Why am I doing this project?

I grew up in a lower middle class house. I’ve seen my parents struggle to give us a house to live in, an education and I’ve seen them struggle during the days when Dal prices soared during Congress rule.

There are some benefits of growing up this way. I can live happily in a very minimalist lifestyle. I am very conscious of how much I spend and I always save first and spend later. I also know the power of compounding and the importance of saving and investing regularly.

Most of all, I know that no matter where you start, it’s possible to slowly but surely grow exponentially.

All that being said, I still have a very unhealthy equation with money.

I often end up attaching my self worth with the money I make. I constantly battle a voice in my head that makes me question if I’m making enough for myself, my parents, my sister and my own retirement. I get insecure when I learn of people my age making more money than me.

All in all, despite having some really healthy habits with respect to money, my relationship with money is very flawed.

When I made 5 LPA, I used to think that once I make 15 LPA, I will not worry about money anymore.

And then, a year or two later, I started making 15 LPA, and then I made more and then some more.

And yet, the angst about not making enough never went away.

That’s when I knew that my problems come from a lack of complete clarity about money. If the gods came down on Earth today and told me I will need some xyz Crore of money in my entire lifetime and I will make some abc Crore of money in my lifetime, where abc > xyz, then I will be completely stress free.

I realized that it wouldn’t matter much if others make more or less if I knew within me that what I make is enough for me. My insecurity and anxiousness was due to my own lack of clarity about money than due to others making more or less than me.

I also realized that if I am facing these challenges, many others like me must be facing these challenges and if I can find a solution, it can help others too.

That’s why I decided to make this Financial Planner.

What’s this project?

The Financial Planner is basically a sandbox for simulating any and all financial situations. It’s based on a framework that can be modified to accommodate any and all use cases / situations involving a person’s finances and it can be used to answer any questions or make any decisions related to personal finance.

Here are some questions you could answer with the sheet:

• What’s my expected retirement corpus?
• What’s the expected retirement corpus for my parents?
• Am I making enough money for myself and my dependents?
• Can I retire early or FIRE?
• What would happen if I leave my job?
• Am I financially ready to have babies?
• What if I fail to get a job after I’m 40?
• What impact would it have on my finances if I quit my job right now and took a break, only to return back to work a year later with a paycut.

This means that just about anyone can benefit from this sheet. This sheet is for:

• People who have never done any financial planning for themselves or their family but want to get started
• People who understand basics of financial planning but want answers to questions like the ones mentioned above
• People who’re considering going to a financial planner but also want to be in complete control of their finances
• People who have a loan or are starting a family and want to plan finances for their kids.
• People who are making a big life – decision that also impacts their finances

All in all, no matter who you are where you are in your financial journey, this sheet is for you. You can benefit from it.

A lot of what’s coming out of this sheet is based on assumptions about inflation, economy, salary growth, etc. A friend recently said that anything beyond 5 years is just numbers on a sheet.. who knows what will happen beyond 5 years… I partially agree with that. I agree that who knows what will happen beyond 5 years and how our assumptions will need to be changed. But I still beleive this exercise should be done with a horizon of your age until you’re 85 or more because This sheet might not be truth that pans out as you plan, but it definitely gives you a tangible feel and simulation of how your finances are and helps you take more informed financial decisions in life.

How did it come to be?

When I first acknowledged my need to have absolute clarity of my finances and my financial situation, I decided to look for a financial planner.

I wrote a message and passed it around on WhatsApp in my friend circle.

That’s when I connected with my colleague Kirti about this. She mentioned that she had experience in doing this planning and so we decided to take up this spreadsheet over the weekend.

It took us two sittings across two weekends to close this.

In the first one, we created a basic framework and answered some questions about retirement corpus and making enough money and having enough money to FIRE.

In the second one, we added some additional rows to handle savings and investments and simulated situations like losing your job or getting a paycut.

Once this was done, I spent two more sittings across another two weeks to make a clear How – to of the spreadsheet so anyone could use it.

Link to the sheet:

The complete sheet with clear How – tos and any support related information is available below:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gq8UTPh-9immZ7j308MxlIZBKJlS7vM0pRsX6uhQQKI/edit?gid=1280146565#gid=1280146565

How it works:

The sheet is based on a very simple equation that is intuitive to understand:

Earnings – Expenses = Savings

Savings once invested at an interest rate becomes Investments

All numbers increase slowly with inflation.

More details are within the sheet itself.

What’s next for this project?

I’ve benefitted greatly from this sheet. I’ve slept more peacefully after knowing just where I stand exactly and where I’m going to, in my personal financial life. I want more and more people to benefit from the same clarity and peace. To that end, this sheet will get the following upgrades:

1. I plan to make a video explaining this sheet because not everyone will be patient enough to read the How – tos
2. I wish to create multiple copies of this sheet, each catering to a different scenario. For example: A case where a person has a loan to pay, or maybe a case where the portfolio isn’t just divided into debt and stocks but into more components or a case where inflation isn’t taken as a blanket number on the overall expenses but added segmentally depending on type of expense → Rent, food, etc.

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