The Other 90 Financial · Life Planning
3
Questions Worth
Sitting With
Dream · Reflect · Clarify
Before we plan your finances, we want to understand your life. These three questions — asked in succession — have a way of revealing what money is truly for.
Sitting With
Life planner George Kinder, who developed these questions, describes them as a progression: the first opens the door to freedom and dreams; the second introduces urgency and forces prioritization; the third cuts through everything to reveal what truly matters. The power is in asking all three — and noticing what shifts between your answers. Take your time. Write freely. There are no wrong answers.
Your Name
Your Email (optional)
Question One · Freedom & Dreams
If Money Were No Object
Imagine that you are financially secure — that you have enough money to take care of your needs, now and in the future. The question is: how would you live your life? What would you do with the money? Would you change anything? Let yourself go. Don't hold back your dreams. Describe a life that is complete, that is richly yours.
Kinder notes: this question is meant to open wide. Let yourself dream without constraint — security is assumed. Write whatever comes to mind first.
Question Two · Time & Urgency
Five to Ten Years Left
This time, you visit your doctor who tells you that you have five to ten years left to live. The good news is that you won't ever feel sick. The bad news is that you will have no notice of the moment of your death. What will you do in the time you have remaining to live? Will you change your life, and how will you do it?
Notice what shifts when the horizon comes into focus. Kinder observes: this question often begins the process of separating the essential from the merely comfortable.
Question Three · What Truly Matters
One Day Left
This time, your doctor shocks you with the news that you have only one day left to live. Notice what feelings arise as you confront your very real mortality. Ask yourself: What dreams will be left unfulfilled? What do I wish I had finished or had been? What do I wish I had done? Did I miss anything?
Kinder calls this question the compass. What you find yourself mourning here — what wasn't in your first answer but appears now — points directly at your deepest priorities.
Your responses will be sent directly to David and kept strictly confidential. They will shape your first planning conversation — and everything that follows.
Thank You
Your responses have been submitted. David will review them before your next conversation. These words matter — this is the beginning of planning built around what truly counts.
This material was developed by George Kinder and the Kinder Institute of Life Planning. The three questions are foundational to the EVOKE® Life Planning process. Learn more at kinderinstitute.com.
