New Year’s is not just the time for freshness, newness and resolutions, it is also THE best time to review your financial situation and set your financial goals for 2016. Sure there are tons of articles on financial goals, but here’s a fact – everyone has a different situation – hence you’re better off making your goals.
Here’s how you can make your own financial goals for 2016.
Review
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Debt:
The first step is to review your debt situation. An easy and simple way to do that is to get your hands on your credit report. A thorough reading of your credit report will give you a complete overview of all your debt accounts. -
Spending:
Do a quick review of your financial spendings. Including your grocery, fuel expenses, rent, etc. A budget, or at least, a rough budget would definitely help. -
Wants:
Everyone has wants, what are yours? A new car? A new house? Home renovation? Make a list of the wants you have.
Debts
If you have bad debt (which is indicated by whether you have a bad credit score or not), paying off your debt needs to be part of your financial goals. Don’t have one single goal, have multiple ones, for example:
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By March, get rid of your smallest debt.
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By May, pay off your second smallest debt.
And so on and so forth. As you reduce your debt accounts, you are better able to manage the pending ones.
Wants
Now that you have a list of your financial wants, you can add them to your financial goals. BUT before you do that, you need to remove the wants that you don’t really need, and are out of your budget. For example, owning a Bentley is a good idea, but if it is out of your budget, then you shouldn’t add it to your goals.
Optimize your want goals to the ones that you can achieve.
Budget
If there is one goal that I recommend you have, it’s budgeting. Making a monthly, or quarterly budget should be a part of your financial goals. If there is one way you can effectively manage your financial situation, it’s budgeting.
Spending
If you’ve mapped out a rough budget for yourself, you’ll have an idea of a basic budget you’ve created for yourself. You may want to include this in your financial goals. Not overshooting your spending every month is a good way to increase your savings.
Save
Saving money is always a good idea. You need to save for your retirement or to pay your debt.
There are millions of reasons to save, and you should.
Customize
Anything missed? Every person’s situation is different, don’t hesitate to expand your financial goals from what’s mentioned here.
Quantify
This is the last point in the post. Whatever your financial goals are, quantify them in numbers. This sets a clear path for you to achieve them.
You aren’t prepared for 2016 if you haven’t set up your financial goals. In case you’re having trouble figuring it out, it doesn’t hurt to have a consultation session with 4 Pillars, we’ve helped others out.
