The One-Page Financial Plan

The One-Page Financial Plan is a refreshing, fun look at personal finance, that takes away the feeling that financial planning is a burden for the less disciplined, and shows you that you can plan your entire financial future on a single page.

Think of mobile phones, 10 years ago. Would you ever have guessed that you could call and text anyone, anywhere in the world, for a flat rate fee of a few dozen dollars a month?

Not too long ago, our phone bills made up a big chunk of our monthly expenses, but today, they’re basically non-existent. Nobody could’ve guessed this, which is why you should treat your financial goals like a vacation: make a solid plan, but leave some room for unexpected surprises.

For example, setting the goal to pay off your $50,000 student loan within the next 3 years is a fantastic target to shoot for. The only thing that’s better is having the guts to admit that after you totaled your car in 2018 and had to get a new one, it’s just not going to happen. If you’re flexible enough to do that, you can settle on paying off $30,000 in the same period and still feel pretty good about yourself.

So whatever you do, remember that you can always adapt when your situation changes.

Do you think budgeting is just the world’s way to punish those with little discipline? Then it’s time to shift your perspective. Instead of focusing on the boring aspects, view budgeting as a way to track where your money goes and measure how that stacks up against your goals and values, so you can adjust when something’s off. More often than not, we say we want to travel the world and go to Vietnam this year, but in reality end up spending 20% of our income on parties, beer and eating out. This means we’re not living in alignment with who we truly are and therefore, needs changing. To make this change fun, turn budgeting into a game. Start by making a list of your fixed costs, the expenses you can’t change (like rent, your phone bill or car insurance), so you can then look at where you can really cut costs. Then you can start taking on little saving challenges, like trying to bike to work three out of five days of the week, cooking your lunch in advance for two weeks, or only going to the movies when tickets are on sale. For example, last year I only ate out twice a week on the weekends for two months. I ended up really enjoying the dishes I bought and learned how to cook new things. If you have…