Najah Peterkin, Contributor
AN INDIVIDUAL may be able to highlight various goals, namely health, fitness, time management, career and recreational goals, but my focus today will be on personal financial goals.
Personal finance, I'm sure, will be listed among the top ten goals to tackle for many persons' new year's resolutions. Achieving your financial goal is not easy: however, getting your personal finances in order is a must!
There is no time like the present to establish a financial plan for the upcoming year, and in fact the rest of your life. As with anything in life, without specific plans for meeting these financial goals, we drift along and leave our future to chance.
The first step along the path to achieving financial health is learning what really drives you when it comes to money, and how money can help you to achieve your dreams. Upon doing this, you will see that you must control your day-to-day financial affairs, to enable you to do the things that bring you satisfaction and enjoyment, in other words, budgeting.
BUDGET
Whether you make thousands or millions of dollars a year, a budget is the first and most important step you can take toward putting your money to work for you, instead of being controlled by it and forever falling short of your financial goals. Budgeting and tracking your expenses give you a strong sense of where your money goes and can help you reach your financial goals, whatever they may be, whether purchasing a home, buying a new car, or just saving for a vacation.
Setting concrete and measurable financial goals will help you to achieve your targets and, hopefully, enable you to live the life you've always wanted. So ultimately, the aim is to choose and follow a course towards short-term and long-term financial goals. Set out first to accomplish goals that will provide the most financial benefit and free up resources that can be used to accomplish your other goals, for example: paying down credit card debts or your mortgage.
Identify and write down these goals.
Break down each financial goal into short, medium and long-term goals.
Learn how to prioritise your goals and create a savings strategy to reach them. Trust me, it will be easier than you think.
Dare to dream, but be realistic about what you can attain.
Short-term goals generally take one year or less to be achieved, based on the date the task is needed, the total estimated cost, and required savings.
Medium-term goals are those that cannot be executed overnight but might not take many years to accomplish. Examples may include purchasing or replacing a motor vehicle, getting an education or paying off your debt (of course, depending on the amount).
Long-term goals cannot be achieved overnight no matter how hard you work to achieve them. Even though your long-term goals may seem a long way off, the earlier you start to plan for them, the easier they will be to attain. Examples of long-term goals might include college education for a child or purchasing a home. Whatever the case, these goals generally require longer commitments and often more money.
Finally, one must have a financial safety net prepared, to prevent financial disasters caused by catastrophic illness or other personal tragedies.
Financial advisers suggest having enough savings in an easily accessible account to cover your living expenses for six months in the event of illness, job loss or other serious emergency. Life insurance is necessary if you have dependents that will suffer financially if you die (children, for example).
DISCOURAGED
Remember the reason people fail to achieve their goals is because they become discouraged, they feel as though they are not making any progress, the goal seems impossible, and they quit. Educate yourself on the various investment options available to you. With a little effort you can learn enough to make educated decisions that will increase your net worth. Identify small, measurable steps you can take to achieve these goals and put this action plan to work.
"People never plan to fail; they just fail to plan, " or set goals. There are no hard and fast rules for implementing a financial plan, the important thing is to do something and start NOW!
To further discuss investing and the many options we have available, contact Najah Peterkin, an investment
adviser at DB&G, at info@mydbg.com or toll
free at 1-888-CALL DBG.
