The Capital Map Diagnostic

Twelve questions about money you already have. No products, no projections, nothing to sign. Answer them honestly and you will know which of your three buckets is doing a job it was never built for.

Print it. Answer it in pen. Ten minutes.

0–12months out

Operating capital

Money that has to be there on a Tuesday. No notice, no penalty, no phone call to anyone.

  1. If you needed $25,000 by Friday, where would it come from — and what would getting it cost you?
  2. How many months of fixed expenses could you cover without selling something or borrowing?
  3. What is the last account you would touch, and what makes it last?
Months I can actually cover today:

12–36months out

Safety capital

Money whose only job is to keep you from selling your long-term money at the worst possible moment.

  1. If markets fell thirty percent next year and stayed there for two, what would you have to sell?
  2. What is your CD or money market earning after tax and inflation — and what date does it reset?
  3. If you own a business: you are out for six months. Who signs payroll, and out of which account?
  4. What is the largest unplanned expense you have faced in five years, and what did you use to pay it?
Months beyond the first year I have covered:

36+months out

Growth capital

Money you do not touch. Its only job is to be larger later, for someone you have already decided on.

  1. Which dollars genuinely have a ten-year horizon, and which ones are only labeled that way?
  2. Where is this money meant to end up — you, your spouse, your children, or a tax authority?
  3. What did you buy each holding for, and does it still do that job?
How long I could leave it alone:

Bothends

The two that decide everything

  1. If nothing changes for three years, what is the plan?
  2. A year from now, what would have to be true for you to say this was time well spent?

Six things that are either handled or they aren't

Money sits in buckets. Risk does not. Mark each row as you actually know it today — not as you intend to get to it.

  Handled Not sure Needs work
Asset protection If someone sued you personally tomorrow, what is exposed?
Capital asset risk Which single asset, cut in half, would change your plans?
Income taxation What is the plan for the tax bill sitting inside your retirement accounts?
Income protection If your income stopped for twelve months, what replaces it?
Retirement planning What is the first check you will live on, and where does it come from?
Estate planning Who signs if you cannot — and have they been told?

How to read what you just wrote

If you had to look up a statement to answer the first question in a bucket, that bucket is not planned. It accumulated.

If one account showed up as the answer in two different buckets, it is doing two jobs, and it will do the second one badly at exactly the wrong moment.

If the middle bucket is the thin one, you are not conservative or aggressive. You are simply one bad year away from selling growth money to pay for groceries — which is the single most expensive thing most people ever do.

Most people find one bucket full, one thin, and one that turns out to belong to somebody else.

Bring the sheet. One conversation. You keep the map either way.

Send it over or bring it with you and we will put your answers on a single page — what each bucket holds, what it is for, and which one needs attention first.