October is National Financial Planning Month Part 3

October is National Financial Planning Month Part 3

To close out 2021 Financial Planning Month I want to ask you to shift your focus and the bigger picture.

First…

Review your current financial goals – don’t wait until New Year’s resolutions in January to do that.

  • How have you done this year so far?
  • What financial goals can you carry forward to the next calendar year?
  • Are you making progress or need to make mid-course corrections?

If you never created financial goals, spend some time thinking and mapping these out. I found working with clients over the years that financial targets are the best measure of your progress.

For example, let’s say you are planning to buy a car in 2 years.

  • Identify how much this goal is going to cost you, maybe a car will be $30K.
  • How will you pay for it? Finance it? If yes, then you will need a down payment, maybe 20%, that is $6,000. The rest will be financed with monthly payments.

So you now have a real financial goal of buying a car in 2 years and you need $6000.

Do you see how this works? It becomes tangible and allows you to track it with a timeline. You will be able to come up with short, mid, and long-term goals.

Can you do that for everything else you are dreaming about? YES, you totally can.

And lastly, layout a plan for next year, or at least start thinking about what your financial goals might be.

Happy financial planning month!

 

Anna Sergunina
Anna Sergunina
anna@mainstreetplanning.com

I passionately believe that in order to live a life of fulfillment and joy, we must genuinely serve each other in any way possible. I found my mission in life to serve others via financial planning. Anna regularly writes about personal finance. Her work appears on Business Insider, Nasdaq, Nerdwallet, among others. Anna is the creator of Money Flow system.

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