It’s that time of year again were we are setting goals in hopes of a better year than last.  However many goals we tend to set seem to never get accomplished.

Though their may be a lot of reasons why this happens. This post is about giving you some guidelines to follow when setting those goals especially your financial goals.

Before we dive in their is one resource that is nice to use when setting your goals, a great website called 43 Things. This site is all about setting goals and cheering people on.  I’ve also found this a great place to relate with others on similar goals and see how they are going about accomplishing them.

10 Tips To Writing Great Financial Goals

• Write Your Goals Down. This is really the first step on goal planning.  Writing your goals down is like making a commitment to do it.  Not writing goals down is just a wish not a goal so find a pad of paper and start jotting down some ideas.
• Have Long And Short Term Goals. Of the goals you have some may be longer term other may be easier to achieve.  The point here is not to have just long term goals or just a few short term goals you can achieve in the next year.  Start out by writing out some 20 year goals, then some 10 year goals, then some 5 year goals, then some two and a half year goals then some one year goals, then break it down to monthly goals, then your weekly goals, and finally your daily goals.
• Link Emotion To Your Goals. When it comes to writing goals the more emotion you can add to it the more realistic it will feel.  For example, let say one of your goals is to save $10,000 into an emergency fund.  Well saving $10,000 is really a means to an end not an end.  The emergency fund is really a security blanket so you don’t have to live paycheck to paycheck like you have been.  The deeper you can relate emotions to your goals the better the chance you have of completing them.
• Keep Your Goals In Familiar Places. Once you have your goals in place you also need to keep them in mind as well.  If you just write them and set them aside everything you have done will be for nothing.  For me I like to keep them on my night stand at night before I go to bed.
• Review Your Goals Twice A Day. Keeping your goals in one place is a good start now you have to review them two times every day.  Reviewing your goals is half the battle.  I once new a guy who reviewed his goals some many times a day because he wanted to make $100,000 in a year with his business.  As a result of reviewing his goals some much his belief became so strong he ended up achieving his goal.
• Build Belief Into Your Goals. When your initially writing goals down have fun and jot as many as you can think of but after sifting through them you will want to pick the goals the you have the most belief in accomplishing.  For example if you want to build a $500,000 house but you have absolutely no money saved up and no thought you think you could do it, it may be a wishy washy goal and something you don’t believe you can accomplish anyways.
• Make Your Goals More Than About Money Or Physical Objects. Money is really a means to an end.  It’s what you want with that money not the money itself.  Also it’s not just about having physical assets like a house, or a car, it can be much more than that.  For example a few of my goals are to able to have my time to spend with my family, and also more free time for myself.  Don’t get me wrong I would like a new Mercedes S65 but it just don’t rank as high as the other two goals.
• Make Your Goals As Detailed As Possible. Keeping your goals detailed allows you to know exactly what you want but also explaining how you will go about achieving that goal.  For example don’t just say you want a car describe the exact make model and design.  Then detail how you are going to achieve that goal.  Another example a friend of mine wanted to build a new office for his business.  He had an entire floor plan drawn up to exactly what he wanted.  He even knew right down to the detail what color he wanted the carpet to be.  The more detailed you can be about your goal the more realistic is will seem.
• Make A Goal Book. A goal book is not just a peace of paper telling your goals but a place to get you emotionally involved with your goals.  In my goal book I do everything from describing what I want to how I will achieve it.  I also dedicate one page per goal to putting pictures of what I want to achieve.  For example if I want to spend more time with my family I will post some great photos of my family there to remind myself of all the wonderful times we have together and also remind me of all the great times we will have together.  Or if I wanted that Mercedes S65 I would find pictures of that car showing all of the different aspects of the car.
• Know That Your Goals Will Change. From time to time things change and we lose interest in are goals.  For one reason or another we don’t want to achieve that goal anymore.  At that point it’s easy to get discouraged and stop setting goals.  Instead just know that this is the natural evolution of the goal process.  What you liked 5 years ago you may not like today.  So know that goals will come and go as thing progress.

What Goals Have You Set For The Coming Year?

The goals you set will shape your life and your destiny.  If you don’t set any goal at all it would be like trying to drive from New York to a specific point California without a map.  Without a map who knows where you will end up at.

Having goals will make it much easier for you to achieve the end result and also make a lot less mistakes on the way.  Take time now and share a few of your goals in the comments.

This was recently in The Carnival Of Personal Finance hosted by Clever Dude.