Clearly written financial goals are absolutely essential for anyone that is committed to achieving financial freedom in their lifetime. It is our clearly stated financial goals that we have committed to writing that will compel us to take action to achieve financial freedom in our own lives.
Without clearly stated goals, we will abandon our financial commitments for the future and only think of our immediate wants and needs. We cannot afford to waste our precious time, money and resources consuming our future by our lifestyle choices today.
Therefore, it is absolutely essential that you take some time and write out your vision and goals for your finances and your life. You want goals that will inspire you. Goals that motivate you to achieve financial freedom and live the life you have always imagined living.
Here are some great proven ideas to help you get started committing your financial goals and dreams to writing. Take action to make them a reality in your life today.
Your Vision – I urge you to take some time to reflect on what you have always wanted, dreamed of doing or achieving in your life. Spend some time thinking about these possibilities for your life without limitations or based on your current financial condition. We live in a visual world. I urge you to look through magazines, books, videos or online to find images that match your dreams for your life. Use these images to capture your vision for your life in writing. Create a journal for your notes and images. This journal will become your inspiration to achieve your goals. Therefore, dream big and invest the time to create and capture your dreams for you life. Here is a link to an excellent article that I published on our site on The Power of a Vision to Transform Your Life & Finances.
Specific Measurable Goals – Your vision will provide the direction and inspiration for you to take action to achieve your goals for your life. Your goals will create the plan and specific steps for you to work on achieving your vision for your life. Your goals must be very specific and measurable. The more specific you define your goals, the greater your chances of achieving them. Therefore, since you are dealing with defining specific long term financial goals to help you achieve your vision for your life, I suggest you seek out some professional input. A financial professional can help create long term financial forecasts that take into consideration inflation, cost of living increases, long term health care costs, retirement benefits, etc. You can use this information to set your short term financial goals.
Achievement Date – Nothing ever happens without setting a specific date for the achievement of your goals. Without a specific commitment to the date that you will achieve your goals, you really have nothing more than a dream. Dreams only become a reality when you commit them to writing and take action everyday to achieve them. You will want to set both short term and long term goals and celebrate the achievement of each goal. The achievement of short term goals will provide you with greater certainty and confidence that you will ultimately achieve your long term financial goals for your life.
Commitment – Your commitment to your goals must be unwavering. You cannot be willing to sacrifice your financial freedom and your hopes, goals and dreams for your life for short term pleasures and purchases today. Ultimately, it will be your vision that you create for your life that will keep you focused and committed to your dreams. Therefore, I suggest that you read and reaffirm your vision & goals for your life on a regular basis.
Financial Literacy – You should be committed to increasing your knowledge in a variety of areas relating to your personal finances, debt, assets, real estate, mortgages, investments and your retirement goals, etc. Your increased financial knowledge will help educate and empower you to make informed financial decisions that will impact every area of our life. Your increased financial literacy will help you understand the recommendations of the experts that you seek out for additional advice and input with your personal finances
Creating New Financial Habits – New financial goals will require you to develop some new financial habits in your life. This is where your commitment to improving your financial literacy will pay big dividends in your personal and financial life. Your increased financial literacy will provide you the knowledge and resources that you need to work on creating new financial habits in your life. Here is a link to an article that I published several weeks ago on the “Top 10 Foolish Financial Habits” http://bit.ly/fLioHV This article is a great starting place to take a look at your personal finances.
Accountability & Encouragement – We all need some accountability and encouragement in our lives. However, I urge you to select someone that believes in your potential and your abilities to achieve your financial goals. It should be someone that will be your champion, your coach and your encourager to help hold you accountable to achieving your specific goals and dreams for your life. You may want to find a mentor or role model that has achieved what you are inspiring to achieve in your life. A mentor can provide additional insight, wisdom, experience and encouragement to help you achieve your financial goals and dreams for your life.
I hope this article has inspired you to start working on creating specific financial goals to make your dreams become a reality in your life. Do you know someone that might benefit from this article? If so, please forward this article to them.
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