Create a goal planning sheet and stick to it
The biggest element of getting serious about your finances is setting yourself financial goals and sticking to them.
I had the common problem of wanting everything to be done right now, failing to ever list my goals and in turn forgetting about them until the next time I decided it is time to get serious.
As a result I decided it was time to make a goal planning sheet and listing everything I wanted to do.
It is rather fulfilling now, 12 months on, as I have been able to tick off my goals one by one and my progress is right in front of me. It feels great!
Goal planning template
This is the following template I used for my goals, I simply made a word document and wrote the following:
My goal
To save X amount of dollars in 12 months.
Why do I want to achieve this goal?
I want to have enough money for a significant house deposit in the following year.
What steps do I need to take in order to achieve my goal?
- I will save X amount of dollars from every pay cheque.
- I will put that money in a high interest savings account, with the best possible interest rate.
- I will never withdraw from this account, instead I will only deposit what I know I can save.
- I will destroy all of my credit cards, regardless of the debt owing to ensure I cannot use them.
The final trick to goals, keep motivated!
Here are the things I do to keep motivated about my financial goals:
- I collaborate with my partner, ensuring we both are working towards common goals.
- I reward myself for my efforts by occasionally depositing less money for a month so I can have some ‘me spending’ as I call it.
- I track every dollar saved to stay excited. It is great seeing a savings account grow!
- I placed my goal planning template on the fridge so I can always see it.
