Financial Goals: How to Set and Achieve Them

Now that the dust has settled on the New Year and a mountain of resolutions that you’ve probably already decided you won’t really pursue at least half of. I want you to focus on setting financial goals.

Specific financial goals.

Attainable financial goals.

Financial goals that you will accomplish this year.

Now you may already have surmised this financial goal is sounding a whole like a SMART goal, and it is, but I’m not going to lecture you on what a SMART Goal is.

What’s your number 1 financial goal?

You might recall I have a few financial goals in 2017 including paying off my car loan and my bar loan. So how do I pick my number one goal? I set my number one goal by figuring out what goal I can set that will influence and help me to achieve all my other financial goals.

My number one goal is to earn more income in this first year of self-employment than I did when working a typical 9-5. I don’t just want to earn a little bit more than I did last year, I want to kick some serious income ass. My income goal for 2017? $80,000. Take time right now to assess what your number one financial goal is for the year.

Is your goal too big?

Now I didn’t just pull $80,000 out of thin air, its about a 25% increase over my 2016 salary. It’s a reasonable jump. Sure I would like to earn more, and I hope I do, but it’s a fine line between making sure you are stretching to reach your goals and setting yourself up for failure. $80,000 in a year comes out to about $6,700 a month. Which isn’t easy but is also far from impossible. What does your number one financial goal look like on a monthly basis?

What is your action plan?

Goals are all well and good, but you won’t get anywhere near accomplishing them if you don’t have a plan. Breaking it down to what a monthly level is just one part. What do you need to do to reach that goal each and every month? For me, it means 90 hours of work at my goal hourly rate of $75.

Now admittedly sometimes the work I am doing (like writing this post or pitching new clients) doesn’t result in any actual payment, so these are additional hours I work. So I’m looking to complete at least 22.5 hours a week minimum of work that is directly paid for, some work doesn’t pay as well or may take me longer to do so my hourly rate can fluctuate. In that case, I’ll be working more than 22.5 hours to complete work that results directly in a paycheck.

What is your action plan?

What do you need to do to put that plan into action?

Now, knowing what I need to accomplish (22.5 hours of paid work each week) to reach my number one financial goal ($80k in 2017 income) is just the start. I then need to break it down further. Do I need to charge more for my services, get more clients, branch off into other kinds of work? Hopefully a bit of all three in good time.

Right now my focus is getting more clients and building other income streams. If your number one goal is an income goal what do you need to do to accomplish it? If it’s a goal to pay off a debt or save an emergency fund, what do you need to do? Do you need to cut back on expenses or earn more income or both? Decide what you will do to help you reach your number one financial goal.

Cut Back on Expenses?

Need to save money – try using something like Chime to save for you.

Earn More Money

Need to increase your income? Check out the Make More Money Blog posts for ideas on side hustles.

How are you going to hold yourself accountable?

What system are you going to set up to make sure you check in on a regular basis and are holding yourself accountable? I’ll be sharing income reports along with my debt accountability posts to make sure I’m staying accountable.

While you don’t have to start a blog to hold yourself accountable, maybe consider an accountability buddy. Or look into a facebook group that is based on what your goal is about. Mark a day on the calendar each month with a “check in with my goals” time. Have a picture on the wall to keep track and remind you what you are working towards. Whatever is going to work best for you, do it. Make this year a kick ass year where you accomplish your financial goals.

What’s your number one goal? Let me know in the comments!