Run the numbers once
Give the birthday one afternoon and a spreadsheet. List what you own, meaning cash, retirement accounts, investments and the equity in a home or car, and then what you owe. The difference is your net worth, and the useful thing is its direction from year to year, not its size today. A common rule of thumb says to have about one year's salary saved for retirement by 30. If you are behind, the remedy is a savings rate of 15 percent of gross pay, raised a point with every raise.
Then check the unglamorous items: three months of expenses in cash, no carried credit card balance, all three credit reports reviewed, and beneficiaries named on every retirement account. If anyone relies on your income, price a term life policy while it is cheap. If your employer offers long-term disability coverage, take it.
The body's maintenance schedule
Establish a primary care doctor if you have been relying on urgent care, and get a baseline physical with blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar. See a dentist twice a year and have your eyes checked every couple of years. A tetanus booster is due every ten years. Cervical cancer screening options widen at 30, and your doctor can explain the intervals. Learn your family history of heart disease, diabetes and cancer, because it moves some screenings earlier. The low-cost catastrophic plans on the health insurance Marketplace also close to you at 30.
The career audit
Put three answers in writing. State what you are paid compared with the market for your role and city, which salary surveys and a recruiter call or two will tell you. Name the skills you have added in the past two years. Describe the job you want at 35 and whether your current one leads toward it. If the answers are poor, thirty is early. You have about thirty-five working years left, which is room for two full careers.
What to ignore
The lists of things to own or achieve by 30 are written to be shared, not to be true. The median age at first marriage in the United States is now about 30 for men and 28 for women, and the median first-time home buyer is close to 40. Most people you know are later than their photographs suggest.
Tip Make the review a yearly appointment near your birthday. The same one-page list of numbers, compared year over year, tells you more than any milestone.
