LIST OF FINANCIAL GOALS YOU NEED TO ACHIEVE
New Year’s is the most popular time of year to set goals.
You can make health goals (eat less sweets), fitness goals (run a 5k), career goals (get a promotion), relationship goals (more date nights) and even financial goals (increase net worth).
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If you want to kick financial butt this year and in the many years to come, here is a list of the most important financial goals you need to accomplish.
#1 GET OUT OF DEBT
Pay off all of your debts, from your credit card debt, to your student loans, to your car payments ASAP.
We paid off ALL of our debt (no including our mortgages) February 2018 thanks to selling junk on the side, our tax return, and by significantly cutting our expenses.
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This is the book I would recommend to anyone starting their own debt free journey.
Related posts:
* 11 tips to successfully achieve your goals
* 7 ways to start the New Year off right
*Free & Frugal Ways to Get in Shape
#2 BUILD AN EMERGENCY FUND
Here are the basics of an emergency fund and why you need to have one.
Start by saving just $1,000, then work your way to 3 months worth of expenses.
Both my husband and I work full-time so we don’t need to save as much money. If you are part of a single income family or prone to emergencies, I would suggest saving more, like 6 months worth of expenses.
Next year I would like to contribute a little more to our emergency fund because I see some home/car expenses in our future. Plus, with 2 young kids a bigger buffer would personally make me feel more comfortable.
#3 BUDGET/TRACK FINANCES
As someone who has a love-hate relationship with budgeting I can’t stress enough how important it is to keep track of your finances and KNOW how much money you have to spend and save.
Stay organized.
I keep track of our finances in an online spreadsheet, but like having a physical copy that I can take around with me. I just love to crunch numbers. Is that weird?
This 12 month financial planner is a great way to stay on top of your spending and track your progress. Plus it comes with stickers 🙂
Calculate your net worth to see how your overall financial health is doing.
#4 PAY OFF YOUR MORTGAGE
There is a lot of debate whether paying off your mortgage is a good or bad thing.
However, being mortgage-free has always been one of the financial goals I want to achieve.
Our home mortgage is close to $2,200 a month! We have talked about downsizing, making additional mortgage payments, and possibly buying an investment property. Our next steps are to be determined.
If you want to pay off your mortgage you should make extra payments each month/year. You can take your tax return and put it towards the mortgage or use your side hustle money.
#5 DONATE
No matter where you are in your financial journey, an important financial goal to achieve is helping those less fortunate than yourself.
You don’t have to be debt free to help others.
You can donate your time, whatever you can afford financially, unused/used items, gift cards, food, etc.
Related post:
* Make money de-cluttering your home
Like Dave Ramsey teaches, the more you have, the more you can give. Check out his book and the best personal finance books of all time.
#6 INVEST YOUR MONEY
It can be very scary investing in the stock market, but it doesn’t have to be.
I started reading several investing books the beginning of this year so that I felt more confident managing our Roth IRAs. I read The Little Book of Common Sense Investing and The Intelligent Investor, both great books that are easy to understand.
Index and mutual funds are a great way to get your feet wet.
If that’s not your cup of tea, you can invest in real estate, high yield savings accounts, or a CD ladder to name a few alternatives.
#7 FIRE (FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE, RETIRE EARLY)
I tell my husband all the time that I want to retire early and travel. He used to laugh, but now I think he’s starting to make me seriously 😉
To me, retiring early doesn’t mean not working. It means not having to work to survive, but working to do fun things and enjoy what you do.
This is a financial goal you need to accomplish in your lifetime. Even if you just retire a few years ahead of schedule think of all the fun things you could do.
#8 CREATE MULTIPLE STREAMS OF INCOME
If you want to get out of debt, save more, and retire early, having multiple streams of income is one of the best ways to do all of those things faster.
You can sell things, babysit, make and sell crafts, etc.
Now that our debt is paid off we are coming up with a financial game plan to be mortgage free and retire early.
