The book cover: Outsmart Your Paycheck, by Charles Wainer

Chapter 7 · Companion tool

The One-Page Plan

Header, three horizons, three monthly targets (plus a debt line, if you carry one), three vehicles, four checkpoint dates, signatures. One side of one sheet. Fill it in, check that it fits, print it, put it on the kitchen cabinet door.

Household name(s) One-year horizon (from your Destination Card) Five-year horizon Retirement horizon

Monthly savings targets

Two kinds of money, kept apart so the plan can be checked. Payroll money leaves before your paycheck lands. Paycheck money is what you move yourself after payday, and it has to fit inside your Chapter 3 margin.

Retirement through payroll: your 401(k) or 403(b) contribution, $ per month (it never reaches your paycheck) Emergency fund, $ per month, moved after payday Five-year fund, $ per month, moved after payday Retirement moved after payday, a Roth IRA for example, $ per month (the employer match first; the rest waits for the one-month buffer and any double-digit debt) Double-digit debt, if you carry any: balance, rate, minimum payment, and the month it will be gone Extra debt payment on top of the minimums, $ per month (the minimums are already in your Chapter 3 spending)

Vehicles

Emergency fund lives at Five-year fund lives at Retirement lives at

Checkpoints

My four checkpoint dates (most people pick the first weekend of January, April, July and October; self-employed: the weekend before each estimated-tax date)

Put all four in your calendar now, with a recurring reminder titled: Twenty minutes. STEADY.

Keep the streak going

Finish the chapter in the book, then come back for the next tool. If something here did not land, bring it to Open Mic and I will walk through it live.

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