The One-Page Financial Plan
A financial plan you will actually use can fit on one page. What goes on it is why the money matters to you, where you stand, what the money has to do, and the few moves that come next.
When a family works with a planner to build a financial plan, what usually arrives is a bound document of forty or more pages. Projections, charts, account summaries, prepared once and read once. There is nothing wrong in it. It is just too long to use when a decision is actually in front of you, which is when a plan is worth anything at all. So we build both. The full plan gets done and kept current, and a one page version with clear next steps sits on top of it, which is the one a family actually works from.
What goes on the page
Four things. The why, in your own words, because every other line is judged against it. Where you stand: what you own, what you owe, and what a year of your life costs. What the money has to do: the income it must produce, the thing it has to buy, or whatever else it is being counted on for. And the next moves: the two or three things worth doing between now and next year.
The idea comes from Carl Richards, CFP®, whose book The One-Page Financial Plan starts with one question, why is money important to you, and follows it with the two or three things you would do this year to move toward the answer. We keep his question and add the numbers, because a statement of values without them is a good poster and a poor plan.
The whole plan fits on one page
A values line at the top, a short read on where you stand and what the money must produce, and a few moves for the year. Illustrative — every real page is different, because every family’s why is.
The heaviest of those numbers is whatever the money is being counted on to do: the income it has to produce in retirement, the price of the building, the gift you intend to make. That figure sizes the saving, shapes the investing, and sets how much risk the portfolio can carry. When the answer is retirement income, Retirement Income Planning walks through it. The moves at the bottom are each a sentence on the page and a project behind it: a Roth conversion in a low-income year, from Planning for Taxes, or a first step to lighten a position that has grown too large, from Concentrated Wealth.
How we use it
One-page documents do two things in our work, and we use them for more than the plan itself.
The first is focus. A family comes to us with a problem they want solved, and the page keeps that problem at the top where it belongs, instead of letting it get buried under everything else a financial life contains. The second is simplicity. Money is complicated enough on its own, and it usually feels more complicated than it is. A short document does not make the complexity go away, but it does mean you are never looking at all of it at once.
Where this lands
Most people do not need more financial information. They need a smaller, clearer picture: the why, where they stand, what the money has to do, and the next few steps, on a page they look at often enough for it to matter. Keep the long document, and keep it current. Work from the page.
- A financial plan you will actually use can fit on one page: why the money matters, where you stand, what the money has to do, and your next few moves.
- Whatever the money is being counted on to do — produce an income, buy something, fund a gift — that figure sizes the saving, the investing, and the risk.
- A page keeps the problem you came in with at the top, instead of buried under everything else.
- You find out what matters by seeing what you leave off.
Your financial life, on a single page.
Building the page with a family — and keeping it true as life and the law change — is core work of this practice.
How we work →Educational content only. This article is for informational and educational purposes and does not constitute personalized investment, tax, or legal advice, and does not create an advisory relationship. A financial plan — on one page or many — depends entirely on individual facts, and the illustrative figures and moves shown are invented teaching examples, not projections, recommendations, or promises of any outcome.
The “one-page financial plan” concept referenced here originates with Carl Richards, CFP®, in his book of the same name; it is mentioned for illustration and education only, and its mention does not imply his endorsement of, or affiliation with, TenBroeck Wealth Management. All investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The firm and its related persons may or may not hold any security, fund, or asset class mentioned, and any such position may change at any time.
TenBroeck Wealth Management, LLC is an investment adviser registered with the State of California (DFPI). Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. The firm does not provide tax preparation or legal services; tax and estate strategies are developed in coordination with your CPA and attorney, who confirm and implement tax filings and legal documents. The firm is affiliated through common ownership with TenBroeck Insurance Services, a licensed insurance agency; the firm or its representatives may receive commissions on insurance products implemented for clients — compensation separate from advisory fees that creates a conflict of interest. Clients are under no obligation to purchase insurance through the affiliate. This and other material conflicts are described in the firm's Form ADV Part 2A, available upon request.
Written by Schad TenBroeck, CFP®, Principal. CFP Board owns the marks CFP® and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® in the United States.