Meat Loaf sings Why Isn’t That Enough about his girlfriend leaving him! He sees his dream slipping away. He feels that there is nothing he can do about it. He says he wants her, needs her and loves her. Why isn’t that enough? You work hard at your career, dreams or staying out of debt. Why isn’t that enough? Here are five financial strategies , I know will make you successful.
Goals are desired results, a person plans and commits to achieve. When I set goals, I establish specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time targeted objectives. I start with the outcome and breakdown the goals to what I need to do on a daily, weekly or monthly basis to achieve the goal. I monitor my results at each milestone and adjust my efforts to reach my goal. If I do not reach my goal, was my effort enough?
Saving for retirement is one of the most important goals of your life! Then why do so many of us do not save for retirement? If you save, do you save enough for retirement? Start with 10% of your pretax income into a 401K plan that grows tax deferred. This is not an all or nothing issue. If you do not save enough, you will not be able to do all the things you want to do in retirement. No big deal because retirement is so far off from now! So you have a good time spending the money you could be saving accumulating debt and having a good time!
Stay out of debt. If you are in debt, pay it off. Most consumer debt carries a very high interest rate. These usually involve credit card interest that ranges from 18-24%. Credit card debt and the associated interest and payments make those purchases extremely expensive. By the time you paid off the credit card debt, you probably have paid twice for the same item due to interest. If you were late or only made minimum payments, it could approach three times the original amount. Debt keeps you from putting that money into savings.
Buy a home. Has the real estate market changed after the bubble changed are desire to have a home? No, it just placed some additional hurdle to overcome. To qualify, you need a good FICO score, a down payment and sufficient cash flow to handle the monthly payment, real estate taxes and property insurance to get a home. Home prices have dropped significantly, your payment including taxes and insurance should not exceed 331/3% of your income. The amount should be lower if you have car payments or other debt.
Insure for what you don’t have. Life is not perfect! Is this a surprise? You bought a variety of major purchases that required debt. You bought a home, car(s), and you need income to pay for these things. If you are not there, you need life insurance or you cannot work, you need disability insurance. If you have a car accident or your home burns down, you need insurance to replace it. Medical insurance covers you if you are in the hospital or serious illnesses.
Why isn’t that enough? These are some of the things that most people say they want. I wrote an article some time ago called “How Do You Measure Success?” You would consider yourself a success, if you accomplished any or all of these goals. What are your goals? Do they include more than these specific goals? What is important to you? What is enough effort to achieve your goals? Can you look in the mirror and say you made your best effort? Are you letting your dreams slip away similar to Meat Loaf’s song Why Isn’t That Enough ?
Photo by: Chicago Art Department
The last thing that I would like would be to know that my kids were productive members of society.
When you graduate from school you receive a diploma or degree.. When your children grow up and move out, you see the results of all that effort you made throughout their lives. The reward is priceless!
Priceless, indeed.
I presume you are describing the reward for reaching your goals of raising your children.
That was always our goal & we have devoted almost every moment to it. They are now grown & wonderful people who contribute much to our society and world. We are so happy that we gave our all for this goal. It’s a difficult job, but worth every effort!
Children are important and require much more effort to do it right! Unfortunately, some parents leave that responsibility to others. I am glad you didn’t.
Great advice, once again. I think too many people pass the first step in this article; failing to set goals. They then fly by the seat of their pants, from pay check to pay check, in a blur. You can’t achieve anything without a goal.
I would go a bit further, a goal without a plan is just a wish! For me, the plan keeps me accountable by monitoring my progress and adjusting my efforts.
Good post. I think most people are not clear on their financial goal because they are so swamped with the day to day life. It’s important to set goals and put them where you can see them. Write them down and put them on the fridge, otherwise you would forget about them.
I am real big on goal setting because it helped me so much. I would go a step further than just put it on the fridge. I keep it in front of me 100% of the time. It reminds me of my goals.
I think I would feel lost without a goal to be accomplishing, so lets put a check next to that one :).
I am pausing on the buying-a-home part until I know I’m in a place I want to stay for at least a few years 🙂
Remember these are not intended to get done by the weekend. These principles are for a lifetime. Just like goals as soon as you accomplish it, you go on to the next one or work them simultaneously.
I guess time will tell if we have done ‘enough’. If anything, we spend too much on vacations and such, although they are something we save up for. On the other hand, the times we have had as a family are priceless. Might mean we have to work an extra year to cover what we have spent on vacation, but I think it was worth it.
Fortunately, neither my husband or myself are spenders at heart, and that helps a ton.
Vacations are necessary! It is an opportunity to accumulate experiences with friends and family, although I am not into extreme sacrifice to have a better vacation.
Great tips KC – I think that doing many of these things will set you on the right path to success in life and finances! I cant invest in a 401k, so I max out a roth IRA instead starting this year. I’m starting to re-focus on paying off my debt and becoming debt free, and am taking steps now to solidify my credit report and see what’s on there before starting to look to buy a house in the future. Once all that’s done, i’ll look into life insurance and then set some goals!
There is a reason I placed goals first! All that you described are goals, now create plan to accomplish them.
I never want to fail due to a lack of effort, so I won’t. I can fail for other reasons though.
I have a problem with motivation and also with being too easily satisfied as I wrote on Yakezie.com. I need to find ways to keep on going.
Thanks for sharing!
Maybe you set the bar too low relative to your capabilities. Challenging yourself to find your limits may add to your motivation. Some of my most interesting and satisfying accomplishments were in areas I never attempted before. For some, competition is a great motivator. The effort needed to achieve a $1million net worth is easier when you are already at $900K than $100K. It takes much more to go from $100K to $1 million.
When I write down my goals, I almost always reach them. I ignore the roadblocks and practice determination with blinders on. I ignore the negative thoughts and just perservere. Seems to work out well!
Writing down goals make them real and you can be held accountable. If you always achieve your goals, perhaps they were too easy to achieve! I have been thinking about that lately. It motivates me to stretch a little and try to achieve more.
I have goals in my head and I am striving for them, but perhaps writing them out would help me focus more and get me back on track when I get distracted. Also, great point about hitting your goals too easily and having to raise the bar. Great stuff as always, thanks!
Writing goals down make them real! Break down the goals so you can monitor your progress and adjust your efforts to meet milestones. Anything is possible when you do this.
Sometimes though I think that men need to also appreciate the ladies that stand behind him. Maybe then Meatloaf’s partner wouldn’t leave him 😉
When I set my goals and achieve them, I’m usually quite satisfied, especially if they were goals I had set a long time ago. Goal setting is important otherwise you lose track of how well you’re doing.
I find that when I do not have goals I become complacent. Goals keep me motivated!