1/2/2015 – Time to Assess your Financial Fitness (The New York Times)

When the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 18,000 for the first time late last month, you could practically hear the champagne corks popping. Traders wore hats celebrating the occasion, and email news alerts were followed by dutiful articles.

If you found yourself cheering from the sidelines, however, you’re in danger of using the wrong marker to track your own financial progress.

Trying to keep score of your overall financial fitness is a fine idea. So here are some personal markers that you can turn to this year — and every year — when noise from the outside world may give you a mistaken impression of how you’re actually doing.

Read the full article at The New York Times.