About this document
Cash flow is the single piece of the plan that touches every other piece. Tax strategy, savings rate, debt paydown, retirement funding, and estate intent all run through this one set of numbers. If the monthly picture is fuzzy, every downstream decision is a guess.
This workbook is the version we use with clients. It has a live dashboard, a savings-rate gauge that updates as you type, 127 pre-built formulas, and categories already mapped to the way most households actually spend. No setup required. Open it, start entering.
A 19-page printable PDF version is included for anyone who prefers pen and paper, or wants something to bring to the kitchen table.
What is inside
- Income inputs (W-2, 1099, rental, dividend, interest, other)
- Fixed expenses (housing, insurance, subscriptions, debt service)
- Variable expenses (food, transport, discretionary)
- Annual expenses prorated monthly (insurance renewals, taxes, travel)
- Savings allocations (emergency, retirement, taxable, HSA, 529)
- Live dashboard: inflow versus outflow, savings rate gauge, category heatmap
- Year-over-year sheet for tracking the trend, not the month
- Notes column for context so next year you remember why the number jumped
Print the PDF version or work entirely in Excel. Either way gets you to the same picture.
How to use it
Once, to set it up. Spend forty-five minutes populating the first month honestly. The template already has the categories and the formulas. You are only filling in your own numbers.
Monthly, to keep it current. Ten minutes at month-end. Update the variable lines, confirm fixed lines did not drift, look at the dashboard. If the savings rate dropped, the answer is usually in the variable categories.
Before our review. Pull the latest dashboard view into the conversation. We will move faster if both of us are looking at the same picture of the last ninety days.
Preview
Tap the cover to download the full 19-page printable PDF version.