How to create financial goals you can ACTUALLY achieve

Do you wish you were able to create change to your financial situation by implementing realistic financial goals? But perhaps you struggle with where to start and make it meaningful so that you see if through. This blog will provide you with 3 tips and an exercise that you can do to create financial goals you can actually achieve.

Think SMALL before you think BIG

Firstly, lets start with the mistakes I see when people come to work with me for financial planning.

The biggest mistake is often people set themselves HUGE goals like, I want to buy 3 properties to rent out in the next 10 years.

There is nothing wrong with having long term big hairy goals like this, but the mistake is that people think BIG before they think SMALL. With financial goals, you firstly need to work out what your goals are and work backwards. Breaking them down into shorter, smaller, easier to accomplish tasks.

We can start by thinking about what is important to us and how we spend our money. Then we can actually begin to create a value based plan.

What do I mean by this?

What is value-based plan?

A value based plan is focused on principles that matters to YOU. Our values are like our ethical DNA – what makes us us. What makes us unique. Our values reflect our beliefs. Our values reveal themselves in how we behave. For example if you are a giver, your values will be reflected by your motivation to help others.

Another way to think about this is, how we spend our time and our energy. This speaks volumes about who we are and what we stand for. For many people, this time of the year is littered with goal setting and having financial GOALS is important. But what some people seem to think is that setting goals are too hard, especially financial ones and what normally happens if you start off with thinking about a goal in your mind but then don’t do anything with it. Sound familiar?!

When you look at typical traits of a millionaire, they use visualization techniques every single day. This helps them move it from a goal to reality and then they work backwards at what do they need to do to reach them.

So today, I want to help you really visualize what is important to you so that you can ensure your money is in line with your values.

Step 1 – What do you spend your money on?

What you spend your money on will equate to what you value in life. So my first question to you is:

How do you handle money in your life?

If you haven’t done so, go back and listen to episode 1 of my podcast where I talk through how you identify what you are spending your money on.

We often come across the term financial peace of mind. I really believe that if we live our values, we gain financial peace of mind. It isn’t financial products like having a pension that gives you financial peace of mind. It is the fact we are saving or investing towards our values.

The values that are expressed in what we spend reveal our habits and our values but they may not be aligned and often are not.

Each month when you analyse your spending, you can ask yourself the question “does my spending align with my values?”

In my 20’s I was spending over £500 per month on Amazon on wasteful ‘stuff’ that did not align to my values. It did not align to my goals. If your financial goals align to your values, you will make more effort to strive to achieve them.

Step 2 – Get visualising

If you want to get really serious about fulfilling your values and purpose you need to start visualising it.

Think about what visual image you may you use to encapsulate your values?

That could be sketching out that dream house by the sea so that your grandkids can come visit one day. Now you may be thinking, I am no good at drawing! Fear not.

Patti Dobrowolski does a terrific TedTalk on this subject which you can watch here. She talks about how in order to find your purpose, you have to visualise your future.

“You have to see it, then you have to believe it then train your brain to execute it.”
Patti Dobrowolski

She asks you to visualise what your current reality looks like.

What does it feel like?

What emotions does it conjure up?

What do you dream about doing next year?

You may be unsure how to make the first move so draw it out. Draw out what it looks like on the other side of your paper. Call it ‘Your Future Life.’

What does this look like? What does it feel like? Who is in it?

Now you can start to identify what whats needed to move you from your current reality.

What tools do you need?

Who do you need to help you?

Now what steps do you need to take?

Is it leaving your job? Moving home? Leaving an unhappy relationship?

Then you can start to think about what financial steps do you need to take to make it happen.

Step 3 – Think about the small steps you can take before you master the bigger steps

Ask yourself how you will know when you have reached the goal. For example, if it is to leave your job think about what can you be doing now to help move you closer to that goal. This could be setting up the website for your new business. One of your small steps could be to invest in a course to learn how to build a website rather than outsourcing it. I enrolled on Emma Drew’s course ‘Turn your dreams into money’ course which was one of the best courses I invested in when I started my business. Click here to get access to this course with £50 off the cost of the course of £197 using the code “MONEYPANEL”

Now stand back and look at the picture.

Now colour it in.
Make it look beautiful and inviting.
MAKE yourself want to implement the change.

I would love to see some of your drawings! Please feel free to email it to me at hello@themoneypanel.co.uk for my feedback!

And remember: If the plan doesn’t work, change the plan not the goal.

If you would like to listen to my podcast on this topic, you can listen in on iTunes here.

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