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# Set Your Goals, Set Your Sights

Part 1: Identify Your Direction

This article is about goal-setting. If you鈥檙e saying to yourself 鈥淚 don鈥檛 need to do that鈥? 鈥淭hat stuff doesn鈥檛 work鈥? 鈥淲hy waste the time; let鈥檚 move on to Step 2鈥? or any such like-minded thought, then you should pay particular attention because you鈥檙e in the overwhelming majority of the population. Did you know that, according to professional Financial Planners, less than one-third of their clients actually have any clearly-defined financial goals? And that鈥檚 just people who have even bothered to talk to a Financial Planner at all. Do you think the rest of the general populace has implemented a financial game plan? Probably not. And how are most people retiring? Generally, they鈥檙e retiring with less than three months鈥?salary in the bank and counting on Social Security, if they鈥檙e retiring at all. If that鈥檚 not the picture you want to see yourself in, then you鈥檒l need to follow a different path. Remember, like actions produce like results.

Research studies show that goal-setting works. Regardless of the topic, establishing a well-defined goal helps you to focus your energies and actions in the direction that you want to go. Simply stated, if you have no target then that鈥檚 exactly what you鈥檙e going to hit, nothing. Without a definite direction you鈥檒l proceed in, well, no definite direction.

The question, therefore, which must be answered is, 鈥淲hat do you want?鈥? What is it that you want your money to do for you? Do you want to buy a house? Houses? Send the kids off to college? How about retirement? Would you like to retire early? And how comfortably? These are the things that you, and your spouse if you鈥檙e married, must sit down and think seriously about. Once you have these answers, you鈥檝e accomplished the first step. Make sure that you write them down; it will help you to more clearly define them by making them more visible in your mind鈥檚 eye.

You鈥檝e got your paper in front of you with your goals clearly written. Now you鈥檝e got to formulate a plan to help you reach those goals. It鈥檚 good to have big goals; in fact, it鈥檚 encouraged. But they can sometimes seem daunting once you鈥檙e looking at them in ink. It may be difficult to see how you鈥檒l ever be able to reach them. That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 advisable to break up the pathway to your objectives into short-term and long-term goals. For instance, you may want to buy a home in five years and you want to have $15,000 for a down payment. For most people that鈥檚 quite a sizeable sum of money to have to save. But you take out your calculator and come to the realization that if you can put away $47 a week and get 8% interest on your savings, in five years you鈥檒l have reached your goal. $47 a week seems much more manageable than $15,000. And that鈥檚 the very point. When you break down your long-term objectives into manageable and measurable short-term steps, you鈥檒l find that you鈥檙e building habits of success in reaching your goals as well as discipline, and you鈥檒l always be moving in the direction that you鈥檝e set for yourself.

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