Financial Goals

Do you have financial goals?  Have you written them down?  Do you have a plan on how to meet those financial goals?  I hope you have answered yes to all three of those questions…but if you didn’t…now is the time start…Do you have financial goals?  Setting financial goals is the first thing you need to do…you need to know where you are financially and where you want to be.

Write down all money you have coming in…and then write down all money going out on a regular basis…telephone, electric, etc…Now write down all the little things…the morning coffee you buy, the lunch out, the extras…I bet you don’t write down the correct amount…most people don’t realize how much they really spend on the ‘extras’…so once you write down what you think you spend, you are going to spend the next month writing down what you actually spend…everything!  If you spend one penny, you write it down…at the end of the month, you will see a clear picture of what you actually spend.

Now that you know what money you have coming in and what money you have going out, you can make a plan that will help you reach your financial goal.  Can you pack lunch two or three times a week to save that money?  Can you make your own coffee?  Look at your ‘extras’ and see what you can cut and/or cut all together.

Keep track…make sure you write down any money that came in and went out.  Do this daily or weekly.  Don’t wait until the end of the month to do this…you might forget something.

If you have credit card debt, put any extra money towards that debt.  Get your credit card paid off as quick as possible.   After that, put the extra towards your mortgage or if you don’t have a mortgage, pay off whatever your next big bill is.

And don’t forget to put something in a savings account.  After all, you want to be able to live life after debt…