The Incline Financial Planning Blueprint

At Incline Financial Planning, we created our blueprint for a simple reason: clients deserve a clear, uniform process they can rely on every single time. This isn’t just a marketing message — it’s the same step-by-step framework we use internally to guide every planning relationship and ensure nothing important is overlooked.

We provide comprehensive financial planning and investment management to help you simplify your finances, invest with purpose, and build lasting wealth. We believe true financial success isn’t about luck, stock-picking skill, or having the “right” investment at the “right” time. Real success comes from following a clear plan, executed with discipline, and guided by timeless principles.

The Incline Financial Planning Blueprint blends several time-tested frameworks:

Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps — a behavioral-first approach rooted in the Biblical principle of debt freedom, emphasizing financial peace and responsible stewardship.
John Bogle’s Investing Philosophy — advocating low-cost, diversified index investing over speculation and market timing.
The Bucket Strategy — allocating investments based on time horizon to balance growth and stability.

Together, these steps create a structured path to get organized, protect what you’ve built, grow with purpose, and give generously — turning money into a tool for freedom, not a master to serve.

The Starting Point of Our Blueprint

Get Organized

The first step in any strong financial plan is clarity. We help every client get fully organized so decisions become easier, faster, and more confident.

Build Your Net Worth Statement

Your net worth is your financial report card — the clearest and most honest measure of progress.

At Incline Financial Planning, we start every client relationship by building a complete net worth statement that lists everything you own and owe.

We update this statement annually to track progress, spot trends, and guide long-term decisions. Over time, growing your net worth becomes the single best measure of financial health — more important than income, spending levels, or even investment returns.

Create a Cash Flow Plan (Zero-Based Budget)

Money without a plan disappears. That’s why we work with clients to build a zero-based budget — a system that gives every dollar a job before the month begins.

This plan becomes a powerful tool:

It exposes hidden leaks.
It reduces financial stress.
It ensures spending aligns with your values and goals.
It creates a feedback loop between what you want for your future and how you behave today.

A thoughtful cash flow plan turns intention into real, measurable progress.

Play Defense

Before we help our clients grow wealth, we help them protect it. Solid defense keeps one unexpected event from destroying years of hard work.

Insurance — Transfer Risk Wisely

Insurance is not an investment; it’s protection. We help clients secure only the coverage they need — no more, no less:

Life Insurance: Simple, cost-effective term life coverage that protects your family.
Disability Insurance: Crucial for high-income earners whose greatest asset is their ability to work.
Umbrella Liability: Affordable protection against large lawsuits.
Health Insurance: A non-negotiable layer of security.
Home/Auto Insurance: Structured to protect against catastrophic loss.

Our goal is to make sure your financial life can withstand the unexpected.

Basic Estate Plan — Protect the People You Love

Estate planning isn’t about wealth — it’s about responsibility. We help clients put the right documents in place so their wishes are honored and their loved ones are protected.

Every adult needs:

A Will — to name guardians and direct asset distribution.
Financial & Healthcare Powers of Attorney — so trusted people can act if you cannot.
A Living Will — to outline medical preferences.
Updated Beneficiaries — on retirement plans and insurance policies.

A simple estate plan removes uncertainty and safeguards the people who depend on you.

Once our clients are organized, protected, and clear on where they stand, we are ready to move forward with intention. This is where the Baby Steps come in. At Incline Financial Planning, we use Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps as the behavioral and structural foundation for building wealth, but we don’t apply them blindly. We adapt the details to each client’s situation while keeping the order and principles intact, because the sequence is designed to create momentum, confidence, and lasting results.

Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps

Why the Baby Steps Work

The power of the Baby Steps lies in both behavior and structure. Money can feel complicated, emotional, and stressful — and human nature often works against long-term planning. The Baby Steps address these challenges by:

Providing early wins: Paying off small debts or establishing a starter emergency fund gives immediate progress, reinforcing motivation.
Simplifying complexity: Each step is a clear, actionable goal, so clients know exactly what to do next without feeling lost in spreadsheets or investment jargon.
Training habits, not just numbers: The steps teach consistent budgeting, saving, investing, and giving — behaviors that become automatic over time.
Protecting your progress: Steps like building an emergency fund and securing insurance prevent setbacks from undoing years of hard work.

Why Order Matters

Following the steps in sequence is not arbitrary. Each step prepares the ground for the next, building both financial stability and psychological momentum:

Foundation before growth: Jumping straight into investing while carrying debt or lacking a safety net exposes you to unnecessary risk.
Cash flow fuels action: Eliminating debt frees up money for investing and saving, making later steps more powerful.
Confidence compounds: Small victories in the early steps create the mindset and discipline needed for bigger financial decisions.
Wealth serves life, not stress: By following the sequence, money becomes a tool for freedom rather than a source of anxiety.

Get Started!

Baby Step 1: Save $1,000 for a Starter Emergency Fund

This is your first line of defense. A small cushion prevents small setbacks from becoming big financial derailments. It’s not meant to cover every catastrophe — it’s designed to stop you from going further into debt the next time life throws you a $500 car repair or unexpected bill.

Baby Step 2: Pay Off All Consumer Debt (Except the House)

In Baby Step 2, we guide clients to attack debt strategically, using the Debt Snowball method to gain momentum and motivation. We help them:

List all debts (credit cards, car loans, personal loans) from smallest to largest.
Focus on paying off the smallest balances first to create quick wins.
Free up monthly cash flow to fuel the next steps of your financial plan.

By the end of this step, you’re debt-free (except the mortgage) and ready to start building your emergency fund and long-term wealth.

