Goal Setting Meeting – Are all Goals Exciting?
During a recent Goal Setting Meeting, we discussed achieving long-term goals. Occasionally, someone will ask if all his or her goals are supposed to be exciting and motivating?
Here is the reality – NOT all goals are exciting, nor do the actions provide big excitement, nor should they.
The area of your life where it is easiest and hardest to set and take action toward your goals is the area of finance.
Let’s face it, saving money is boring. Saving a dollar a day and putting it in a piggy bank is boring, and unless it is a clear glass piggy bank it is hard to see progress. At the end of the month, you have saved thirty dollars. these days that doesn’t even cover two people going out to the movies.
If you are following the strategies of Rich Dad Poor Dad, the Millionaire Next Door, or the Wealthy Barber, you would be setting a goal to save 10% of your earnings. The one time you don’t do it, you get discouraged because in order to make up for it you have to put in 20% the next time. How the heck are you going to do that?
Attend a Goal Setting Meeting to Get Help with your Goals
Once again, this is a function of focus. Developing the habit of saving by regularly saving is good. Trying to take consistent action daily is hard for many people.
So how do you achieve these goals, you ask?
I have learned that the measurement period needs to be longer. When possible I try to measure progress at five-year intervals for my financial goals.
What do I mean?
I follow the forced savings principles as put forward in the books above. Thanks to banks and technology, this is no longer hard to do. I simply have the money automatically deducted from my bank account and off my paycheck regularly.
My mortgage gets paid this way, my RRSP (401K) gets contributed to this way, and my investment properties become bigger assets as the tenant pays down the mortgage this way.
If I looked at what each month did for my financial position I would drive myself nuts. Instead, I look at where I was five years ago and where I am now.
This is a big enough gap to measure progress and see appreciation in mutual funds, stocks, and real estate. This is when you can see the two-fold effect that is exciting.
You can see how much you have contributed over time and how the asset has appreciated over that same time frame.
You will never be able to see this daily or monthly.
Small changes for the positive over a long period can produce BIG results.
These are just some of the things we discuss during a Goal Setting Meeting.
Disclaimer: This is not meant to be investment advice of any kind.