As a HELOC borrower you’re probably aware of your FICO score and how it can impact both your ability to borrow and the interest rate you pay. Virtually all lenders use FICO scores in making their loan decisions. In general, the higher your FICO score, the better credit risk you’re judged to be and the better deal you’ll be able to get on a HELOC or other type of loan.

Now there’s a new personal finance index score - the A.G. Edwards Nest Egg Index - designed to help individuals see how they stack up against the rest of the country in building their nest eggs. From the A.G. Edwards website:

Ever wonder how you’re doing as a saver or how your savings efforts stack up? In today’s world, there are online calculators for nearly everything you can determine how many calories were in your lunch,
how much you’ll have to pay in taxes and even your credit score with a few clicks of the mouse. But trying to figure out how you’re doing at building your nest egg? That’s not so simple until now. The A. G. Edwards Nest Egg Score Estimator is a new tool designed to help individuals determine what factors may be affecting their nest eggs and see how their approach to saving and investing activities corresponds to the rest of the U.S. population. By answering a series of questions about personal saving and spending habits 14 in all the Nest Egg Score Estimator approximates individuals personalized Nest Egg Score and helps quantify their ability to build wealth.

Similar to receiving an online credit score, users of the Nest Egg Score Estimator are presented with a three-digit score based on a 450 850 scale, as well as a poor-fair-good-excellent rating, that mirrors the national Nest Egg Score. Based on their responses, users are also provided with tips on how to improve their saving and spending habits.

A.G. Edwards developed the Nest Egg Score in March 2006 to gauge the state of the nation’s saving and investing activities, as well as the economic environment that affects the ability of U.S. households to build their nest eggs. Compared with existing measures, the A.G. Edwards Nest Egg Score offers a unique and comprehensive look at how Americans are doing at building their personal wealth.

Just as the Nest Egg Score was created to offer a more complete picture of how the nation is doing at saving and investing, the Nest Egg Score Estimator is designed to provide individuals with a sense of how they’re doing at building their nest eggs.

Nest Egg scoring uses a scoring scale modeled after FICO scoring - 450 at the bottom and 850 at top. However, unlike the FICO index, your personal nest egg score is computed based soley on your answers to a series of questions. The score is informal, is not used by lenders and has no bearing on loan decisions.

Although the Nest Egg score is something of a gimmick designed to promote A.G. Edwards services, it is still a useful tool for HELOC borrowers and others. For example, a score falling well below national averages should be cause for concern and prompt a potential borrower to carefully question whether taking on additional debt is a good idea. Hopefully this type of tool will help spur a reality check among American consumers who seem to have gone overboard in borrowing at the expense of building long-term savings.

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