FI Household Alignment Map: Methodology
A clearer picture of money, together
Explore what matters to each of you about money: the life you want, what helps you feel secure, and the choices you make together. You do not need an existing written financial plan. There are no right answers to match.
After both of you review and approve what to share, your household map shows:
- Where you’re on the same page
- Shared priorities to recognize and build on, including things you still need to confirm with each other.
- Where you see things differently
- Different preferences or missing information that could affect your choices—not a verdict on either person.
- What to talk about next
- Conversation prompts to understand each other’s reasons and expectations, especially when a choice affects you both.
- What you decide together
- Choose suggested next steps, such as gathering information, and track what you both accept or leave open.
When you find a shared priority, take time to appreciate it. Explore differences with curiosity: “What makes this important to you?” You do not have to agree on everything. The aim is better understanding and clearer joint decisions, not a compatibility score or a test of financial success.
How it works
- Answer separately, starting with a brief private preparation and then ten money topics.
- Rate how important each topic is to you, from 1 to 5. Then choose the answers you want to share and approve an exact preview.
- Once both approve, use your map to guide a conversation and record decisions.
Your preparation stays private. In a new comparison, the report includes a record of the answers each of you explicitly approves for shared topics, alongside common ground, differences and conversation suggestions. Anything you leave out stays private. Earlier comparisons keep their original sharing rules.
Before you begin
One brief check asks whether you feel able to disagree or decline without retaliation. It stays with your account, never appears in a shared map or PDF, and sends no notification. If you feel able to continue, you go straight to your answers. Otherwise, individual options remain available without recommending a shared conversation. The tool does not assess or diagnose abuse.
You choose what to share at the end. Topics you excluded in an earlier preparation remain excluded until you deliberately allow them in your sharing choices. Allowing a topic does not select or share it. Updating preparation cancels your pending sharing authorization, but cannot recall a published map or downloaded copy. Leave this page opens a neutral site without clearing browser history or signing you out.
What the map does
Ten topics cover money priorities, work, spending, safety, investing and borrowing, housing, family support, education, giving and financial responsibilities. The map identifies planning dependencies, differences and missing information. It does not calculate whether an FI plan is affordable or diagnose a relationship.
How new comparisons work
Answer ten topics about what you want money to help you do, work, spending, security, shared choices, housing, helping family, children, giving and everyday responsibilities. Follow-up questions appear only when your answer makes them relevant. They are optional. You then identify any agreements or decisions ahead, rate importance from 1 to 5, and choose exactly what to share.
Only topics both people include enter the shared report. Within a topic, the report shows each person's explicitly approved answers, details and notes. It compares only fields both included. Missing information is not agreement or disagreement. Matching answers are common ground, not proof that you agree on every detail. Different work preferences can fit together; reliance on the other person's contribution needs a separate conversation.
Up to three suggested conversations are ordered by decisions expected within the next year, then importance when both people included ratings, then topic order. Ratings do not measure compatibility, safety or who is right. Reported agreements are each person's understanding; only a later, explicitly accepted next-step proposal is recorded as accepted by both. The tool does not assume you have a financial plan or shared accounts.
How earlier comparisons work
How the overall picture works
The shared-direction count includes discussed and still-assumed choices, shown separately. Its denominator excludes unshared topics and topics both mark not relevant. Unknowns never count as agreement. The ten equal-sized tiles show how broadly each finding applies; their size does not measure financial impact. The gap description explains the consequence of a difference, not a numerical distance between people. One essential condition can matter more than many matching preferences.
Why these conversations come first
New maps suggest up to three conversations: conflicting essential safety conditions first, unagreed income dependencies next, then other consequential differences, important missing information and important assumptions not yet discussed. Other unknowns or assumptions can provide a neutral starting point without implying urgency. Within a group, previously selected priorities retain their order, followed by topic order. Each conversation includes questions and a practical outcome. A connected story appears only where shared evidence supports it, such as work plans relying on unagreed income while spending expectations differ. No numerical compatibility score is calculated.
New saved maps retain their original overall analysis and prompts. Earlier maps keep the conclusions and conversation order they were published with.
Your private and shared information
Each adult uses a separate confirmed account and makes an independent newsletter choice; subscribing is not required. Private answers are encrypted and visible only to their author through this tool. Preparation is never shared. For new comparisons, you choose individual answers and optional details, review the exact preview, and deliberately approve sharing. Those selected answers can be read by your partner and included in a PDF when both include the topic. Unselected answers stay private. Earlier comparisons retain their original summary-only sharing rules; answers are never automatically converted.
Editing before publication invalidates your release. The first shared map is fixed after publication. Next-step proposals create separate records; only the exact acknowledged proposal can be accepted by both. The PDF exports the comparison and the next-step record currently selected in the report. You can always open your own full private answer record separately.
Invitation identity and control
After joining, both participants can see each other's Toolkit email address to identify the comparison. The sender can see the intended address of a new pending invitation. That display address is encrypted and removed when the invitation is accepted, revoked, replaced or delivery fails; expired display addresses are cleared by scheduled cleanup. Older pending invitations may not have a displayable address.
Revoke invitation stops an unused code and keeps your saved answers. Once the other person joins, use Withdraw my shared information to leave the comparison. You review what is removed before confirming.
Pilot limits
This pilot accepts any active, confirmed Toolkit account while its environment flag is enabled. Guests can edit both sides of a sample household without signing in; those temporary sample answers are encrypted in their own browser session, expire after two hours, and are not shared or saved as household records. Invitations are bound to the intended email, expire after seven days and are revoked when replaced. The invitation email contains a separate, short-lived sign-in link for its recipient, with no answers. Choose Sign in and continue, then decide whether to join. An expired link lets you request a fresh sign-in email without entering your address. Do not forward sign-in links. A provider acceptance does not prove inbox delivery.
Pre-publication cancellation clears your draft and both releases while retaining the other person's private draft. Withdrawal deletes your answers and the shared map, PDF source and working assumptions for both people. The other person retains only their own private answers and can copy them into a new comparison with fresh consent. Account deletion applies the same cleanup across your comparisons. Minimal records prevent old requests from reopening a closed comparison. Infrastructure backups are not erased immediately; no backup-erasure deadline is promised. Downloaded copies cannot be recalled. Real-information testing is limited to the approved household using separate private accounts. Keep the guest sample fictional. Saved answers remain available until you choose to remove them; this test is not an independent privacy or relationship-safety certification.
Connected-tool imports, custom free-text assumptions, full shared-tool registration and independent privacy, planning, accessibility and participant acceptance remain future work.