Financial decisions we make day in day out have huge impacts on our lives and the lives of people around us. A gamble by the breadwinner can throw families into chaos. Same applies to any member of any family or unit or organization. A CEO who loses company capital into some backdoor shady deal has made financial decisions that could cost his entire workforce their means of livelihood.
Now you agree that money decisions are critical decisions, hence we must have the right priority at all times, harmed with right knowledge and financial skills, and driven by wholesome #financialgoals.
- Financial Goals
Financial goals are the personal, big-picture financial plans or objectives you set for how you'll earn, save and use money. These are financial or money-related targets set by an individual to achieve financial milestones or plans. Also, they can be defined as financial objectives that an individual wishes to accomplish with a time target in place.
Like every other important life goal, Financial goals must be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound. We will elaborate on these attributes later in another post.
THE BENEFITS: Like an architect's plan guides the construction works on a proposed building, proper financial goals will serve to guide every money decision you make each day, for the greater good. It is that simple.
WORTHY FINANCIAL GOALS TO PURSUE NOW
Goal 1. Make more money: Rather than being materialistic, trying to earn more money could be what will determine if you survive this current economic tide. With, for example, subsidy removal in Nigeria, prices of every commodity and service have skyrocketed. If you were barely meeting up before now, I bet you would find it tougher to survive now. You need to think or=f how to earn more. Be it side hustle, asking for pay raise, renting out assets, this is a whole brad topic. We will come to that later, I mean ways to earn more money, legitimately.
Goal 2. Create and work with a budget: Sound money management and sane financial decisions need underlying budgeting. Your budget is like your building plan before commencing building a structure. Research shows that average people dont budget, they spend as the need arises. This is bad. You budget should clearly apportion your scarce resource, money/incone between your needs (approx 50%), your wants (30%) and your savings (20%). Lack of useful budget will lead to bad money decisions. We will create a whole free course soon on proper budgeting.
Goal 3. Reduce or clear debts off: We all have debts in various forms. Mortgage payments, college credit, credit cards, easy-buy, bank loans, business loans, loan apps, palm pay!, and more. It is a worthy goal to manage these debts well or if possible, clear them off. The rest of mind that follows will be highly rewarding. And if they are essential loans or debts, managing them properly will lead to many benefits, like avoiding late payment charges, legal issues, reputational damages, bad credit record or score and more. This undeniably is a worthy goal to pursue whether you are an employee living on paycheck or you are a businessman running your own company. Take accurate stocks of all your debts and read between the lines, manage them well, clear bad ones, change them to better ones if necessary. We have dedicated articles on debt management, and look out for our free course too on #Azaland.
Goal 4. Improve or start saving: Without a doubt, saving is one of the best financial decisions anyone can make. Savings have many purposes: retirement savings, emergency savings, asset acquisition savings, vacation savings, education expense savings, general future savings and more. Not having saving culture, that is, eating with all ten fingers, is a sure call to financial apocalypse sooner or later. You must save!
THOU MUST SAVE!
Saving is not difficult if made a custom, yet it is very hard if not prioritized. From experts recommendations, especially for those living on paycheck, it must be made at least 10% of your paycheck. Could go as high as 20%. This must go on indefinitely.
And how you keep the saved fund matters too. Your savings must not be in high risk investment arrangement. It must be in insured savings account or low risk, near cash form. A full guide on saving properly will be released soon on Azaland.
If you have not been saving, start saving today! From this month And stay tuned.
Goal 5. Achieve financial security: This is a big one. It is the end goal of every other thing. Yet is is achievable. And behold, almost every other financial goal is necessary to get here. To achieve this, you must be bad-debt-free, have residual income automated, have more assets than liabilities, have more savings and so much more. This is not a quest for immense wealth or riches, it is a noble quest for a financial status at which stage your mind is AT REST. You make money even while sleeping, your income from diverse sources cater for your expenses, and beyond anything else, you are able to help others. This is a worthy goal to pursue.Important: You must save first and spend what's rest. But not the other way round. The other way round is a path to doom. It is a trap.
Goal 6. Quit bad money habits: Hmm, while we are all striving to make money, bad money habits will rob one of the benefits. Some bad habits have turned some people's purses into baskets. What happens when you try to fill a basket with water? Futility! Waste!
Talking if bad money habits, the list goes on and on: impulse buying, gambling and other money-gulping unhealthy addictions, not saving, excessive debts, not budgeting, and so much more.
If bad money habits will erode your money-making efforts and your drive towards financial freedom, you would agree with me these habits are worthy of attention. Otherwise, as you make progress a step forward, your bad money habits will drive you backwards three steps. Just like you cant go anywhere with a flat tire, unless you fix it.
Conduct sincere self-assessment. Identify those bad money habits that are dragging you back and DELETE THEM, right now. Check out Losing Money section on Azaland to see ways we lose money, sometimes without knowing it. It is a worthy financial goal to pursue: get rid of bad money habits.
Goal 7. Set proper financial goals: Well, you read it right. Setting the right financial goals is the worthiest goal of all. This is the quest of the willing mind. It goes beyond just reading great articles here on Azaland, it requires actionable steps. You must get pen and paper and state down your specific financial goals, research about them, analyse the requirements, how they apply to your current situations, list down practical, actionable steps you must take now and each day to get to those goals, set time limit, and shoot!
That's it for today.
Parting words
Money and financial decisions we make everyday are major parts of the critical life decisions we make. They affect our lives and lives of those around us directly. Those decisions could turn out to be blessings for everyone, or even a curse. hence, such critical decsions must not be taken lightly.
Yet, our decisions are based on information we have. We can make sound decisions when we have accurate and relevant facts. Lets seek more knowledge, lets be advocates of financial literacy.
It is one way to make the world a better place.
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I wish you all a blissful day, one filled with sound money decisions.