Baby Step 3: Build a Fully Funded Emergency Fund

Once you’re debt-free (except the mortgage), we help clients build a serious safety net by helping you:

Determine the right size of your fund based on income stability (typically 3 months for dual-income, 6 months for single or variable-income households).
Decide where to keep the funds for safety and accessibility.
Ensure you earn a competitive rate of return for your emergency savings.

By the end of this step, you’re debt-free (except the mortgage) and financially resilient, ready to move from defense into strategic wealth-building.

Baby Step 4: Invest 15% of Your Household Income for Retirement

Building wealth for freedom means investing consistently and intelligently. At Incline Financial Planning, we guide clients to invest 15% of their gross household income for retirement, using a clear, prioritized approach that balances tax efficiency and long-term growth. We help clients answer questions such as:

In what accounts should I invest my 15%?
Should I invest in Stocks, Bonds, Commodities, or Currencies? How much should I hold in Cash?
Should I buy funds or individual stocks?
How do I invest tax efficiently?
How often should I rebalance?
How and why to create an investment policy statement?
How do I effectively use the Bucket Strategy to determine an asset allocation?

Baby Step 5: Save for Children’s College

Education is a gift — but without a plan, it can become a financial burden. By this stage, you’re already investing 15% of your income for retirement. Now, we help you add college savings in a way that protects your future while preparing for your children’s education. Here we help clients:

Choose the appropriate investment account to save for college
Calculate how much they need to save
Determine an appropriate investment allocation for those funds allocated for future educational needs.

Baby Step 6: Pay Off the Mortgage Early

At Incline Financial Planning, we encourage clients to pay off their home early, removing their largest monthly expense and unlocking financial flexibility. Many people underestimate how much peace of mind this brings — and we help them see the tangible benefits.

Once your mortgage is paid, we now have freed-up even more cash flow which you can now increase the amount you invest. Additionally, by reducing your monthly liabilities, you can confidently take on a bit more long-term investment risk, allowing your portfolio the ability to grow even more.

This step isn’t just about eliminating debt — it’s about creating freedom, reducing risk, and giving your money the ability to work harder for your future. We walk clients through how strategically paying off the home becomes a powerful lever for building lasting wealth.

Baby Step 7: Build Wealth and Give Generously

Reaching this stage of financial planning marks a meaningful shift. With debt eliminated and a strong foundation in place, we help clients move from simply accumulating wealth to optimizing it, protecting it, and stewarding it for future generations. Our focus is on aligning financial resources with your long-term values and goals while managing risk, taxes, and transitions across generations.

At Incline Financial Planning, we guide clients through several key advanced planning areas:

Tax Planning and Optimization

We help clients make tax strategies work for them, reducing lifetime tax liability while maximizing flexibility:

Roth Conversions & Tax Bracket Management – Identify the right years to convert pre-tax accounts to Roth, limiting taxes over your lifetime.
Charitable Strategies – Build giving plans that maximize both impact and efficiency using Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs), Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRTs), or Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs).
Investment Tax Management – We coordinate asset location across taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free accounts, manage capital gains, and harvest losses strategically.

Our approach ensures your portfolio grows efficiently while keeping taxes under control.

Estate and Legacy Planning

We help clients protect their family and ensure wealth is passed on intentionally:

Family Wealth Transfer – Implement gifting strategies, family limited partnerships, 529 plans, and other tools to pass assets efficiently, minimizing current and future taxes.
Legacy Conversations – Facilitate intentional discussions about values, inheritance philosophy, and stewardship so wealth serves multiple generations as intended.

Our goal is to make sure your hard-earned wealth benefits your family fully and carries forward your values.

Strategic Charitable Giving

We help clients move beyond ad-hoc donations to a coordinated giving strategy. By leveraging tools like DAFs, CRTs, and QCDs, we maximize both the impact of giving and its tax efficiency. This allows clients to give generously without compromising their long-term financial goals.

Balancing Living, Giving, and Growing Wealth

At this stage, planning is about living fully while stewarding wisely:

Lifestyle Funding – Design retirement income streams that are sustainable and tax-efficient, sequencing withdrawals across taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free accounts to extend portfolio longevity.
Risk Management – Revisit insurance coverage to ensure that growing wealth and evolving life circumstances are protected.
Ongoing Growth – Maintain disciplined investment management, emphasizing diversification, sustainability, and alignment with long-term goals.

The question at this stage is no longer “Do I have enough?” It becomes: “How do I deploy what I’ve built most effectively — for myself, my family, and the causes I care about — while ensuring efficiency and stewardship across generations?”

Why the Incline Financial Planning Blueprint Works

At Incline Financial Planning, we built this framework to guide clients with clarity, consistency, and confidence. Here’s how we help:

Simple, Sequential, Behavioral – We help clients build a strong foundation first, then grow from there. Each step is deliberate; nothing is skipped, and every action reinforces progress.
Evidence-Based – Our strategies, including indexing and the Bucket Strategy, are grounded in decades of research, not short-term trends or fads.
Personalized – While the framework is consistent, how it applies is tailored to each client’s unique situation, goals, and values.
Biblically Grounded – Rooted in timeless wisdom, we help clients avoid the burden of debt and pursue freedom, stewardship, and purpose in every decision.

With this approach, clients don’t just grow wealth — they gain clarity, peace of mind, and the ability to use money as a tool to achieve freedom, security, and impact.

Conclusion

The Incline Financial Planning Blueprint is not a get-rich-quick formula. It’s a proven, disciplined process designed to help clients avoid mistakes, build wealth with confidence, and ultimately live and give with purpose.

This isn’t theory — it’s the framework we walk every client through, from their first $1,000 saved to the moment they realize they have the power to change their family’s story for generations to come.