How to Set Your Financial Goals (Plus Free Goal Setting Printables)

Now that we’re in the New Year everyone is dreaming up their big picture plan for 2015.  That means tackling those huge financial goals.

The sad thing is that only 1 in 10 people actually stick to their New Year’s Resolutions. That’s why I’m a firm believer that you shouldn’t wait until the New Year to start setting goals. You need to set goals each and every month all year long! (And avoid making the big goal setting mistakes.)

To help ensure that you’re one of those people who do find success I’ll be sharing my extremely simple money management system plus giving you all kinds of worksheets to help you organize + simplify your financial life.

I truly believe that most people fail when it comes to money because they try to make their systems too complicated. The simpler your system and the less maintenance it requires, the more likely you’ll be stick to your financial goals.

By then end of the month we’ll have walked through everything money related, task by task, and if you follow along you’ll come out with a budget binder that will help you stay on track with your financial goals all year long.

Coming Up with Your Financial Goals

We are all in very different places financially. Our financial goals are going to be completely different!

When creating your financial goals take a look at your big picture and determine what goal you can create that will increase your quality of life.

Your goals should not be created with anyone but you or your family in mind. If you’re thinking about creating a goal so that you can impress or keep up with someone else DO NOT DO IT. In the end it’s not going to make you happy. Trust me.

I’d also recommend that you come up with no more than five goals. If you try to accomplish too much you’ll only be setting yourself up for failure. In fact, I only have two financial goals this year.

My 2015 Financial Goals

Everything that I’m writing about this month I’ll be doing too. I want to come out of the month with a fine tuned financial system so that after this month I can focus my attention toward earning more money.

My two goals for the year are to:

• Earn $60,000
• Save $20,000 for a Down Payment for a house

I’ll also be upping my retirement contributions this year but instead of a goal I have to strive for I’ll just be automating an increase. (We’ll talk about retirement this month too!)

Financial Goal Setting Printables

I had some financial goal setting printables created so that we can view our yearly plan and set monthly milestones.

• Download “My Goals” Printable
• Download “Monthly Goal To-Do List” Printable

The first printable contains slots for five goals. (You can use these for more than financial goals.) Underneath each slot there’s a place to write five mini goals that will help you reach your big goal.

The second sheet is a monthly goal to-do list. This is pretty self-explanatory. You can use this sheet to write down everything you need to do to accomplish for the month so that you stay on track with your goals.

If you’re not into printables then just use a special notebook, word doc, or computer program. It really doesn’t matter where you record your goals just as long as you’re recording them!

I Want Your Input

I am firm believe that there is no one right way to do anything. Throughout this series I’ll be showing you what works for me and if you like my system feel free to walk right along beside me.

I understand that not everyone is going to like to do things my way – I want your input. I definitely don’t know everything and I’d love to get some of your suggestions for different financial methods as we go through the month so we can learn from each other!

Do you have any big financial goals this year? As we go through this course is there anything in particular you’d like to see? Certain money management printables that you need?

That’s a lot of questions 🙂