How do I build my map?

Once you’ve registered, logged in and are ready to start either click the "members area" link in the top right of the page to enter the Members Area. 

The member’s area homepage looks like this

 Members area pic

Click on the “Create New Map” button and you’ll get a screen that appears like the one below 

First of all you need to name your map for the main menu. 

You can have more than one map so name it something that will help you to identify it.

Once you’ve entered your name in the “Map Name” field you can then click the “Update” button and you'll be presented with your map for the first time. 

Using the tree menu in the bottom left hand corner of the page you can personalise each of the areas of your lifemap.

Click the red “Edit” link next to “Life Map” and you are presented with the screen below.

In the “Map Name” field enter the name of the map you’ve already used or another identifying or motivating name.  Alternatively “My Map” or leaving it as "Life Map" will do!!  This will appear in the centre of your map.

Whatever you enter in the “Purpose” field will display in the box to the left hand side of the map when you hover the mouse over the “Life Map” segment when viewing your map. 

 

When you’re happy, click “Update” and “information has been saved” will appear in red to confirm the save has been successful.

Click "back to maps" and you'll be back to the tree.

 

Roles – What do you need to be?

From the tree menu choose the first one of the areas of your life that you would like to focus on.  For the purposes of the example we'll focus on Wealth.  Click on the red “edit” button next to the "Wealth" link and enter your primary financial goal.  Then click “Update” when you are happy and “back to maps” to return to the tree.

Click the “+” link next to Wealth and the tree expands.  Click the “+” link next to “Role 1” and the tree expands again.

 

Each of the “Roles” represents something that you need to do or that needs to happen in order to realise your overall financial goal.  

For each role you can customise the “Role” name.  In this example we have suggested that in managing your Wealth you fulfil the roles of Creditor, Saver and Money Manager.


In the “Goal” section you can enter your goal for the role – so in this example as a creditor I intend to reduce my secured and unsecured debt to zero by 2015.

The content entered in the “Goal” field will display in the left hand box once you have clicked "Update".

 

Actions – What do you need to do?

In each role “Actions” exist.  These are the specific actions that need to be undertaken in order to realise the vision of the “Role”. 

In the example below you can see that the actions under “Saver” have been updated.  The roles under “Manager” have not. These are changed by clicking the red “edit” link.



At the actions level you can review your performance in meeting your obligations on a monthly basis.  On a regular basis simply ask yourself how you have performed against the individual objective.  When you first build your map everything will be green.

  • If you’ve completely met your objective then leave the segment green.  
  • If you’ve done OK but not perfectly, then click the amber radio button.
  • If there is significant room for improvement then click the red radio button.
     

Once you have done this click the “Update” button to save and the “back to maps” button to return to the tree.

Review your progress - Where am I now?

The colour of your map will change according to your overall progress against each of your actions and your goals. 

A quick glance at the map below illustrates the areas that you would want to focus on and review the actions that you have set for your journey towards your goal.

You can update any of the sections by accessing the relevant segment through the tree menu.

 

 And that's it - you're done.

Any questions then visit the Frequently Asked Questions page and if you can't find the answer there - get in touch.