The Spreadsheet Was Never the Point
A financial plan that started as a coping mechanism
On a Sunday morning, while my wife is still asleep, I might spend an hour or two looking over the same spreadsheet, the same data, and picturing a what-if scenario that likely won’t happen. Then I’ll wait excitedly for her to come downstairs so I can tell her how it changed some of my numbers.
I’ll say, “I think I figured out a way for us to both retire a year earlier.”
And she’ll say, “Did you make coffee?”
I know this isn’t how most people spend a Sunday morning. But for some of us who find ourselves drawn to thinking about financial independence, it kind of is.
I’ve been this way for decades. If we’re going on a trip, I build an itinerary in Excel with reservations, confirmation numbers, booked time slots, and of course make sure to schedule enough time for unscheduled time.
When we take on a new debt like a car loan, I add it to an amortization spreadsheet so I can see exactly when each debt ends and roll that payment into the next one.
I even built a spreadsheet to figure out when we’d need to start saving for two kids to go to college. The thing is, I didn’t have kids at the time. I still don’t. I had a separate spreadsheet for that too. A timeline for when my wife and I would need to decide to even have kids, overlapping with the age range that made most sense to start trying if we did.
I hate to say it, but there wasn’t some horrible accident that made me this way. And as far as my parents will admit, they never dropped me on my head. This is just how I exist. I reach for a spreadsheet when life gets complex or uncertain, like a coping mechanism.
I say this not to highlight how different we may be, but to point out what we likely have in common.
Anyone who has thought about their financial future has probably felt some version of that uncertainty, whether it’s looking for reassurance, trying to gain control, or just a vague sense that there’s something you should be doing but haven’t gotten to yet. That feeling is pretty universal.
What isn’t universal is how people respond to it. For me it’s a spreadsheet. For others it might look completely different, or it might just mean putting it off a little longer.
I didn’t start off any different from where some of you may be. When I first started my career, and even a few years in, I didn’t have a well thought-out plan. I was periodically checking accounts, had a general sense of my savings and debts, and was trying to figure out how to balance what was available with the decisions we were making.
I knew what I had, but hadn’t started connecting any of it to a longer view of the future.
That started to change when life began adding up faster than I could casually track it. We got married. We were thinking about buying a place and moving out of our apartment.
There were conversations about whether we’d start a family. A few years later I got a promotion, and my wife was considering a job change. There were a lot of moving pieces, and passively glancing at account balances wasn’t cutting it anymore.
With so much uncertainty, I opened an Excel file and went to work. I entered our salaries and made assumptions about what the next several years might look like, projecting where we’d likely be when some of these decisions came due.
Then I inventoried our accounts—retirement accounts, savings, checking, a brokerage account—and tallied what we were contributing to each.
A few more assumptions about expected returns, how many years we’d still work, and how long we’d need the money to last, and I was most of the way to a simple plan I could actually follow.
That simple plan has grown considerably since then. What started as a way to get my arms around a lot of uncertainty has turned into a living document I update throughout the year, revisiting it when something changes or a decision is approaching.
The habit of returning to it is probably what’s made the difference. There’s a big gap between something you create once and set aside and something you keep coming back to.
Variables, tradeoffs, inputs that change the outcome. They were all there from the beginning. I was building my own FI equation before I even had a name for it.
Not everyone needs to build what I built. My spreadsheet has grown into something that works for me but wouldn't be easy to hand off as is.
But having some intentional framework you actually return to, one that meets you where you are and grows with you, is something I think most people would benefit from. Mine started simple. Yours can too.
I’m planning a few more posts on this topic and your input could help shape what I write about next. Whether you have a plan underway or are still looking for a starting point, I’d love to hear what part of financial planning still feels most unclear or out of reach. Feel free to leave a comment, or if you’d rather not post publicly, my email is always open at brad@thefiequation.com.
— Brad
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This is meant to help you think through financial decisions and tradeoffs—not tell you exactly what to do. It’s general in nature and not personalized advice.