Before we look at how to build financial goals, we need to understand why you should even care about financial goals!
Obviously, goals are pretty important regardless of what type they are. Whether you’re making health goals, life goals, or financial goals you are working TOWARDS something.
And that something has an end to it.
When you set a goal, you have the end in sight. Which gives you the motivation to get there. It’s hard to keep motivation when there is no “end” or goal in sight. Like Zig Ziglar said, “if you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”
Of course, once you hit a goal you should always set a new one. The idea of setting goals is to constantly better yourself and put yourself in the life position that you want to be in!
So, what position do you want to be in financially?
Wait, before you answer – let’s move on to step one!
1. WRITE FINANCIAL GOALS DOWN AND BE SPECIFIC
Grab a pen and paper.
Okay, now answer my question!
“What position do you want to be in financially?”
Got it? Great.
Now, what goals do you need to set to get there?
2. MAKE A PLAN AND BE REALISTIC
Once you have your goals listed, it’s time to make a plan to reach those goals!
For example, the first financial goal is to be debt-free before you have kids. You have $20,000 in debt and can put an extra $420 a month towards your debt.
So, your first option is to pay off the debt in 4 years. But you’d really like to start having children in the next two years.
How can you reach that goal in two years instead of four?
Well, you will need to put an extra $834 instead of $420 towards debt every month to pay it off in two years.
This means you (and your spouse) will need to either work side hustles or overtime whichever is applicable to you to get an extra $414 each month for paying off debt.
With an end in sight, it’s much easier to work like a crazy person to get to your goals faster!
Although, you do need to keep a healthy balance between working like no one else and being realistic! Don’t set yourself up for failure.
3. HAVE A DEADLINE AND GET MOTIVATED!
We already touched on the deadline when making a goal, but having a deadline for each goal is SUPER beneficial.
In the example, here are the rest of the financial goals –
| GOAL | COST | PLAN | DEADLINE |
| 1. Debt-free before kids | $20,000 | $834/month for two years | Two years from now |
| 2. Save $45k per child for college | $90,000 (plan on having two kids) | $420/mo for 18 years | 18 years from now |
| 3. Save for annual family vacation | $3,000/year | $250/month each year | Annually |
For every goal, there is a deadline. It doesn’t have to be a specific date like on August 15th of 2023 we are going to be debt-free.
Unless you want it to be specific, you can have just a month and a year or a time frame like the example above.
The place to be specific is in your goals and plan! Having a projected deadline is the best way to keep the end in sight and keep you highly motivated!
I love financial goals and just setting goals in general! I hope that you can also find a love for setting goals and an even greater love for reaching them!
Keep the end in mind and don’t give up. Always build goals that make you better than you were yesterday!
Follow along for more financial tips!
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