Financial Planning
Comprehensive planning across all financial areas
Week 52 Day 1: The One-Page Financial Plan: Everything on a Single Sheet
After 51 weeks of learning, your entire financial life can be captured on one page. Your savings rate. Your target allocation. Your account types. Your insurance coverage. Your estate documents. The most powerful financial plans are not 50-page binders collecting dust -- they are single-page summaries you actually look at. Write yours today.
Read commentary →Week 52 Day 2: The Annual Financial Ritual: 90 Minutes That Change Everything
Once per year, sit down for 90 minutes and run through your entire financial life. Rebalance your portfolio. Review your insurance. Check your beneficiary designations. Update your estate binder. Adjust your savings rate. This single annual session replaces the daily anxiety that plagues most people. You are not ignoring your finances -- you are managing them with discipline and efficiency.
Read commentary →Week 52 Day 3: What This Course Taught You: The 10 Principles That Matter
Fifty-two weeks of material condense into 10 principles: (1) Budget -- know where your money goes. (2) Save at least 20% of income. (3) Compounding is magic -- start early. (4) Buy index funds, not individual stocks. (5) Keep fees below 0.1%. (6) Automate everything. (7) Do not try to time the market. (8) Insure catastrophes, not inconveniences. (9) Protect your family with estate documents. (10)
Read commentary →Week 52 Day 4: The Millionaire Next Door: What Real Wealth Looks Like
Real wealth is invisible. It is the retirement account you never touch, the index fund quietly compounding, the mortgage-free house, the absence of car payments. Thomas Stanley and William Danko studied millionaires for 20 years and found that the typical American millionaire lives in a middle-class neighborhood, drives a used car, and works a normal job. They got rich slowly, by spending less tha
Read commentary →Week 52 Day 5: When to Get Professional Help: Financial Advisors, Fee-Only Planners, and DIY
You do not need a financial advisor to manage a three-fund portfolio. But there are moments when professional help is valuable: complex tax situations, major life transitions, inheritance planning, Social Security optimization, and divorce. When you do seek help, use a fee-only fiduciary planner who charges a flat fee or hourly rate -- not a commission-based advisor who earns more by selling you e
Read commentary →Week 52 Day 6: Money and Meaning: What Financial Freedom Actually Looks Like
Financial freedom is not a number. It is the ability to make life decisions without being constrained by money. It is turning down a bad job because you have savings. It is retiring early because your portfolio supports you. It is sleeping soundly because a market crash does not threaten your lifestyle. You built this freedom dollar by dollar, decision by decision, over the 52 weeks of this course
Read commentary →Week 52 Day 7: Graduation Day: A Star to Steer By
You do not need perfection. You just need a direction -- a star to steer by. You now have the knowledge to build a budget, harness compounding, invest in index funds, protect your family, and create a retirement that lasts. The tools are simple. The math is clear. The hardest part is not knowing what to do -- it is doing it consistently, year after year, for decades. Start today. Stay the course.
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