The shared money map plan template

Part one, the baseline page

• List every deposit that reaches her accountsWages, self employment draws, support payments, benefits and any income from a former household. Good looks like each source with an amount and the date it lands, because the dates decide which bills are payable when.
• Pull fixed obligations from documents, not memoryRead the lease or mortgage statement, the decree, the insurance declarations and the loan letters. Clients under estimate fixed costs by a wide margin, and a baseline built from memory falls apart in month two.
• Set a variable spending figure from ninety days of statementsTake three months of account and card statements and total the non fixed spending. One number is enough at this stage. Splitting it into categories is a month three job and derails a first session.
• Record every debt with balance, rate and minimumInclude cards, auto loans, medical balances, a home equity line and anything owed to family. Rate and minimum are what let you sequence payoff later, so a balance alone is not enough.
• Note account access and whose name is on whatAfter a divorce or a death, title and access lag reality by months. Write down which accounts she can actually reach today and which are still being retitled, with the date she expects each to change.
• Write the one line summary at the bottomIncome in, obligations out, and what is left. Good looks like a single sentence she can repeat to herself, because that sentence is what she remembers when a sales pitch arrives.

Part two, the goal page

• Choose exactly three milestones, no moreA first engagement holds three. Common ones are a starter cash cushion, clearing one specific balance, and covering a known upcoming cost such as a repair or a deductible. More than three and none of them move.
• Put a dollar figure and a date on each oneA milestone without both is a wish. Good looks like a target amount and a calendar month, so at each check in you can say plainly whether she is ahead or behind.
• Name the funding line for every milestoneWrite where the money comes from: a specific reduction in variable spending, a paycheck week with five Fridays, a side income, a paused subscription. Unfunded milestones are the main reason plans stall by month three.
• Set the first milestone inside sixty daysThe engagement needs an early win that is visibly hers. Make the first target small enough that it lands before she starts questioning the fee, even if it is only a few hundred dollars set aside.
• Agree in writing what gets pausedEvery plan trades something away for a while. Write down what she is pausing, whether that is a category of spending, a gift budget or an extra payment, and for how long, so it is a decision rather than a slow disappointment.

Part three, the monthly check in log

• Book the next check in before this session endsA date on the calendar is the strongest retention tool you have. Good looks like the whole engagement booked at the start, with the dates written on the plan page itself.
• Record mapped against actual for each milestoneTwo numbers per milestone, what the plan said and what happened. Do this on the call while she watches, not afterward, so the record is agreed and your evening stays yours.
• Log one number that moved in her favorEven in a bad month something improved: a balance is lower, a payment was made on time, a category came down. Write it down, because clients quit when they feel nothing is working.
• Capture the blocker in her own wordsQuote her, do not summarize. The phrase she uses about the car repair or her mother medication is what you read back next month, and it keeps the plan connected to her actual life.
• Set one action before the next check inOne, not a list. Good looks like a specific action with a day attached, such as calling the card issuer on Tuesday or moving a set amount the day after payday.

Part four, the boundary page

• State plainly what coaching does not coverWrite that you do not recommend specific securities, insurance products or account allocations, and that you are not providing tax or legal advice. This protects the engagement and keeps sessions on the right side of the registration line.
• List the referral triggers you will act onName the signals in advance: unmanageable unsecured debt, a lawsuit or garnishment, a complex tax position, a decree question needing counsel. Written triggers make the referral a plan step rather than a judgment call under pressure.
• Record consent and how her documents are handledNote what she agreed to share, where it is stored, who else in the practice can see it and when it gets deleted. One paragraph is enough and it belongs on the same page as the plan.
• Date and version the map at every changeWrite the date each time the baseline or a milestone changes and keep the prior version. At renewal this history is the evidence of the work, and if anything is ever questioned it is your record.
• Store it where she can open it without youA plan she cannot find is not a plan. Good looks like one shared location she has used at least once during a session, plus a printed copy for the client who prefers paper on the fridge.