What does this skill do, and when should you use it?
This is a Claude skill (financial-planner, v3.0) built specifically for Canadian residents that turns Claude into a personal AI financial coach. It runs a seven-round interview covering income, expenses, debts, assets, insurance, and goals, saving your data as local files so you can pause and resume across sessions. It then produces a complete budget, a phased action plan, an interactive Chart.js HTML dashboard, and shareable PDF/Excel outputs. The skill is deeply Canadian — RRSPs, TFSAs, CPP/OAS, provincial tax brackets and benefits — and enforces double-source verification of any changeable figure. It requires a paid Claude plan and provides financial education, not licensed advice.
At the start of each session it checks the user's folder for 1-my-profile.md to decide whether to resume an interview or enter ongoing coaching, and it politely declines non-Canadian users. It loads 17 reference files on demand (current-figures.md is the single source for all year-specific numbers), runs budget analysis, tax optimization, debt strategy, emergency fund, retirement projections, and insurance gap calculations, and cross-validates results before writing 1-my-profile.md, 2-my-budget.md, 3-my-plan.md, and 4-my-dashboard.html (a self-contained Chart.js dashboard with 15+ sections including net worth projection, CPP timing comparison, and a CRA calendar). It web-searches to verify current ETF, GIC, and HISA data, generates shareable/ PDFs plus a formula-driven Excel budget via openpyxl, and writes an auto-generated README.txt. When processing uploaded documents it extracts only amounts and account types, ignoring SINs and account numbers.
- A young Canadian starting from zero who needs a budget and to decide whether to fund an RRSP or TFSA first
- Someone 50+ weighing whether to take CPP at 60, 65, or 70 and how to avoid the OAS clawback
- A user in financial crisis with credit card or payday loan debt needing triage (negotiation, consumer proposal, or bankruptcy)
- A freelancer or incorporated owner deciding between salary and dividends, handling HST/GST, or claiming SRED credits
- A first-time buyer deciding rent vs. buy, negotiating a mortgage renewal, or weighing prepayment against investing
- Cross-border users: snowbirds wintering in the US, US citizens in Canada facing FBAR/FATCA, or newcomers needing financial onboarding
How do you install this skill?
- SKILL.md is truncated at 'Handling Edge Cases', so instructions are incomplete and actual behavior may diverge from documentation.
- PDF/Excel generation depends on markdown2/weasyprint/openpyxl without pinned versions; missing environments will degrade outputs.
- Requires a paid Claude plan and live web search; reachability from mainland China is limited and there is no Chinese-language support.
- Financial figures rely on reference files whose currency cannot be verified statically; cross-check against canada.ca before use.
- Publisher is unverified and this is an individual-maintained project; long-term update commitment is not assured.
- Shell / CLI
- Network access
- Local filesystem
Claude Pro/Max/Team/Enterprise for Cowork modeNode.js 18+ (Claude Code install route)Python libs markdown2/weasyprint/openpyxl for shareable outputs
Option 1 (recommended, Cowork mode, Mac/Windows): download financial-planner.skill from the repo, open the Claude desktop app, enter Cowork mode, then Customize → Skills → Upload and select the file. Option 2 (Claude Code CLI): run npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code, sign in with claude, then git clone https://github.com/cjpatten/canadian-finance-planner-skill.git ~/.claude/skills/financial-planner (Windows requires WSL with paths like /mnt/c/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/...). Option 3 (plugin marketplace): run /plugin marketplace add cjpatten/canadian-finance-planner-skill in Claude Code. The free Claude tier does not support skills or Cowork mode — Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise is required.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/cjpatten/canadian-finance-planner-skill.git ~/.claude/skills/canadian-finance-planner-skillGenerated from the source repository and skill path; it copies only this skill's folder. If the author's install steps above differ, follow those first. To scope it to one project, replace ~/.claude/skills with that project's .claude/skills.
How do you use this skill?
Once installed, send your agent any of these to trigger it:
- Help me with my finances.
- Let's do a monthly check-in,
- Should I buy a $900 TV?
- Is my RRSP on track?
Launch Claude from the folder where you want your financial files saved and say "Help me with my finances." First use confirms you're a Canadian resident, then runs a 30–60 minute interview across 1–3 sessions that you can pause anytime — progress is saved locally after every round. Afterwards, return with prompts like "Let's do a monthly check-in," "Should I buy a $900 TV?" (purchase analysis), "Is my RRSP on track?", or "I got a raise" (recalculation). A quick one-off question is fine; the skill won't force a full interview.
