Goal
Whether you want to fund a holiday home, save for retirement, or help the charitable causes that you care most about, writing down your goals helps you focus. So sit down and dare to dream.
Once you've identified your goals, estimate how much money you'll need to achieve each of them. This information will help you select the investments with the potential to help you meet your financial goals. Then start training.
Financial planning is the process of meeting your life's goals through the proper management of your finances.
At Collins Financial Group we advise people to consider their physical health just like their financial health. Buying a property, renovating, taking a holiday, starting a new job, promotions, new relationships, going through a divorce, starting a family, retiring or redundancy…all of these can have a significant impact on your finances if you’re not adequately prepared.
The first step to personal fitness is to set your goal, but in order to do this, you need to take some time and have a clear and honest look at your current situation.
Ask yourself a few simple questions:
- ● Am happy with my current state of fitness?
- ● Am I on track to achieve my goals?
- ● What are my goals?
- ● Will I be able to afford the things I want?
We'd like to invite you to take some first steps by starting here.
Shape up for financial fitness
When it comes to financial fitness (or virtually anything else in life), you must know where you are before you can decide where you should go. You need to have an idea where your money is coming from and where it is going, as well as an honest assessment of how you think about money and what you want out of life.
We've put together four exercises that can get you in shape to be smarter with your finances:
- ● Add up your income and expenses
- ● List your current investments
- ● Identify your life goals
- ● Assess your comfort with risk
Prepare your Plan:
Exploring your options and putting together a personal training regime and smart techniques to help get you financially & physically fit.
Like any training program, a planning strategy should be individualised, directly related to your personal goals and circumstances - not the 'one size fits all' strategy.
There are a number of techniques you can use to help maximize your gains and minimize your risk.
Now just do it!!!
How do you put a plan in motion? Where do you begin? Don't procrastinate!
Getting financially or physically fit isn't hard. You just have to start.
Smart investing & goal setting begins with smart goals. A smart goal is one that targets your destination and gives you a road map to get you there. As you start thinking about your finances and the dreams you want to achieve, make sure that your goals are:
Specific
Goals such as "I want a weekender on the South Coast," and "I want to retire young," really aren't goals, they are simply dreams at this point. Putting concrete details around your dream will enable you to form a plan to help get it up and running.
For example, if you want a weekender, where do you want it to be, at the beach or in the mountains? Are you seeing yourself in a beach shack or a luxury apartment that you might live in permanently after you retire? Are you going to rent the property out to help pay for it, or are you going to keep it to yourself?
You get the idea. Write these specifics down on paper and go as far as you can with the details.
Measurable
We already know your goal has a price tag, but what is it? If we're still looking at that weekender, how much are you willing to spend? Does your vision of what you want match up with its cost? You aren't likely to know the exact price, but if you did a good job on step one, then you should be able to have a ballpark price in mind, or at least a maximum amount you want to spend.
Achievable
While defining the goal and attaching the price tag gets you started, you also have to take into account whether it can be reasonably achieved. If you've never made more than $50,000 per year in your job, it might not be likely that you'll be able to fund a retirement that pays $100,000 per year. Unless, of course, you have a rich uncle who likes you very much.
Realistic
Consistent with being achievable is being realistic in your goal setting. Don't run before you can walk. Some goals are achievable if you simply extend your timeframe. And some are just too far out of the ballpark. It may not be very realistic to plan for a retirement that requires you to work until you’re 75 or older before you can actually quit. That isn’t to say you shouldn’t aim high, but if you aim too high, you may run out wind before you get to the finish line.
Timely
All goals work in conjunction with a timetable. Buying that weekender in five years or 15 years makes a big difference today.
Your goals are your dreams. This is your life and you owe this to your family and yourself. Take a little time, think your objectives through, prepare your plan and then just do it.
