Knowing how to manage money is extremely important. A person making $20,000 a year can live just as happily as a person making $50,000, if he knows how to set goals and accomplish them. You may not be able to change your lot in life completely to get a higher paying job or to obtain more hours at work. You may not be able to go to the most prestigious college or buy a luxury estate, but you can live well within your means if you are realistic. You might have to sacrifice some of your daily indulgences, like dining out every week or buying season’s tickets to the football games this year, but you will find sacrifices are easier with written goals to reflect upon.

The first pitfall people have when setting financial goals is that they aren’t specific enough. “I want to pay off my credit card debt,” says the debtor, which prompts the financial counselor to ask, “Well how much debt do you have?” and “When do you want to have this debt paid off by?” Answering these more pointed questions is part of setting realistic goals. Say an individual owes $7,000 on his credit card bill and, after paying his living expenses, he has $100 of spending money each week. If he were to say, “I want to pay off my debt in six months,” then that would be impossible. Given his situation, he could only possibly pay off $2,400 of his debt, which would also leave him with no spending money and no saved money. A more realistic plan would be to pay $50/week for the next 3 years.

Often a person finds it easy to set goals for their financial future. The hard part comes in implementing those goals. Say you are planning to retire. Basically, there are 3 ways to secure a financial future. You can build alternative income streams, increase money from each stream and reduce living expenses. So, in looking at building alternative income streams, you can invest money in the stock market, invest in a side business, tap into your pension and tap into your social security. To increase income from these streams, you can learn to invest, change your risk tolerance level, call your former employers to collect your pension and hold off on collecting your social security so your pay-out increases. Then, as short term goals, you can focus on reducing your living expenses by eliminating debt/interest payments, living more frugally and choosing low-cost alternative products and services.

The key for you to set goals and achieve financial freedom is to set smart goals. When pondering, “What is a smart goal?” think in terms of specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and timely. First, establish a priority goal list that is very specific. For instance: “I want to have a $1 million investment portfolio,” “I want to save $20,000 for a house down payment in two years” or “I want to pay off my $3,000 in credit card debt this year.” Next, find a way to measure your progress. Some people create goal setting worksheets or progress lists. You may want to break down your goals into short, medium and long term initiatives to help you along. Third, be sure you have an action plan for saving and investing. You must be realistic about your financial goals, based on your income and spending habits. Lastly, you should set a date by which you’d like to achieve your goals. These factors will help you to achieve your objectives.

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