What are this skill's strengths and limitations?
- Deep Canadian localization: tax brackets, benefits, and health coverage for all 13 provinces and territories, including Quebec's separate system (QPP, QST, QPIP, Revenu Québec)
- All plan files are saved locally on your machine, enabling pause/resume across sessions and shareable PDF/Excel outputs for an advisor or spouse
- Built-in number verification: 150+ official source URLs, with a current-figures.md facts file and double-source web verification for volatile figures
- Ships with 12 test personas and a complete sample family plan (demo-sample-plan/) so you can evaluate output quality before committing
- Clear guardrails: no individual stock recommendations, no tax filing, and proactive referral to a CFP/CPA or fee-only advisor for complex situations
- Strictly Canadian-only; non-residents are declined outright and there is no adaptation for other countries
- The full flow requires a 30–60 minute interview over 2–3 sessions, which may feel heavy for users with quick questions
- Cowork mode requires a paid Claude plan (Pro from about C$24/month); free-tier users cannot use the skill at all
- The dashboard loads Chart.js from a CDN, so shared HTML files may not render charts when opened offline
- It is an education tool, not licensed advice, and cannot access bank accounts or CRA directly
How does this skill compare with similar options?
Side by side with related skills; every score comes from the same FSRS standard.
| Skill | FS score | Stars | Last updated | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canadian Personal Finance Planner Skill this page | 58 · Recommended | ★ 63 | 3mo ago | MIT |
| Quicken Mac Read-Only Query Skill | 64 · Recommended | ★ 45 | 1mo ago | MIT |
| RiseUp Finance CLI | 52 · Use with care | ★ 26 | 7mo ago | MIT |
| cuFOLIO Portfolio Optimization ✓ NVIDIA · Official | 59 · Recommended | ★ 3.6k | 11d ago | Apache-2.0 |
| Comprehensive Financial Plan ✓ Anthropic · Official | 41 · Not recommended | ★ 40k | 1mo ago | Apache-2.0 |
The README positions the skill against human financial planners, noting they typically charge $2,000–$5,000 for comparable planning, and it advises consulting a fee-only advisor for investments over $500K. It deliberately avoids endorsing any platform, saying "managed investing through an online platform" instead of "robo-advisor."
How did FollowSkills review this skill?
Evidence shows explicit sensitive-data handling (SINs, account and card numbers fully ignored, never echoed), local-only file storage, and clear privacy disclosure with training opt-out guidance. Deducted for: multi-file writes to user folders plus recommended python dependencies (markdown2/weasyprint/openpyxl) without version pinning or supply-chain disclosure; no rollback/deletion mechanism; Anthropic server claims are asserted, not verifiably attributed.
Evidence shows multi-stage validation (data completeness, recalculation from scratch, cross-file consistency), progressive on-demand reference loading, and a self-consistent architecture. Deducted for: static review cannot execute paths; SKILL.md text is truncated mid-section ('Handling Edge Cases'), leaving instructions incomplete; no committed tests or CI covering key paths.
Evidence shows a clear Canadian-resident audience with an explicit 'Canadian Gate' declining non-Canadian users, well-defined trigger phrases, and declared non-fit boundaries (no tax filing, no stock picks, not legal advice). Deducted for: English only; core function depends on paid Claude plans and live web search, raising mainland-China reachability concerns; reference file contents not reviewed in this evidence set.
Evidence shows MIT license, version and date stamps, changelog links, a well-layered doc structure (SKILL.md plus 17 on-demand reference files), and a maintainer feedback channel. Deducted for: unverified publisher with personal maintenance responsibility; truncated SKILL.md; dependency setup instructions split off into README rather than the skill.
Evidence shows complete output definitions (budget, plan, interactive dashboard, PDF/Excel) and claims of a demo sample plus 12 test personas with a scoring rubric. Deducted for: static review cannot verify output usability; PDF/Excel generation depends on external libraries that may be absent, degrading outputs; no executed verification of representative outputs.
Evidence shows 150+ claimed source URLs, a two-source verification process, demo-sample-plan and test-scenarios folders with a rubric, and key citable sources listed in README. Deducted for: the reference files themselves are not in the evidence set, so verification dates and figures cannot be independently checked; no third-party execution evidence.
Open a dimension to read why it scored that way
Evidence confidence：Low — Mostly static review, author material or a limited demo; useful for discovery, not high-risk decisions.
See the full review method →