Financial goals serve as actionable steps towards your dreams. Good financial goals should be specific and realistic. Also, research suggests that simply jotting down a list of financial goals makes you more likely to achieve them.
I’ve put together an Excel Automated Goal Setting Template/Spreadsheet in order to help you and me achieve our financial goals in a more efficient and measurable manner. I also put together a printable version in case you would like to print the template and write by hand your goals. The Excel template and the printable pdf are at the bottom of this page. The explanation of how the Excel template works is on the YouTube video below:
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Table of Contents
Setting Specific & Realistic Goals
Specific Goals
Make your goals specific enough to be measurable. Attach a dollar figure and a due date. Otherwise you’ll keep kicking your goal down the road or settle with less than your full potential. For example, pledge to pay $18,000 towards a car payment by the end of three years. Or to have a $20,000 down payment in 6 years.
Realistic Goals
While you want your goals to be somewhat challenging, you don’t want them to be so impossible that you end up abandoning them later on. Keep your time frame and income in mind.
Set Yourself Up for Success
Once you have your goals set, take action towards your goals. Set yourself up for success. Don’t put this off. This is especially important for the long-term goals. Although these goals seem a long way away, starting now is the only way to keep them realistic. Figure out what you have to do each month and each year to reach your goals and make as many of your steps automatic.
Remember Your Goals
Once you set your goals, you don’t want to promptly forget about them. Write them down. Keep them somewhere you’ll regularly see them. Perhaps this means creating a recurring reminder in your digital calendar or putting them on your desktop background.
Keep Yourself Accountable
Finally, make sure you strive to achieve your goals. Of course your goals are not set in stone. if you do fall short of your goals, it’s not the end of the world. The progress you make towards your goals is likely far more progress than you would have made had your goals not been in place.
One of the best ways to stay accountable is by sharing your goals. Share them with somebody who knows you well enough to bug you about them. If you are married, you should definitely share them or build them with your spouse.
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