Podcast: Carl Richards, The One-Page Financial Plan by Consumerism Commentary
It may have been over a year since I last put together a podcast episode, but I’m back today to talk with Consumerism Commentary Podcast guest Carl Richards. Carl is here to talk about his new book, The One-Page Financial Plan: A Simple Way to Be Smart About Your Money. The author will also be the keynote speaker at the upcoming FinCon Expo.
In today’s podcast, Carl and I discuss why reducing a complex financial plan to one page can be key for living the fulfilled life you envision and how certain emotions can stand in the way. We talk about avoiding financial mistakes, and what a financial adviser’s (or a friend’s) role might be.
Because Carl Richards is “The Sketch Guy” for The New York Times, we talk about the origins of Carl’s sketches, and how these sketches and Carl’s other art have been received in the art scene.
Finally, Carl and I discuss the process of publishing, and listeners will get an early listen to what might be the focus of his FinCon keynote address.
Transcript
Luke: Welcome to the Consumerism Commentary podcast, I’m Luke Landes. My guest today is the New York Times Sketch-Guy, Carl Richards, also the author of The Behavior Gap and his new book, the One-Page Financial Plan. Carl will also be the keynote speaker at FinCon this September. Carl, thanks for joining me today!
Carl Richards: Luke, I’m really excited to talk with you. Thanks for having me on!
Luke: We’re going to talk today about the One-Page Financial Plan, and it’s surprising to me, because if someone says “financial plan,” I think of a pretty thick document — 10, 20, 50 pages. I can’t imagine what it would take to get all that information about goals, projections, budgets, and investments on one page. So what does a one-page financial plan look like?
Carl Richards: First I have to tell you a funny story, real quick. My daughter, who was 9 at the time of this conversation, I heard her talking to a friend, and she was like “my dad’s really busy,” and her friend said “what’s he doing?” and my daughter said “he’s working on his new book,” and her friend says “what’s it called?” My daughter says “the One Page Financial Plan,” and then there’s this long pause and the friend says “well why is it taking him so long?!”
It’s clear, you’re going to do a lot of work. When it comes to financial planning, there’s going to be documents. I think saying that you’ve said 10 or 20 page documents is being modest. I’ve seen 200 page thick books, but the problem with those books is not that there’s not valuable information, it’s that we never use them. I’ve never seen somebody say “let me pull out my financial plan and reference it.”
A financial plan becomes almost like a product, or an event, in most of our minds like “okay, I got my financial plan done,” and to me, that’s the main paradigm I was trying to break and shift a little bit, is that planning is not a product or an event. It’s a process. It’s an ongoing process. And so, in order to make it an ongoing process, you have to have something to reference.
And so that, to me, is what the one-page financial plan is. You take all that stuff – maybe this is a good comparison. If you’ve ever put together an Ikea shelf, or a children’s toy, you know there’s a 50 page instruction manual in the box. If you want the thing to be put together correctly, you’re probably going to have to reference it.
See full article here.
The One-Page Financial Plan: A Simple Way to Be Smart About Your Money by Carl Richards
