Last week, I wrote about how most people don't have written financial plans. This prompted one reader to comment, 'what would a written plan look like?' Encore column asked Eileen Freiburger, founder of ESF Financial Planning Group, to outline the main elements of a financial plan.

1. Create a financial snapshot Before writing a plan, you need to know where you stand. First, document your cash flow, making a list of all assets, income and expenses, including credit card and loan debt, in Excel or in a notebook, she says. To better understand your expenses, gather three months worth of bank statements and credit-card statements so you can see how much you're spending each month, she says. Once you've gone over those statements, you will then also need to write down larger, less-frequent expenses