Ramit Sethi has heard plenty of money confessions on his podcast, “Money For Couples with Ramit Sethi.” Episode 280 opened with one that sounds impossible: a couple with $11 million in assets who still live month to month.

The Brooklyn couple, ages 42 and 52 with five children, net about $600,000 a year. Most of their wealth sits in two homes and a business. When Sethi tallied the fixed bills they must pay every month, the total ran past their entire take-home pay.

“But do you understand that when you spend 103% on fixed costs, you actually are way underwater because you also have travel, which is not included in fixed costs,” Sethi told them. The episode’s summary boils the problem down to one line: $11 million in assets, but only around $50,000 in savings.

Few households have bills on that scale, but the underlying problem is more common: a net worth that looks comfortable while the monthly math does not work. That gap tends to widen at retirement, when the paycheck stops and the fixed costs keep coming.

The 60% line Sethi draws

Sethi’s test is simple. “Normally, what I tell couples is they need to get these numbers to less than 60% on the fixed costs,” he said on the episode. Earlier in the episode, he said that for a household netting what this couple does, the number “should probably be way under 60%.”

Fixed costs are the bills you cannot skip: housing, utilities, insurance, debt payments, car payments and basics such as groceries.

To find yours, pull 12 months of bank and credit card statements, add up a year’s worth of those bills, including annual or twice-a-year charges such as property taxes and insurance premiums, and divide by 12. Then divide that monthly figure by your take-home pay, not your gross.

Anything well above 60% leaves little room for savings, travel, gifts or the surprise that always arrives eventually.

If the number comes back high, the budget system you use matters more than the one that looks best on paper.

Rerun the test with your retirement income

A fixed-cost ratio that works against a salary can break against a retirement income, because the bottom number shrinks while the mortgage, insurance and car payments stay the same.

So run it twice. First against your current take-home pay, then against what you expect to collect in retirement: your Social Security estimate from your my Social Security account at SSA.gov, any pension and a realistic withdrawal from savings.

If Social Security and a pension alone cover your fixed costs, market slumps become far less frightening. If they cover only half, you have found the job for the next few working years: paying off the car, refinancing or retiring debt, or deciding whether the house you have now is the house you can afford later.

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A house is not a cash cushion

The couple’s wealth looks enormous on paper, but almost none of it can pay next month’s bills. Home equity and a business can only become spending money if you sell or borrow. They learned that the hard way when a mold crisis, including remediation and their children’s medical treatment, cost $400,000 to $500,000 and wiped out much of their cushion.

Many older homeowners are in a smaller version of the same spot: a paid-down house, a retirement account and very little in checking. Keep several months of fixed costs in an account you can reach without selling anything, and compare places to keep your savings so that cash earns a competitive rate while it waits.

Numbers, not vibes

Sethi’s diagnosis was blunt. Until both of them see what the numbers actually say, he told them, “You will keep making decisions based purely on vibes.” The same goes for anyone who has not totaled their fixed costs in years. A spending plan that leaves room for the good life without wrecking retirement starts with that total.

If you would rather have a professional check the math, and you have $100,000 or more in investments, SmartAsset matches people with up to three fiduciary financial advisors, who are legally required to put your interests first. The matching service is free and comes with no obligation.

Its questionnaire takes about 10 minutes and asks for a phone number near the end, and you decide whether and when to respond to any advisor. SmartAsset connects you with advisors; it does not give advice itself. Money Talks News may receive a referral fee if you use it. Find a fiduciary advisor now.

An $11 million balance sheet did not protect one family from living paycheck to paycheck. One afternoon with a year of statements will tell you whether your own plan can stand on its income, not just its assets.