Setting Personal Financial Goals
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Setting Personal Financial Goals
If you do not know where you are going, how will you know when you get there? This is very true about financial goals. You need to set financial goals to help you make wise financial decisions, and also as a reward for your efforts. Goals should be clear, concise, detailed, and written down. Unwritten goals are just wishes. Those who set goals and fail often find that they didn’t set realistic goals to begin with. So, the first step in setting any goal is to determine what is realistic and what is not. In this article, you will learn how to set realistic and achievable financial goals.
Things To Know
- Goals should be clear, concise, detailed, and written down.
- In order to achieve all your goals, you will need a plan.
How you achieve your goals
You achieve your financial goals when you have the cash available to satisfy some immediate financial need, want, or desire. The key is to be prepared to have the required cash when the time comes to achieve the goal. For example, suppose you want to buy a brand-new car costing $30,000 using cash five years from today. In five years and one day, you will know whether you achieved that goal. If you have the $30,000 five years from today, you have achieved your goal. That is all pretty definite, but is it realistic?
You will have more than one financial goal to achieve. Besides the new car, you might be considering buying a home, funding higher education, paying for a wedding, taking a vacation, or accumulating retirement nest savings. Each financial goal has its own price and time horizon—when you need the money.
You should have a plan
In order to achieve all your goals, you will need a plan. Starting from what you already have available, you will need to determine how much more you need to accumulate and when you will need it. Don’t neglect to consider that the price of your goal items might actually increase as well. Depending upon how you invest your savings over time, you might receive interest, dividends, or gains to help you along—you should consider this as well. Do you have the means to make additional investments necessary to accumulate the required wealth? Don’t neglect to consider the effects of taxes on your savings. After considering the foregoing, you might determine that you can achieve some goals in less time. Or you might find that it could take longer. The time horizon is important to setting realistic goals.