The beginning of the year is great time to get your finances in shape. And the best place to start is by setting financial goals. Whether short-term, long-term or somewhere in between, financial goals help you identify what you want to achieve with your money and become the foundation of your financial plan.
If setting financial goals is new to you, these five goals can start you on the path to a more secure financial future.
If you’re not already doing so, tracking your spending is a good first step in taking control of your finances. You might be surprised to see how much you’re spending on both your fixed (essential) and discretionary expenses every month.
Once you know what your expenses are, stay on top of tracking them by putting a budget in place. You could use a spreadsheet, your bank’s online or mobile app or other budgeting app to monitor your expenses and build out your goals. A good rule of thumb is to keep essential spending at 50% of your income, discretionary spending at 30% and save the remaining 20%.
Establishing an emergency fund is critical to ensuring your financial plan doesn’t veer off track if/when something unexpected comes up. This type of goal is a need and should be prioritized.
Ideally your emergency fund has enough to cover three- to six-month’s worth of daily expenses. Determine your overall target and figure out how much you can allocate each month to help you get there. Then, set up an automatic deposit to a designated savings account. You could even consider opening a money market savings account to take advantage of the higher interest rate compared to a standard savings account.
Achieving this goal may help you be better prepared to pay your bills and other necessities if an unexpected event happens.
Did you take on more debt last year than you wanted? Or haven’t paid down existing debt as quickly as you’d like? Either way, you probably know that having a lot of high-interest debt can get in the way of your financial goals.
Consider developing a debt strategy for the year. For example:
Whether you’re just starting to invest or want to make some changes to your portfolio, it’s important to incorporate an investing strategy into your yearly financial plan.
Determine how much you can invest and which accounts those contributions will go to:
Saving for a short-term goal, such as a vacation or a new car, can be a great goal to keep you motivated.
To ensure you reach it, you can set up:
Opting for direct deposit to a separate savings account is one good way of making sure you stay on track to reach your goal. Once you’ve started on this goal, you can make it a long-term habit. Just check in regularly to ensure your “something special fund” doesn’t interfere with your financial priorities.
Want to keep building your financial goals? Learn how we can help you design a personalized financial plan based on your needs and preferences.
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