Hello Wealth Builders!
A couple of days left from 2018, and soon we will be on for another year!
What is your greatest accomplishment this year? Where you able to follow up with your New Year’s resolution?
What about this upcoming year? Have you thought of new goals to make?
What about financial goals? Do you have one as well?
Let me hear those on the comment section down below.
If you have not given any thought as to why you should have personal financial goals, then let me give you some reason plus a tip on how to set one!
5 Reasons Why Having Personal Financial Goals Can Improve the Quality of Your Life
Reason 1: Our finances affect us in every part of your life.
It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out that personal finance affects a person’s quality of life. Married couples with different financial views have a higher tendency to get divorced if they don’t take any preventive actions. Parents who work double shifts to sustain extravagant lifestyle usually have a poor relationship with their kids. Youth and young adults who are not taught by their parents about finances are usually broke when they are older.
The truth is “Happy Wallet, Happy Life”, and mind you, a happy wallet is not equal to having a big income. Personal finance is just simple math. We just need to make sure that our total expense is less than our income. If we can keep this, then we can have a happy wallet.
Reason 2: A borrower is a prisoner of a lender
The Christian bible says, “the borrower is the slave of the lender”. I don’t know how you view the Bible, but I hope you can see the wisdom behind that advice.
It is true that if we borrow money, then we become slaves of the lender.
Just ask these questions to yourself, “Who are you living for”?
Do you live for yourself or do you live for your mortgage bank, credit card, car loan, etc? Are you at peace when you wake up in the morning or are you worried that it might be the day you will find yourself bankrupt?
The truth is most of us cannot do what we want to do because we have to grind at work to pay off our mortgage, car loans or our credit card debt because if not, our “master” will take it all!
Do you honestly like to live that way for the rest of your life? If not then take a stand! Declare to yourself that you had enough of this lifestyle. Promise to yourself that you will do your best to escape from the rat race. If you do, I promise you that I will do my best to help you out. Just send me an email and I will do my best to help you out.
Reason 3: It will help us set our priorities in life
Having financial goals will help us set our priorities in life because it will force us to see that our money is limited thus we need to spend it wisely. We should be able to prioritize our expenses and allocate our income accordingly.
For example, if our financial goal is to get out of debt, then our first step to is to figure out our total debt, what are those debts, and if they are necessary to us.
Our next step is to determine what is our monthly after-tax income and our current total expenses. If we want to get rid of your debt fast, then either we will have to find a way to increase our income or how to reduce our expenses.
Since it is easier to reduce our expenses than asking for a promotion or getting a better and higher paying job then our next step would be to identify which of our expenses can be replaced, reduced, or eliminate.
As you go through this process, you will see that you have expenses that are not necessary. You will see how much you spend buying fast-food (bad for your health), video games (bad for your time management), alcohol/cigarette (bad for your liver/lungs) etc. I
If we are serious about accomplishing our financial goals, then we must set our priorities in life straight to eliminate our debt, increase our savings, and start investing in the future.
Reason 4: It will help us to take control of our lives
We cannot say that we are in control of our lives if we are in or in the brink of financial ruin, instead, it is more accurate to say that our bank and debts are in control of our lives if that is the case.
Setting a financial goal can help us take control of our lives because we are not in the mercy of our creditors. It enables us to have a financial cushion that allows us to do whatever we want to do whenever we want to do.
Let me share with you a personal story to prove my point.
I learned about affiliate marketing in August 2018 and it got me excited to build my online business as fast as I can. Unfortunately, I have full-time work and I work part-time as a youth worker, so my time is limited.
However, I have a lot of savings since I have a financial goal to only spend on necessary things. As a result, my financial cushion allowed me to take a full one-month unpaid leave and still able to pay for car loans, OSAP, etc.
My point here is if we have a financial goal that we follow, then it helps us build a financial cushion so in times of emergencies or we just want to take a break and relax then we can.
Reason 5: It will enable us to live life according to our life’s purpose
As a follower of Christ, I believe that our lives have a purpose. Others might say it fate, destiny, mission, etc. but at the end of the day, it is safe to say that we do not live just to survive and to reproduce.
Unfortunately, if we don’t have financial goals in mind, then we may just end up surviving at work and reproducing to replenish the workforce! It sounds absurd but it is the truth for many of us. We come to work day in, day out like zombies, make babies and raise them so they too can work day in, day out like us. We don’t want this for ourselves. We only have one life and we should learn what our purpose is and pursue it.
Every now and then, we probably wish we are doing what we are born to do instead of being stuck running the rat race. I hope I am able to show you in this article the benefits of setting and pursuing personal financial goals and I hope I am able to make you realize that having one helps us build a financial cushion so we are not always at the mercy of our creditors or our employers. I hope you will make one for yourself and follow it so one day you can attain financial independence that will let you pursue what you are born to do.
Final Advice:
Financial independence is not achieved by earning more. It is achieved by having the discipline to spend less than you make and having personal financial goals to help you develop the discipline.
What About You?
Do you agree with this list? What do you like the most? Do you have other reason/s why setting a personal goal can improve the quality of our life? Let me hear it! Please share your thoughts down below!
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Financial goals are like everything else in our lives if we do not take the time to realize how to manage what we have then when raise time comes around we forget and just spend more instead of stopping to realize this can help us reach goals in the way we live daily. I have to agree with all five of your reasons about setting financial goals, with today’s world and prices fluctuating the way they do being prepared is essential to live a good life.
Thank you,
Susan
Hi Susan,
Thanks for sharing your insights. I totally agree with you. Financial goals are indeed like everything else in our lives. I just to add with that, without most of the time the “everything” actually collapses too when we get into to much debt! So we need to take extra effort to make sure that we are on top of our financial goals.
Regards,
John Greg
Hey there,
I have a few financial goals:
1.) Pay off my car payment (a year early!)
2.) Finish building my skoolie so I can live in it and save on rent (huge expense)
3.) Make enough money online to go part-time and be able to travel!
4.) Not buy unnecessary items- live most minimally!
Come on 2019!
–Ciara
Hi Ciara,
I love your financial goals! I hope I will be able to help you more in achieving all of it.
Cheers,
John Greg
I agree that everyone should have goals in Life,we need to have a roadmap to travel Lifes path.
There are many areas of our lives that we need to have goals.Financial goals, Personal goals, Spiritual goals. If we are married we need to consider what our wife needs, our children. this again will affect and alter our goals
On what criteria do we base and set our goals?
In the Financial area 5 criteria have been mentioned 1/Quality of life, 2/Borrowing,3/Priorities,4/Control,5/Purpose.
We need to think on, and apply, these qualities, in each area,that we have to deal with.
What better time to consider goals than before the beginning of the next year.
Hi Robert,
I totally agree with your. Financial goals should only be one of the goals that we should do. Interestingly, I am just writing my goals on these areas this morning!
Regards,
John Greg