How to Use This Field Manual

What you'll get from this chapter: How to set up your Command Binder, the daily-to-quarterly rhythm, how each chapter is built, and the field terms used throughout.

A field manual is not read once and shelved. It is carried, marked up, and referenced while the work is happening. Use this book the same way.

Build the Binder

Get a three-ring binder or create one digital folder. This becomes your Command Binder. Everything goes in it:

1. Your Declaration of War (Drill 1)
2. Your Battlefield Map: the debt inventory and Kill Board (Drill 2)
3. Your Operator Assessment and Rules of Engagement (Drills 3 and 4)
4. Your Weapons Authorization and monthly NAPALM allocation sheets (Drills 5 and 6)
5. Weekly Combat Reports
6. Your Combat Log: a running notebook of observations, slips, close calls, and decisions

If you go on to the Generational Wealth Guide, the same binder continues. The tabs change. The habit of keeping one source of truth does not.

The Rhythm

Campaigns are won by rhythm, not by heroic single days.

• Daily (2 minutes): Check spending against the plan. Confirm nothing unauthorized went on credit.
• Weekly (20–30 minutes): Complete a Weekly Combat Report. Update balances if statements have posted. Review triggers and close calls. Set one adjustment for the coming week.
• Monthly (45–60 minutes): Make the NAPALM allocation. Update the Kill Board. Re-rank if any rate changed. Confirm the emergency reserve is intact.
• Every 90 days: Run a full campaign review using Chapter 16, and set the shape of the next 90 days.

Choose fixed days. "Sunday evening" is an order. "Sometime this week" is a wish.

How Each Chapter Works

Each chapter opens with the doctrine (what the tactic is and why it works). It then gives the protocol (exactly how to execute) and closes with a Battle Plan Close:

• Mission Statement: the single objective of the chapter.
• Operations Order: the numbered actions.
• Field Test: the chapter's drill. This is the proof that you did the work, not just read about it.
• Weapons & Equipment: the Appendix worksheets you need.
• Combat Log: questions to answer in writing.
• After-Action Notes: what to record before moving on.

Do the Field Test before you start the next chapter. Reading ahead is fine. Executing ahead of the reconnaissance is not.

Solo Command or Joint Command

Decide now who is running this campaign.

Solo command applies if you are single, or if you are the only person whose finances are involved. You hold every decision, and your accountability has to come from systems and, ideally, one trusted outside ally (Chapter 14).

Joint command applies if you share a household budget, accounts, or debt with a spouse or partner. Joint command is not one person running the war while the other is "informed." Both people sign the Declaration, both see the full map, and both agree to the Rules of Engagement. Chapter 4 is built for you. Read it before you change anything that affects shared money.

Family command is joint command with dependents. Children do not need to see balances, but they will feel the changes. Chapter 14 covers how to brief them in age-appropriate terms.

Free Start: The 1% Scorecard

If you have not already, take the free 1% Scorecard on The 1% Academy site. It takes about five minutes and shows whether high-interest debt is your first front. If it is, you are in the right book. If it is not, the scorecard will point you to Book 2.

A Note on Numbers and Advice

Every example in this book is an illustration with round numbers chosen for teaching. Your rates, fees, and rules will differ. Where a tactic depends on lender terms, consumer law, or tax treatment, the chapter says so and tells you to verify. This manual teaches you how to think and what order to work in. It does not replace a licensed professional when the stakes call for one.

Glossary of Field Terms

These terms are used throughout the manual. Each is also explained the first time it appears in a chapter, and the full list lives on the site's Glossary page.