| Financial Plan Preparation Guide |
Normally folks don’t see the link between a financial plan and daily
lifestyle choices. They don’t realize that with the right attitude, a
financial plan could help lower debt, save regularly for
children’s education, and save to pay cash for a car and other stuff.
A financial plan shows in different forms, your financial picture from
doing goals and plans during a specific period. It captures financial
results from goal setting. Most folks don’t write financial plans
because they need help to develop one.
If you sense the Lord telling
you to write a financial plan, ask Him to guide you through the
process. Chapter 19 of The New Managing God's Money-The Basics gives a detailed guide to help you prepare your financial plan. These are critical information you need to do the plan:
goals, material worth, income, and cash flow statements, and so, we present forms below for each of these items.
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| Guidelines: Goals & Plans |
A goal is the destination, answering the questions: "What am I trying to do?" or "Where am I trying to go?" Goals must be three “Cs” certified: Clear, Complete, Concise, and
measurable. On the other hand, plans describe steps needed to do each goal. Plans answer the question, "how"? "Spending plans," which you will reflect in the expenses section below, answer questions: "how much" and "when"?
As you start this journey, describe each goal you sense you should be working on, its sub parts, and show when you will finish each. After, write accompanying plans (the plan box is expandable) as a precursor to working through the worksheets.
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| Guidelines: Assumptions & Worsheets |
You need to decide on assumptions that might apply to your circumstance. Items we show might be irrelevant to you. We added this section ONLY as a reminder to help you think about what might happen in the coming years; worksheets DO NOT USE them for calculations. Each worksheet merely adds figures you enter; they are not meant to be spreadsheets that calculate inputs. You can save fully or partially completed forms as pdf files, but you cannot save them for future use.
Except for your house, show stuff you own at prices someone is likely to pay for them; that's market prices. For your house, show it at the lower of cost or market. As you complete each worksheet it will calculate totals automatically. When you enter figures on the Asset form you will see the same totals for Assets and on the Liabilities & Equity form, "Other Assets." So, if you enter 250 for house (becaue the market price is $250,000) on the Asset form, you will see 250 for both totals, Total Assets and Other Assets. When you finish entering all Assets and go to the Liabilities & Equity form, each figure you enter there shows up in Total Liabilities & Equity and reduces "Other Assets" correspondingly. If you enter more loans and Equity than Total Assets, "Other Assets" will show negative, meaning, either Liabilities & Equities are too much or you need to add more Assets. So, if Total Assets show 10000 and you enter 8000 for mortgage, you will see 2000 under "Other Assets." And if you enter 12000 under mortgage, you will see -2000. Bottom line: Total Assets should equal Liabilities & Equities with "Other Assets on the liabilities form showing zero.
You will get an error message if you press "enter" after each entry. Either use the tab key to move from one field to another, or place the cursor in the field in which you wish to enter an amount. We pray you find this section helpful and would appreciate your comments.
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