This is an excerpt from YOUR MONEY: Reimagining Wealth in 101 Simple Sketches by Carl Richards.
Every month, I get pitched a new investment opportunity, whether it’s my neighbor wanting to buy real estate or a friend starting a business.
I used to go down these financial rabbit holes…
Spending weeks of my time talking about it, researching it, and considering it.
One day, in an act of frustration, I paused and asked myself some pretty basic questions.
Why am I doing this?
Why is money important to me?
How much is enough?
I grabbed a Sharpie and wrote the answer on a piece of card stock:
Time with my family, mainly outside, and serving in my community.
Now, when a new opportunity comes up, I don’t spend time thinking about it. I just glance at that card and ask: Will this investment opportunity get me closer to my goals?
The answer is almost always, “No.”
I started calling that card my one-page plan.
You can call yours whatever you want—a statement of financial purpose, a touchstone, or a reminder of what you said was important to you when you were thinking clearly.
Even if it’s just a sticky note on your laptop, it’s better than having no plan and will save you hundreds of hours each year.
This excerpt from YOUR MONEY: Reimagining Wealth in 101 Simple Sketches is reprinted with permission of the publisher, Harriman House, an imprint of Pan Macmillan. Copyright © 2025 by Carl Richards.
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