Feb 17, 2017
Financial Goal Setting
While New Year’s resolutions often don’t last, this is a great time to be thinking about goals. Specifically, financial goals. So where do you want to be?
Take a quiet hour or two to write out your financial vision. Do you want to have a specific amount saved? Become completely debt-free? Pay off the mortgage early? Take an early retirement? Remodel your home? Become a major supporter of your favorite charity? Go back to school and finish that degree? Don’t limit yourself to what you think you can do. Give yourself the freedom to dream, to come up with your ideal financial scenario.
Then put your ideas aside for a day or two and come back with fresh eyes and see what you’ve written. While they all may not be completely realistic, chances are, you can find one solid goal that will bring you closer to your ideal financial scenario.
Set that as a goal for the coming year. It might be something small, such as putting 10% of your paycheck toward debt payments, and another 2% toward savings. But if you stick with it, your debt will eventually be paid off and you’ll have 12% to put toward savings. A small step sure, but there’s no telling where one small step in the right direction will take you.
Your personal finance is in your own hands. No one else can take responsibility for it. It’s a new year, the chance for a fresh start. Make it a successful one!