, Legal 15%, Contingency Planning 15%.
- Physical: Fitness & Movement 30%, Nutrition & Diet 25%, Sleep & Recovery 25%, Health Habits 20%.
- Social: Close Relationships 30%, Community & Belonging 25%, Communication & Boundaries 25%, Support Network 20%.
- Time: Autonomy & Control 30%, Work-Life Balance 25%, Efficiency & Focus 25%, Margin & Flexibility 20%.
- Medical and Mental: 25% for each of the four domains.
- Financial: your total points across all four domains divided by the 44 available, times 100, so each domain counts equally.
Your results also list the three domains with the lowest scores as your top gaps. They are ranked by score alone, not by weight, so they show where you have the most room to improve. Where weights differ, the same improvement moves your dimension score more in a heavier domain.
4) Retirement Wealth
The Retirement score compares your current retirement savings with the savings checkpoint the J.P. Morgan Guide to Retirement sets for someone of your age and household income. Your score is your savings as a percentage of that checkpoint, capped at 100. If the checkpoint for you is $150,000 and you have saved $90,000, your Retirement score is 60.
5) The Overall Wealth Score
Your overall Wealth Score is the simple average of the dimension scores you have completed, rounded to a whole number. Every dimension counts equally, and there are no extra weights or adjustments. If you have completed four of the eight dimensions, it is the average of those four, and your Wealth Radar Card notes how many dimensions are included.
Because every dimension counts the same, your weakest dimension pulls the overall score down as much as your strongest pushes it up. That is deliberate: it keeps attention on the parts of life that are easy to neglect.
6) Sample Calculation Walkthrough
A domain. In Physical Wealth’s Sleep & Recovery domain, suppose you sleep 7–9 hours consistently (4 points), keep a somewhat consistent schedule (1 point), and have an okay sleep environment (1 point). That is 6 of 10 points, a question score of 60. You rate how rested you feel at 7 out of 10, a self-rating score of 70. The domain score is the average: 65.
A dimension. Suppose your four Physical domains score Fitness 50, Nutrition 70, Sleep 65, and Habits 80. Your Physical score is 50 × 0.30 + 70 × 0.25 + 65 × 0.25 + 80 × 0.20 = 15 + 17.5 + 16.25 + 16 = 64.75, which rounds to 65.
The overall score. Suppose your eight dimension scores are:
- Financial: 68
- Retirement: 59
- Security: 77
- Medical: 71
- Physical: 62
- Mental: 81
- Social: 74
- Time: 55
They add up to 547. Divided by 8, that is 68.4, so your overall Wealth Score is 68. If you had only completed Financial, Retirement, Security, and Medical, your overall score would be (68 + 59 + 77 + 71) ÷ 4 = 68.75, which rounds to 69.
The overall score does not penalize imbalance, so it pays to look at the spread as well as the average. A 68 made of scores between 55 and 81 is sturdier than a 68 with one dimension at 30. See Wealth Imbalance for how to read that spread.
Limitations of the Model
- Self-report bias: answers can be optimistic, inconsistent, or incomplete.
- Measurement error: some constructs (especially mental and social states) are noisy and context-dependent.
- Coarse answers: three answer options per question cannot capture every situation precisely.
- Benchmark drift: healthy ranges and risk thresholds can change as evidence evolves, and the Retirement benchmark comes from one published source.
- Population variance: one scoring scale cannot perfectly fit all ages, cultures, or medical contexts.
- Interactions are simplified: real-world effects between dimensions are nonlinear, and a simple average does not capture them.
- Not diagnostic: the score supports prioritization and reflection; it is not a medical, legal, or financial determination.
Related guides
Sources
- Handbook on Constructing Composite Indicators: Methodology and User Guide, OECD and European Commission Joint Research Centre, 2008
- Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, Stiglitz, Sen and Fitoussi, 2009
- Guide to Retirement, J.P. Morgan Asset Management
This guide is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not financial, medical, legal, or tax advice. Consult a qualified professional for guidance specific to your situation.