WHAT ARE YOUR FINANCIAL GOALS?

Now that you have taken a look at where you are financially and how you spend your money, it's time to think about what you want. I'm not going to explore material things in this post. I'll tackle that soon in another post.  I'm talking about money goals. How do you want to look on paper.

Whatever your planning, it should always include staying out of the red. That means that you are, in some way, saving more money than you are spending, or reducing your debt more than you are acquiring it.

Let's look at your goals in three ways. There should be a Short Term goal, a Mid-Term goal and a Long Term goal. Since we are just getting started I'm going to think of short term as the end of this year. Our mid-term goal will be 3 years and our long term goal will be 6 years. You can reevaluate these goals on a yearly basis and adjust your projections at that time. Hopefully your new projections will be as good as or better than your initial fiscal goals.

Here are my goals:

Short Term -  by 12/31/2010

1. Max out my Roth IRA ($5,000) - current investment $2,272.70.
2. Non-Retirement Investments - Have a balance of $2,000
3. Reduce Credit Card debt by $1,800 across all 3 cards.
4. Workplace Retirement - Have a balance of $12,500

Mid Term - By 12/31/2013

1. Roth -  $20,000 balance
2. Non-Retirement Investments - $6,000 balance
3. Reduce Credit Card Debt by $6,000 across all three cards- Remaining balance $14,000
4. Workplace Retirement - $39,000

Long Term - by 12/31/2016

1. Roth balance of $35,000
2. Non-Retirement Investments balance of $10,000
3. Reduce Credit Card Debt by $12,000 - Remaining Balance $2,000
4. Workplace Retirement balance of $66,000

For me, these goals are ambitious, but not beyond my ability. Your goals should push you to do better than you currently are, but not completely overextend yourself. You should not make your goals are not so difficult that you leave yourself struggling in your everyday life. Ask yourself, "Are you enjoying your life today? You have to think of your future, but it shouldn't be the only thing you think about.

Take a few minutes and think about some of your goals. Where is it that you want to be??

Cheers!