Last checked 3 September 2026
Financial runway is the number of months a person could cover their expenses using only liquid assets, with no income arriving.
Borrowed from startup finance, where it measures how long a company survives on its cash balance, and it works identically for a household. The calculation is liquid assets divided by monthly spending.
Two adjustments matter. Use liquid net worth rather than total net worth, since equity in a house does not pay rent. And use realistic crisis spending rather than current spending, since a person out of work cuts discretionary costs — which usually extends the true runway meaningfully beyond the naive figure.
Runway is the most actionable number in personal finance because it converts an abstract balance into a concrete unit — time — and time is what a person actually needs when something goes wrong.
liquid net worth ÷ monthly expenses
In months. Use crisis-level spending, not current spending, for the honest figure.
selftickr turns your net worth into a stock — a symbol, a daily change, a rating and a chart. Manual entry, no bank connection, private until you decide otherwise.
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