I started blogging over a year ago as a fun side hobby that I hoped would bring in some side income or at least let me break even. It wasn’t until I started treating blogging like a job and bought this blogging course and Pinterest course that I went from literally pennies a month to now close to $1,000. Imagine what I could do if I saved half of that for expenses and tax purposes and took the remaining $500 a month and put it towards investing or mortgage payments.
Selling junk on the side brings in way more money than blogging does for my family (for now), but by doing both of these side hustles we haven’t had to tap into our savings fund. *knock on wood*
Get your side hustle on today!
#9 BUY/DO SOMETHING OUTRAGEOUS
This may not sound like a financial goal you need to achieve, hell it may even sound counterintuitive.
I think everyone, at least once in their life, needs to spend money on something fun, extravagant, special.
Here are a few ideas that come to mind:
1) Buy yourself a piece of Tiffany’s jewelry.
2) Get a pair of red bottom Louboutins.
3) Go on an overseas vacation and splurge.
4) Buy a “new” car or a home.
My mom is a saver and my dad is a spender, yet both don’t seem happy financially. They have little saved for retirement and so I think it is best to find a balance in spending and saving money in your life.
#10 ALWAYS CUT SPENDING
When you get too comfortable with where you are at financially you get complacent and when you’re complacent you don’t improve.
I regularly review our bills to see where they can be reduced or modified to save us money.
We just recently reduced our cell phone bill even more by changing providers.
We aren’t loyal to one brand, we are loyal to improving our family’s finances and future.
This financial goal should be achieved on a regular basis.
The next bill we are going to work on reducing is our car insurance plan. We switched from our previous provider to save money. We have had a clean driving records for 3 years, which means we will probably save more money shopping around.
#11 DO WHAT YOU LOVE
Do you enjoy your job?
My husband just sent me a video that says that 85% of people do not like their job. Whether this is true or close to true, that is a staggering number.
I see people who bake for a living, blog making over $100k a month, flip flea market finds, sell clothing, and/or have their own Etsy store.
A lot of these people quit their previous full-time jobs to get out of the traditional rat race and follow their passions. They also happen to be making more money doing that. Yes there are risks involved, but with risk comes reward.
Me? I’m more of a calculated risk taker. If my blog could consistently make more than $8k a month I would quit my job just to spend more time with my kids.
Achieving all of the financial goals on this list means having the freedom to do what you love without having big money concerns.
One of my coworkers makes her own vinyl headbands, custom embroidered pillows and more. With the right business model I can see her quitting her job to pursue that “hobby”.
Find your passion and turn it into gold.
#12 SET A YEARLY SAVINGS GOAL
See how you can increase your savings rate each year.
Use this goal tracker to see your money grow. Do this coloring page money challenge with your friends for some friendly competition.
Do you know there are people out there who live on one income? *gasp* I know, it shocks me too. Maybe they live out in the boonies.
Our cost of living rate is way too high, but I know our savings rate for 2019 can be a lot better if we just work on it.
Calculate how much you have to save each week to hit your target saving for the year.
If you want to save $5,000 for the year, that’s just a little less than $100 a week.
#13 SET UP THE NEXT GENERATION FOR FINANCIAL SUCCESS
If you have kids it’s important that you teach them the importance of saving and achieving a debt free life.
I haven’t decided whether or not we will pay for some or all of our kids’ college tuition should they choose to go that route. Either way, I won’t tell them about it until afterwards so that they strive to get scholarships and work to save money on their own.
After all your hard work to achieve the financial goals on this list, you want that money to go somewhere special.
Have a will drawn up. Maybe you want to donate your millions of dollars to the cute puppy society, but if it isn’t written down it probably won’t end up there.
Here are a few more important things to do during and especially after you are debt-free.
FINAL THOUGHTS
There are so many financial goals you can set for yourself.
Whichever ones you choose to tackle and accomplish, I hope money comes your way, you enjoy what you do, and most importantly have a healthy new year where you can enjoy some of that money too 😉
Cheers!
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