The five-year financial plan every household should have

Most financial planning advice starts with the wrong thing: a product. Here's a version that starts with the actual structure — five questions every household should be able to answer in writing, and a date to check the answers. No binder required. A page and a half, maybe two.

Question 1: What does it cost to keep the household running without one of us?

Write down the number: monthly essentials (mortgage, food, utilities, transport, insurance). Then the harder one: how long would the surviving income carry that? If the honest answer is "we'd be in trouble within six months," that's not a moral failing — it's a specific, fixable gap, and it's the input to every protection conversation that follows. The income-protection calculator turns this question into a number.

Question 2: If the worst happened, what would the family actually have?

List the real resources: existing life insurance (check the actual death benefit, not what you assume), savings set aside, and anything else specifically earmarked for the family. Compare it against what the family would need — income support, the mortgage, the kids' education. The difference is the coverage question, and writing both sides down is what makes the answer checkable instead of a guess. The needs calculator does the arithmetic.

Question 3: What does retirement cost per year — and what's funded?

Translate "retire comfortably" into a yearly number: a realistic spending figure, minus CPP and OAS (the pieces your plan already includes), equals the gap savings must fill. Then the second number: what's actually funded so far, and what contribution level closes the gap by the target age? You don't need to be precise to be useful — you need both numbers on the same page so the direction is obvious.

Question 4: Where is the money, and is each piece doing its job?

One line per account: what it is (RRSP, TFSA, high-interest debt, emergency fund, taxable), what it's for, and whether it's working. The usual findings are boring and valuable: the emergency fund is four weeks instead of six, the TFSA room is being left on the table, the high-interest credit card is quietly costing more than the investment is earning. Fixing one of these per year is a complete strategy.

Question 5: What happens when things change — and when do we look again?

A plan without a review date is a document, not a plan. The triggers are the same every time: a job change, a new family member, a big purchase, a sale, a health event, a move. And the calendar date — once a year, same month — catches the slow drift. Put the date on the page. Then keep it.

This is the exact structure a planning conversation follows — with the full math behind each answer. If you'd like the numbers checked by a professional, the quote page is the fastest way in, and the about page explains how the process works.

This article is educational and general in nature. It is not individualized financial advice.