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The world of personal finance is flooded with beautiful and sometimes (often) complex worksheets – which assume a certain level of expertise in using Microsoft Excel or its equals. This creates a lot of room for error for those less experienced with these kinds of programs and with that a serious bias in who has appropriate access to these ((un)necessary) tools. This is why, instead of creating just another version of the same complicated worksheets – I provide easy-to-use worksheets with limited access to prevent unnecessary (mistaken) modifications.
With this being said, hoping that every sheet can be used without much explanation, I do feel the need to provide access to some sort of manual for each of my worksheets for those still uncomfortable with using them. If after all this, you still have questions or missing something – reach out! info@financialphilosophies.com.
Last side note: I avoid the use of currency, to make any sheet applicable to your local situation – this does mean that you should try to avoid mixing different currencies into one worksheet though! I would love to think Rp 15,000 is the same as € 15,000 – but sadly this is not the case!
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on”
– Robert Frost
The worksheet – Life Calendar
Life passes us by, and before we notice we are in the middle of our career – wondering where the time went and how much time we still have left to make up for mistakes made in the past. To illustrate this, the concept of a Life Calendar was created by Tim Urban’s in blog post “Your Life in Weeks” back in 2014. that I wanted share to my readers, to show that we get a fresh box every week.
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The input - Your Information
The worksheet with perhaps the least requirements, with the minimal input being your date of birth (dd/mm/yyyy format), with the optional addition of the age you started working and the age you wish to retire (see image).
The golden cells indicate which fields still require an input, once filled out there lose the golden color.
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The outcome – your current net worth
With the input a calendar is created visualizing the weeks of your life spent since birth (golden squares), and those left until the age of 90 (grey squares, with an average life expectancy below 90, this endpoint equals death).
From left to right each square is a week, with one row filling up one year and from top to bottom every column representing one year of your life (your birthday being in the first square of each row).
If you’ve filled out the age you started working a line will appear in that year, with ‘Career start’ on the right. The same will appear if you’ve filled out your target retirement age. The squares in between are the weeks of your life spent working.
There you have it, a simple yet elegant manner of visualizing how much time has gone by, how much is still left and how much of your life you’ll spend working.
Have any suggestions for improvement or things that you feel are missing? Let me know in the comments below!
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