The Action Plan App

This is the 16th and final exercise in a series designed to walk you through an entire financial plan.  The exercise is embedded in an Excel spreadsheet you can download and save for personal use.  You can read the backdrop for the exercise HERE, or just jump right in with the instructions given below:

The Action Plan is broken down categorically into the various sections of our comprehensive financial plan blog series.  As you organize each of the Apps you’ve completed, you’ll be able to carry the actions you’d like to take over to the Action Plan.  Each section will give you an opportunity to describe the fundamental change you want to improve your life as well as the practical change steps that you intend to take.  Beside each action in each section, you’ll be able to name a responsible party to complete the action.  It may be you or your spouse, or it may be an action that an estate planning attorney or financial planner will help you complete.

Then, you’ll have a column in which you’ll be able to prioritize all of these actions. Even if you have the money to implement everything at once, you definitely don’t have the time.  If you don’t prioritize, you may become overwhelmed with the task at hand and give up.  Finally, you’ll have a column to write in a date when it’s completed.  Give yourself the chance to feel that endorphin rush of checking off a to-do.  You deserve it!

Click HERE for the Action Plan app! And of course, you can also read more on the topic in the book Jim and I co-authored, The Ultimate Financial Plan, in Chapter 16, “The Gift of Action: Your Plan For Money And Life.”