Whoa!  Big words right?  It sounded intimidating sa totoo lang.  But when I read the manual, the graphics actually helped in making it seem less complicated, it's easy to do.  Compute your Cash Flow by listing all your Income and all your Expenses.  Then subtract all your expenses from your income and you will arrive at your net cash flow.  Don't be surprised because your net cash flow may be positive, negative or almost zero.  This is a good exercise because it lets you discover something about your financial status.  If the result yields to insufficient cash flow, then use your list to adjust your expenses or look for additional income.  You may use these worksheets:

Expenses are divided to three: Fixed Expenses, Discretionary Expenses, and Hidden Expenses. Usually, you adjust the discretionary expenses should your net cash flow be insufficient.

Next step is to compute for your SALN or Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth.  You may use these worksheets to guide you:

When I did this activity myself, I discovered that we do have a little more than enough, but we could have still saved some more if we put a ceiling to our discretionary expenses.  Both my husband and I work full time and it helped that I have sideline jobs where I get additional earnings.  I get our discretionary expenses and "wants" expenses from my sideline earnings.  But admittedly, if we have been more disciplined, we could have save some more or put our eggs in other investment baskets.

Moving on, now that we know our financial standing by doing these activities, we could assess if we're spending too much, if we're saving too little, if we need to get another job or look for another source of income, if we are too indebted, and if we have enough savings or emergency fund.  By knowing our financial condition, we could start financial planning better because we have a realistic baseline.

Sabi nga ni Ka Benjamin Franklin, "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail."  So, on our roads to financial freedom, careful planning should jumpstart it, and the timing is NOW.  But just like any other plans, your plan should be S.M.A.R.T.:

• Specific - list down what you really want to achieve or save for.  There are no right or wrong answers here.  Is it a car, a house, a cruise, an educational plan, a X amount of money?  List it down.
• Measurable - List down the cost of these dreams so you know how much you would need or save for.
• Attainable - Based on your SALN and your plans to save more to build your future around it, assess your specific dreams if they are attainable with the current financial condition you are in.  
• Relevant - Are your dreams and plans in line with your core values?  Know the whys of your plans and if they sound relevant to the life that you have right now or wish to achieve in the future, then go for it.
• Time-bound - A goal without a deadline will not push or pressure you into achieving or reaching for it.  Consider this as a project which you need to launch timely otherwise, it's like planning to fail.