One in all my favourite motion pictures of all time is The Goonies.

And considered one of my favourite moments is when Mikey finds One-Eye Willy’s treasure map (actually, it’s when Chunk drops the body) and the Goonies go on their quest to search out his treasure.

We love treasure maps.

And we’ve got one too – it’s a map of our treasure.

We have now two Grasp paperwork that define our funds – Web Value Spreadsheet and the Treasure Map.

The Web Value Spreadsheet is a Microsoft Excel doc that calculates our internet price. It’s a month-to-month accounting of our monetary accounts and sticks strictly with numbers.

The Treasure Map is the qualitative rationalization of our monetary setup. It’s a Phrase doc that explains the aim of every account, the purpose of contact, and the way every of the items match collectively. Our treasure map begins with our monetary map – which is a drawing of how our accounts are interconnected.

Collectively, they offer you a whole image of our funds.

The Treasury Map reveals somebody the place our stuff is in order that it may be discovered if I’m unavailable (unreachable, lifeless, incapacitated, no matter). It’s taking the entire data I’ve in my mind and dumping it right into a doc so somebody doesn’t must guess what I used to be doing.

And it’s written in a approach that’s as primary as attainable, making no assumptions on the a part of the reader.

It has 5 sections:

Treasure Map Legend

The Treasure Map is a simple doc however something may be misinterpretated so I maintain a legend on the entrance explaining what it’s and what you will discover in it.

Plus, each time somebody will want this will probably be a traumatic time… so I attempted to make it so simple as attainable.

It explains how all of the sheets are associated, what updates the place, and somebody studying the doc will be capable to proceed the accounting (not that they may). This additionally acts as a reminder for myself in case I neglect how I set one thing up.

That is the place our monetary community map is included.

Financial institution Accounts

We clarify the aim and reasoning behind every account.

Somebody trying on the spreadsheet and at our checklist of financial institution accounts goes to marvel why we’ve got so many – so this part plains the way it suits collectively.

For instance, we’ve got a complete of 5 banks and each performs a particular position:

• Checking account that provides us a technique to deposit money and get doc signed/notarized.
• Our predominant on-line checking and financial savings account.
• Enterprise checking account.
• On-line excessive yield checking account that enables free wire transfers
• One account that acts as a firewall for different fee accounts (Money app, Paypal, and so forth.)

It additionally explains how they’re all associated and any particular account info it’s possible you’ll have to entry them.

Funding Accounts

We have now simplified our funding life into two brokerage accounts and this part explains the aim of every.

The investing technique part is extra detailed than the banking, with my goal asset allocation in addition to how these belongings are distributed inside every of the accounts.

I take advantage of Vanguard as considered one of my custodians and I’ve a Rollover IRA, Roth IRA, and a taxable brokerage account. One of many tough issues about these several types of accounts is that it’s typically a problem to get your asset allocation proper. It’s even more durable to reverse engineer what I used to be doing when you begin with simply the accounts.

The doc explains what’s what. For instance, I don’t put our bonds into our Rollover IRA, which is a tax-deferred retirement account. The final rule of thumb is that you just put bonds in a tax-deferred account as a result of bonds generate earnings and also you’d be taxed on that earnings if it have been outdoors of a tax-deferred account.

Bonds have had low yields just lately and so it’s really higher to have shares in these tax deferred accounts, however that’s not why we do it. If we wanted to entry our funds rapidly, we’d liquidate our bonds first as a result of they’re the least risky. In the event that they’re in tax deferred accounts, we’d take an enormous penalty. That’s the #1 purpose why… the way it’s extra tax environment friendly proper now, because of low yields, is solely a bonus.

OK in order that entire rationalization will not be attainable except I write it out in a Phrase doc.

Direct Investments

For some time I made just a few direct investments, or angel investments, in corporations. I don’t try this anymore however we nonetheless have just a few legacy investments held somewhere else.

This part of the doc incorporates all of the contact info of every funding, who was the lead investor, my relationship, who to name in case you have a query (in case it’s not the lead investor), in addition to the rest that might present readability on the deal.

A few of these are offers that don’t exist outdoors of authorized paperwork. You may’t log in someplace and see them. With out this and the itemizing within the spreadsheet, it will be tough for somebody piecing it collectively to even discover them as a result of they wouldn’t know the place to look.

For others, they’re managed in Carta.

Insurance coverage

Fairly easy right here – a listing of all of the completely different insurances we’ve got, ranges of protection, and the corporate we’ve got them with. Ours are all with one firm so it’s fairly straightforward to know.

If yours is barely extra difficult, attempt to put in as a lot element as you possibly can. For instance, in case you have time period life insurance coverage from a number of corporations (it’s not unusual to get $1,000,000 from two corporations at $500,000 every), checklist them and their particulars.

Keep in mind to Replace It!

When you could replace a internet price spreadsheet regularly, you would possibly neglect to replace your Treasure Map just because your scenario may not change all that a lot from month to month. I make it some extent to evaluation it each quarter or so and this test typically simply takes a couple of minutes.

If there are updates, like new accounts or new investments, I rapidly jot down notes so the handbook is full and updated. I believe that updating it on an annual foundation is enough except you make a whole lot of modifications and suppose it’ll be exhausting to recollect.

Whereas having an outdated copy is healthier than having nothing, an up to date one is finest.

Do you have got a Treasure Map or one thing comparable?

How would you increase or enhance mine?