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Writer's pictureTreavor Dodsworth CFP®, CPA, CKA®

7 ELEMENTS OF A FINANCIAL SUMMARY

the number seven

Financial plans used to entail a man with a suit and tie delivering a 100-page paper document to a client who quickly had glazed-over eyes.


Introducing the one-page financial plan. Made popular by Carl Richards and adapted many times over, the idea is that many of the elements of a financial plan can be boiled down to a single page. Personally, I use two pages and call it a financial summary.


Here are the seven elements of that financial summary.

  1. Goals - Briefly list both short and long-term goals.

  2. Investment Allocation - What is the equity vs. bond makeup of your household investments?

  3. Net Assets - Total list of all net assets. I specifically call this net assets instead of net worth in an attempt for people to unbundle their self-worth from their net worth.

  4. Cash Flow - What are you spending on the five uses of cash flow?

  5. Strengths, Challenges, Opportunities, and Threats - A high-level SWOT analysis.

  6. Available Cash - What is your current cash position and upcoming cash needs? Do you have any cash over and above your emergency fund that can be put to work?

  7. Next Steps - Specifically list next step actions that will be taken.


By regularly updating and managing the above seven financial elements an individual will have a much greater level of control and purpose to their finances.



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