Here are the major phases for creating your personalized financial plan:

Create an initial plan. Tell Money about your current finances (income, expenses, savings, and investments) and your goals for the future. If you donÆt know the exact details, just estimate. You can always make adjustments later. Shoot for the stars, and include everything you want. DonÆt worry yet about whether your plan will work. In later steps, Money will help you weigh your tradeoffs.

See if your initial plan works, and improve it if necessary. Analyze the results of your plan. Detailed forecasts help you see whether your plan works, and if not, why. Personalized suggestions detail how you can better use your resources, highlight potential problems in your plan, and recommend strategies for improvement. You can then adjust various aspects of your plan, and examine the new results. Continue these steps until you have a working plan youÆre happy with.

Implement your plan. Once you have a suitable plan, make it a reality. The Lifetime Planner provides you with an action plan that provides the specific steps you need to take to meet your goals, such as creating a savings plan or adjusting your living expenses.

Monitor your progress. Periodically, return to the Lifetime Planner pages to see if youÆre still on track to reach your goals. Whenever you update the value of your accounts, the results of your financial plan are automatically recalculated.

Update your plan regularly. At least once a year, make sure your plan continues to reflect your goals. Maybe now you want a second home. Perhaps the return on a particular investment isnÆt as strong as you thought it would be. Try out different scenarios. Perhaps you can still retire early.