You will combine the number, the model, the drawdown map, healthcare and the life plan into one written plan.
By now your plan lives in a dozen places: a spending base, a two-part number, a model with six results, a choice of version, a drawdown map, a healthcare sheet, a list of things work gives you, notes from a conversation with family and the results of a trial run. Each piece made sense when you built it. Spread across tabs and notebooks, they are hard to read as one plan, and harder to check a year from now.
This project pulls them into one written document of four pages or fewer. It is the plan you will review every year, show a partner, or take to a licensed adviser. Allow about seventy-five minutes.
Write a financial independence plan in plain sentences, with the key figures from your model. Someone who has not taken this course should be able to read it and understand what you are aiming for, why, how you will get there, how you will spend the money and the time, and what you will check each year.
Keep it short. Four pages is a ceiling, not a target. A plan you will actually reread is worth more than a complete one you never open.
Start with three lines: your version of FI from lesson 5.4, your target year or age, and your two-part number from lesson 3.4, updated for healthcare in lesson 7.4. Add one sentence on why you chose that version.
Anyone who reads only the first paragraph should know what you are aiming for.
Next, set out the financial plan in four short sections.
The model: your inputs, your central return assumption and the six-cell table from lesson 4.4, with the date at your central case. State which input moves the date most.
The withdrawal rate: the rate you chose in lesson 2.4, your three reasons, and your adjustment rule for good and bad years, word for word.
The drawdown: your order from lesson 6.2, your buffer size and refill rule from lesson 6.3, and a summary of your map from lesson 6.4, including whether any years fall short.
Healthcare: the cash line before and after your payout age from lesson 7.4, and any decisions such as dropping a rider at a set age.
Then write the part that most plans leave out. Say what you will do with your time, using your replacements for the four things work gives you from lesson 8.1. Say who the plan affects and what you agreed with them, from the conversation in lesson 8.2. And give the results of your trial run from lesson 8.3: what you planned, what actually happened, and what you changed because of it.
Be honest here. If the trial showed a problem you have not solved yet, say so.
End with the assumptions you will check every year, and the date of your first review. The assumptions to list are the ones that moved your number or date most when you tested them, plus anything that depends on rules that change, such as CPF retirement sums and payout estimates, SRS and tax rules, and insurance premium tables.
Priya, from the earlier modules, wrote hers in three pages. All figures are made up. A summary of what it contains:
Her headline: full FI at 51, a two-part number of about S$1,561,000 including healthcare, chosen over barista FI because she doubts she could find part-time work in her industry in her fifties.
Her money sections: a model starting from S$200,000, saving 52.5% of take-home pay, reaching the target at 51 at a 4% real return, with stopping age as the input that moves it most. A 3.5% withdrawal rate with her rule to skip inflation increases and halve travel after a fall of 15% or more. A drawdown from a two-year buffer and taxable investments, SRS spread from 63 in her example, CPF LIFE from 65, with no shortfall years. A healthcare line of S$3,500 a year before 65 and S$6,000 after, with the rider dropped at 70.
Her life section: pottery and volunteering for structure, freelance work for small charities, and a note that her mother's support may grow. Her trial run showed spending about 3% over her base for six months, mostly on lunches out during the leave month. She kept the base, since lumpy costs had come in under budget, but listed it as the first thing to watch. It also showed the Wednesday volunteering slot did not suit her, so she moved it to Saturdays.
Her review section lists six assumptions: spending base, return, fees, CPF LIFE estimate, premiums and the mortgage end date. Her first review is in the first week of January.
A finished plan is four pages or fewer. It opens with the version, the year and the number. It contains your model outputs, withdrawal rate and adjustment rule, drawdown summary and healthcare line. It describes the life you are planning, who it affects and what the trial showed. It ends with a short list of assumptions and a review date.
Read it once more as if you were a cautious friend. Anything that makes you frown is something to fix now or to flag for the first review. Then save it next to your model, so that the two travel together, and get ready to put the review date somewhere you cannot miss it.
Write the full plan in four pages or fewer, and book a yearly review date in your calendar.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).