You need to look at what you want and do a checklist to make sure you are both motivated and willing to do what it takes to get it. You may talk to a few people for advice and check the ‘weather’ to see how stormy the ride may be and if it’s worth it at all. Then you select your destination and take off and set a heading for it. From this vantage point you keep an eye on your progress and adjust as needed, but from where you sit the little stuff doesn’t bother you because it’s small stuff that will pass. You keep adjusting your course, but the destination is the same – financial freedom. And while you are en route you enjoy the journey with the knowledge that you know where you are going and how to get there, and with a little luck you’ll get there soon.

A right brain financial plan needs to be visual, flexible, simple, and if at all possible fun. No problem. Here’s some suggestions on how to make the linear, left-brain act of planning more creative. You could start by making a time line beginning with where you are and ending with when and where you want to be. Along the time line you can write, draw or paste pictures of what you want to happen and when (roughly) they could occur.

You could simply write out a plan (like a business plan, but this is for your personal finances) that spells out what you want and what you have to do to get it. Include any resources you’ll need and how you expect to get them.

You may want to write a short story about your future (as you want it to be) with characters, plots and of course, a happy ending. You can start with ‘where I want to be in five years’.  Then craft a story of how you will get there. This project is more of a ‘how to’ than a ‘mystery’. Along those same lines you can write an interview with yourself as if you already had what you want and explain how you got it. Piece it together by working backward. Fast-forward to the future, and then trace your steps to figure out what it would take to get where you want to go.

If all this seems like too much work, then simply pick an image of what you want and put it up where you can see it. Or write a mission statement for your life. This statement would include your means, motive and opportunities, as well as your goal.

Another way to simplify the planning process is to go through magazines and catalogs and cut out pictures that represent the things you want. Then paste them to a board, making a collage. If you want to get fancy, cut out the pieces so they look like pieces of a puzzle and as you achieve one you start putting the complete picture together. This way you see your progress, and it gives you something to shot for.

You might make a meter with benchmarks written along the side. As you reach each level you color it in. You can also make your plan look like a board game. Each square is a goal, and you move your game piece along as you go.

I am sure you can come up with even more creative ways to plan. The goal is to create something you will look at and stay with. Here are a few guidelines that may help you in the planning process.