With mounting expenses from Connie’s memory care, knowing where we stand is critical. If you don’t have a plan, here’s some guidance….
I FINISHED MY budget, or as I prefer to call it, my “operating plan.” With Connie in memory care, knowing where we stand financially is more important than it ever was.
I never have been a numbers guy and as I moved up through the newspaper management ranks I realized that if I ended up being a publisher/CEO I’d need to live with some numbers.
Enter Thomson Newspapers, a Canadian company now morphed into Thomson-Reuters. Thomson bought the newspaper where I was the editor and I was moved into my first CEO role since the top slot was vacant. My first meeting with the Thomson team was in a conference room to do what I thought was a budget for the paper, but they called an “operating plan.”
I asked one of the Thomson team what the difference was between a “budget” and an “operating plan.” “None,” he said, “but ‘operating plan’ doesn’t scare the hell out of non-numbers types.”
I realized over time that the term also was accurate. You create a budget that you then manage to for the next year. It is a goal list with one big goal at the bottom line – profit. Each month we would measure ourselves. Every one of my department heads, by the second of the month, had to provide me with a report on any budget area that was either 10 percent under goal or over goal.
Then I would create what was called a “manager’s letter” to my boss. I had to do the same thing, along with providing comments on what I was going to do about areas that missed the mark. That included where I had exceeded expectation. The logic was that if you do better than planned, you should know why. Either you did something to make it happen or you mis-calculated the original plan.
I am now working with private practice optometrists and at a recent big meeting my group of docs focused on the issue of “profitability.” It was my position they could not reach full potential without a budget, or operating plan. We spent a lot of time on that and will continue to spend time on it in coming months.
SO, AGAINST THAT backdrop I did my own personal “operating plan.” Since Connie went into memory care in January of 2024, I had not done one. My priority that first year was just getting through that first year.
A few weeks ago I started looking at budget and spending apps. I tried a couple, including Quicken, and either didn’t like them or was too dumb to figure them out. In the end, I went back to “old faithful,” an EXCEL spread sheet.
The apps pull your checking account, credit cards and investment activity into the app, which eliminates a lot of work. But, with Quicken, creating a budget from scratch makes all your line items “unused” if you are new to the app and to make them “live” you need to enter stuff in. I did not want to wait until January to do that. So, back to EXCEL.
I got it all done this week. Going forward entering everything in will take time, but I’m retired. It’s not like I don’t have time. Besides, being an old fart who learned all this with pencil and eraser, I think doing all the entries will be a solid monitoring and analytical action. It will make me look at things more intensively that just letting an app do it as I sleep.
Having a personal operating plan is no different than having a business one. In our case we have added a lot of expenses related to Connie’s care. While we have sufficient investments to handle a long-term situation, thanks in large part to our long-term care policy, it’s still critical to know where we stand.
When I got done with the process I found myself roughly $40,000 in the hole for 2026. Normally that would be a cause for panic. It wasn’t. I could look at the line items under “Connie’s care” and find that deficit falls there. We have sufficient reserves to weather what time she has left.
I also know that now that I have a detailed plan, there will be things I can do throughout the year to find savings outside of Connie’s care. I already know that some line items or more “wish list” than “need.”
When I watch the news and see what is happening to so many American families in our current crazy economic landscape of tariffs and government dysfunction, I wonder how many who are suffering have taken time to sit down and do a detailed plan. Probably not many. Over our marriage Connie did a lot of them and that, in large part, is why we can survive what we are going through now.
Want to see what it looks like? Here is my list of accounts and columns for January where I will enter the budgeted about, then the actual and look for and explain variances:
| 2026 OPERATING PLAN | ||
| Budget Line | January Budget | January Actual |
| INCOME | ||
| RICH SOCIAL SECURITY | ||
| CONNIE SOCIAL SECURITY | ||
| RICH CONSULTING | ||
| RMDS | ||
| DIVIDENDS | ||
| TOTAL INCOME | ||
| EXPENSES | ||
| ChestnutSquare Rent | ||
| ChestnutStaffGifts | ||
| ChesnutSquare Utilities | ||
| Renters Insurance | ||
| TOTAL CHESTNUTSQUARE | ||
| CONNIE HEALTHCARE | ||
| Barclay Rent | ||
| Connie Medicare | ||
| ConnieAARPSupp | ||
| BarclayPharmacy | ||
| TOTALCONNIEHALTH | ||
| RICHHEALTH/MISCHEALTH | ||
| RichMedicare | ||
| RichAARPSupplement | ||
| Vision | ||
| Dental | ||
| GenworthPremEscrow | ||
| Drug Co-pays | ||
| TOTAL RICH HEALTH | ||
| ENTERTAINMENT | ||
| Restaurants | ||
| Bars | ||
| Plays/Conerts | ||
| YouTubeTV | ||
| Amazon Prime | ||
| AcornTV | ||
| Netflix | ||
| TOTAL ENTERTAINMENT | ||
| DONATIONS | ||
| WilmingtonCollege | ||
| ACLU | ||
| SouthernPovertyLaw | ||
| Gifts to Family | ||
| Political | ||
| TOTAL DONATIONS | ||
| MEMBERSHIPS | ||
| Longwood Gardens | ||
| AARP | ||
| ChesterDems | ||
| ChesterHistoryCenter | ||
| SierraClub | ||
| National Preservation | ||
| TOTAL MEMBEERSHIPS | ||
| INTERNET/BLOGS | ||
| BlueHost | ||
| VerizonFIOSWireless | ||
| Software/Apps | ||
| Enewspapers | ||
| TOTAL INTERNET/BLOGS | ||
| TELEPHONE | ||
| Verizon | ||
| TOTAL | ||
| TRAVEL | ||
| AirFares | ||
| Lodging | ||
| Meals | ||
| Parking | ||
| TourPackages | ||
| Tips | ||
| Taxi/Uber | ||
| TOTALTRAVEL | ||
| AUTOMOBILE | ||
| Gasoline | ||
| Maintenance | ||
| Insurance | ||
| Registration | ||
| TOTAL AUTO | ||
| HOUSEHOLD EXPENSES | ||
| Groceries | ||
| Alcoholic Berverages | ||
| Clothing/PersonalItems | ||
| Cleaning Supplies/PaperGoods | ||
| TOTAL HOUSEHOLD | ||
| LEGAL/ACCOUNTING | ||
| CPA | ||
| LEGAL | ||
| TOTAL LEGAL/CPA | ||
| HOME OFFICE | ||
| Paper/Ink | ||
| Shipping | ||
| TOTAL HOME OFFICE | ||
| TOTAL INCOMES | ||
| TOTAL EXPENSES | ||
| NET PLUS OR MINUS | ||
| VARIANCE ACTUAL TO BUDGET | ||
Rich Heiland is a retired journalist and semi-retired consultant, trainer and public speaker. During his journalism career he was a reporter, editor, publisher, college instructor, part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team and a National Newspaper Association Columnist of the Year honoree. He also writes the intodementia.com blog about his family’s experience with dementia. He lives in West Chester, PA and can be reached at [email protected].