This is an excerpt from the book: Empower Your Inner Millionaire, A Woman's Guide to Financial Independence through Real Estate Investing, available from Chris or on Amazon.com.
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” – Lewis Carroll
Five-fingered goals
Plan to develop goals for the five major areas of your life: Family, Fitness, Money, Spirituality and Work.
SMART goals
Specific
Why isn’t writing a financial goal as simple as saying, “I want to be rich”? Imagine that you’re writing a screenplay for your future self that someone else will direct. You have to be as Specific as possible. What does it actually mean to you to be rich? What will your life look like? What will your first thought be when you jump out of bed? Help the actress who will play you understand your motivation.
Measurable
In the case of goals, it’s not gauche to talk about money. How much do you actually need to live the life that you Specifically designed? After doing my budget, it turned out that I only need $500,000. I initially thought that I would need millions. Create a budget for yourself and remember that the smaller the number, the easier it will be to attain.
Attainable
When I thought I would need several million dollars to be financially free, it felt kind of hopeless. To succeed, you must be able to completely believe that your goal is attainable. It’s okay to make a goal of having fifty million dollars but if you don’t truly believe you can achieve that goal, you won’t. Start with a goal that stretches you but not too far. As soon as you attain that goal, you can set another one!
Relevant
For goals to resonate and have the best chance of success, they need to evoke in us an emotion. Sometimes it’s hard for a purely financial goal to do that so focus on what having this money will mean to you and to your family. How will this money enable you to make a difference in the world? Focus on what you will do with this tool that we call money.
Time Measured
The final key to successful goals is to give them a deadline. You have to be able to stop, look back and celebrate your success. On any given day, you have to be able to compare your current reality with your goal and see the progress. Ideally, there will be something that you can do every day that will bring your goal closer.
Action Items
- Write goals for the five major areas of your life: Family, Fitness, Money, Spirituality and Work
- Make the goals SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Measured
- Identify and fill any knowledge gaps
- Read your goals every morning and evening
- Revise your goals until they energize you
Now that you've set your financial goals, see how to realize those goals even faster in the next blog.
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