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The Federal Reserve sure gets a lot of media attention. And yes, the discussion of when and if the Fed is going to raise interest rates can get a little tedious, but it still probably deserves some of your attention because interest rates are woven so deeply into the fabric of household finances.

The Fed finally raised rates at the end of 2015, but you might not be familiar with all the background. The Fed had sunk rates to unusually low levels as a response to the Great Recession. Why? Low interest rates help stimulate growth by making borrowing cheaper, and they also support asset prices from housing to the stock market.

At the same time, rates can’t stay near zero forever. When interest rates are too low, it can encourage inflation. It also leaves the Fed with very little room to lower rates the next time the economy enters a recession.

It’s the heart of the baseball season and, whereas 20 years ago talk about the sport would have centered on the All-Star Game, the trade deadline, and how the pennant races were shaping up, now the chatter is filled with terms like “Wins Above Replacement” and “Defense-Independent ERA.” For better or worse, advanced metrics have taken hold in baseball.

What is interesting about the transformation of so many sports nuts into statistics geeks is that Americans don’t generally apply the same quantitative rigor to their household finances. That’s a shame, because finance is far more suited to statistical analysis than baseball, and the right set of numbers can give you a clear, objective view of your financial condition. For example, here are a dozen metrics that could give you some valuable financial insight:

It’s the heart of the baseball season and, whereas 20 years ago talk about the sport would have centered on the All-Star Game, the trade deadline, and how the pennant races were shaping up, now the chatter is filled with terms like “Wins Above Replacement” and “Defense-Independent ERA.” For better or worse, advanced metrics have taken hold in baseball.

What is interesting about the transformation of so many sports nuts into statistics geeks is that Americans don’t generally apply the same quantitative rigor to their household finances. That’s a shame, because finance is far more suited to statistical analysis than baseball, and the right set of numbers can give you a clear, objective view of your financial condition. For example, here are a dozen metrics that could give you some valuable financial insight:

There’s a good reason I can’t get into extreme savings for retirement. When desperate financial times call for desperate financial measures, there is a good incentive to cut all unnecessary spending and eliminate bad debt. Many people even wait until they hit rock bottom before reforming their approach to their finances, because the effects of bad money management aren’t always clear until they’re completely unavoidable.