HAPPY NEW YEAR! It’s that time of year again…the time where people make resolutions about the next year and what they are going to do (or not do) in every aspect of life. And I am sure that some of those resolutions will deal with personal finance. For years, I made resolutions but that was as far as I went. I didn’t consider the achievability or even write them down. And for years, I failed to keep my resolutions. Three years ago, things changed. I came across this quote, and how I tackled my resolutions changed.
“A DREAM written down with a date becomes a GOAL.
A GOAL broken down into steps becomes a PLAN.
A PLAN backed by ACTION makes your dreams a REALITY.”
Since 2016 I have taken the time each December to write down my goals for the next year. I break the goals into categories, and one category is “Financial”. I track progress during the year and when goals are accomplished I am able to cross them off and develop new goals to tackle. As the new year gets started I thought I would share my method for creating a financial goals list to help you as you get 2019 started off on the right foot!
- DEFINE AND PRIORITIZE FINANCIAL GOALS: The first step you must take is to define and prioritize your financial goals. For my husband and I, our goals are already loosely defined by our budget. Our budget makes it clear where we are currently saving, paying down debt, or investing. After taking our budget into consideration, we write out all of our current short-term and medium-term financial goals. We then prioritize them based on where our lives are headed. Things we consider when prioritizing are outside deadlines (end dates on loans etc.), life goals, and how we would like to grow in the next year.
- ESTIMATE AMOUNTS: Once we have completed step one, it’s time to determine how much n