Creating financial goals or any smart goals for that matter is not just about writing them down in a pretty little journal and staring at them until something happens. Did you know that there is actually an art to setting and achieving goals that are quite simple and remarkable? Once you learn this powerful and unique approach to set smart goals you’ll never look at your goals the same. You’ll actually find yourself reaching your goals in a more precise and efficient way.
One of the staples of our marriage has always been setting smart goals. Tai and I are very forward-thinking individuals, and we continue to set goals to keep ourselves progressing.
We believe that it is a great tool for couples to build a unified and meaningful relationship. Creating smart goals together, inspires you to dare to accomplish higher heights together as a team. It stimulates conversations for you both to see yourselves; not just for where you are, but for where you want to go.
Goal setting is a practice that should be done as a team. If you are not currently married, or in a relationship, then find a trustworthy accountable partner to assist you in the process. For couples, it’s imperative that you create goals collectively. Creating goals together will help you to continue to support each other in the accomplishment of your dreams.
There is no greater support that you can have, than that of the person that you love. In order for you both to properly support each other, you each need to have a clear understanding of the goals that you want to achieve.
Tai and I have always made it a point to share our individual goals with each other. Additionally, we collectively make goals that we want to achieve together.
A goal setting tip that you must first do, is writing your goals down. A goal that is not written down, is nothing more than an idea. The Bible also supports this notion, in Habakkuk 2:2 which states,
… Write the vision, and make it plain…
Keep in mind, however, that in writing your goals, you can’t write them in just any old way. As you are writing down your goals, you need to make sure they’re S.M.A.R.T. When I speak of SMART goals, I am not speaking about a level of intelligence.
As a Special Education teacher, I frequently have to create goals for my students to achieve throughout the school year. We are trained to use the acronym S.M.A.R.T., to ensure that we are creating effective goals. The acronym for SMART is defined as the following:
S-Specific
M-Measurable
A-Attainable
R-Relevant
T-Time-Bound
So, when I say that you should create SMART financial goals, I mean that your goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. Let’s break each of these principles down, to gain a better understanding of them.
How To Crush Your Smart Goals
1. SPECIFIC
Your financial goals must be clear and distinct. When your goals are specific, they depict to you exactly what is expected, when, and how much. It’s not good enough to simply set a goal of, “I plan to get out of debt”. That is way too ambiguous of a goal.
Instead, be specific and say, “I plan to eliminate my $12,000 student loan debt that I owe to Sallie Mae, within the next 18 months”. Because the goals are specific, you can easily measure your progress toward their completion.
2. MEASURABLE
If your goals are not measurable, you will never know whether you’re making progress toward their successful completion. Not only that, it will become difficult for you to stay motivated to complete your goals when they have no milestones to indicate their progress. So, if you have a goal to increase your net worth by $10,000 within the next 12 months, break that number down into $2,000 milestones to track your progress.
3. ATTAINABLE
Goals must be realistic and attainable for you to reach. The best goals will require you to stretch out to achieve them, but they aren’t extreme. That is, the goals are neither out of reach nor too easy to attain. For instance, if your income is $50,000 annually, then don’t set a goal to pay off your $200,000 mortgage in the next 6 months. That is not really an attainable goal, based on your current financial situation.
Conversely, if you have an annual income of $100,000, don’t set a goal of paying off a $500 credit card balance over the next 12 months. Goals that are set too high or too low become meaningless, and you will naturally begin to ignore them.
4. RELEVANT
Your goals must be relevant to what you want to achieve in life, in the short and long term. Where do you want to be 6, 12, 18 months from now? Furthermore, what do you want your life to look like, 5 to 10 years from now? Create your goals with these benchmarks in mind.
Understanding your future picture is critical in this respect. Sometimes, you can be tempted to do something simply because it is easy and sounds great; only to discover later, that has no long-term importance to what you want to achieve, as an individual or a couple.
5. TIME BOUND
Goals must have starting points, ending points, and fixed durations. Committing yourself to deadlines will help you focus all efforts on completion of the goal, on or before its due date. Goals without deadlines, tend to be overtaken by the day-to-day issues, that will invariably arise in your lives.
Conclusion
Creating SMART goals gives you the power to make a plan, that will lead you to a brighter future!
