how to successfully achieve your financial goals?

Hello peeps!

Have you determined your financial goals at the beginning of the year? If not, it is alright. There’s no written rules saying that you have to set your financial goal at the beginning of the year. You can set new financial goals at any time and for any reason. You just need to have the drive to accomplish the goals you set. So let’s talk about exactly how to go about setting goals the right way! What I’m going to write below is to share with you how to achieved successfully your financial goals.

Financial goal setting is vital to achieving the big vision you have for your life. The dreams and desires you have are usually only achievable if you have the financial capacity to make them happen. Travel to Interlaken, shopping at Giza, outdoor camping at the Scottish Highlands or surfing at Bondi Beach. And having that capacity means creating a roadmap of how you'll get there — hence, the importance of goals.

The right goals will help you track the progress you make towards your big vision. If you don't have goals, you don't know what to track. And there's nothing like achieving a goal to get you excited about what you can accomplish next. It's like fuel to your fire!

the five rules of financial goal setting.

When starting on this journey, it’s important to set goals. There are three key things to keep in mind. Your financial goals should be S.M.A.R.T;

specific.

You need to be specificity your goal. The more specific and details your goal are, the better. This will let you focus on the plan for any activities towards achieving the goal.

measurable.

If you can’t measure it, how will you gauge your progress? You need to clearly state what you want to achieve, by when, and what you need to do each week or month to reach your end goal.

acheivable.

Your financial goal must be achievable and attainable. This will help you figure out ways you can realize that goal and work towards it. The achievability of the goal should be stretched to make you feel challenged, but defined well enough that you can actually achieve it. Ask yourself; do I have the capabilities to achieve the goal? If not, what can I do to achieve it?

realistic.

Don’t create unachievable goals for yourself. Yes, your goals should be challenging and outside of your comfort zone but no, they should not be ridiculous or unattainable. If saving RM5,000 a year is easy for you, then why not make your goal RM10,000? But setting a goal to save RM1,000,000 when saving RM10,000 is already a stretch… well, you catch my what I meant!

timely-based.

Your financial goal must be time-bound in that it has a start and finish date. If the goal is not time-constrained, there will be no sense of urgency and, therefore, less motivation to achieve the goal. Some of the example is like when is the exact date I want to have fund for my children education by when I should be able to have such fund?

your goals must be written down.

You need to write your goals down. There's some magic to putting pen to paper and writing down what you want to accomplish. Writing your goals down gives them life, and they’ll become even more significant when you see them on paper. For example if you’re aiming on specific goals, write down the timeline as shown below;

plan for your financial goals.

Once you set your goals, it’s time to break each goal down. Let’s say your goal is to save an extra RM10,000 over the next 12 months. It could be money for a down payment on a house, to buy a car, or to start a business. Whatever it is you are planning for, you’ll need to save about RM830 each month. Well, you already know that money isn’t just going to fall in your lap.

In order to actually accomplish this goal, you’ll need to fit it into your budget, figure out where to cut back, think of ways to possibly increase your income, and make consistent deposits to maximize your results.

These steps add massive value towards your RM10,000 savings goals you want to accomplish. But knowing all of this, how do you ACTUALLY DO IT?

Answer: Pick one thing you will do or one action you will take at the beginning of every single day that will get you closer to your goal. This one thing doesn’t need to be the same thing everything and some examples could include:

Making a savings deposit

Setting up automatic transfers

Reading a financial book

Checking in your accountability partner

Having a no-spend day

Doing this daily one thing, added together over time, will lead you directly to your goals even if you experience setbacks. 

make your financial goals easy to achieve.

Unfortunately, so many people give up on their goals before they even have a chance to make progress. Accomplishing your goals is often easier said than done.

But there’s no reason why it can’t actually be easy. You just need to know how to work toward your goals. People who are successful in achieving their financial goals practice the following;

focus on your schedule of actions, not the goal deadline.

Sometimes focusing on a deadline can make it seem like what you want to accomplish is so far away that you have plenty of time to get things done “later”.

But then all of a sudden, it’s so close that it’s too late to do anything. When you focus on your schedule of actions for the big goals (that you’ve broken down into chunks and are tracking daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly), you are more likely to do what’s required to accomplish your goals as a result of your consistent actions. This leads me to my next point.

focus on the actions, not the performance.

The actions you take carry more weight than the actual performance. Why? Well, the performance might not always be perfect, but the actions you take consistently (like budgeting, saving money on a schedule, making consistent payments towards your credit debt or PTPTN loans, etc.) will help you get better each time and improve your overall performance.

And that’s it. These two things can make all the difference when it comes to making those goals you’ve set super easy to accomplish.

I wish you all the best in acheiving your financial goals.
You can do it! I have faith in you.
Talk to you soon,
EMIR xx