SMART Financial Goals You Need to Set Right Now

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Have you achieved your past goals, andnow you’re ready to move on to something bigger and better? Or maybe you looked back and realized that your financial life could use a little structure in the form of goals to get the ball rolling again?

It is typical to set goals at the end of the year as a new year’s resolution. However, more and more people are setting goals on a quarterly, or even monthly basis. If you’ve achieved your past goals, or are looking for brand new ones, here’s a few examples to get yourgoal-setting juices flowing!

As a smart, financially savvy twenty-something, these are the most important goals you should set. Plus, they’re laid out as SMART goals, to jumpstart your goal-setting process. Don’t know what a SMART goal is? Read about howto set SMART goals that will help you get sh*t done.

S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym that stands for:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time Bound

To see this in practice, read the examples of each goal, written out in a SMART format below. These goals were super easy to develop thanks to the TwentyFree goal setting templates for SMART goals. Learn more about the SMART goal setting templates here, or get them in your inbox using the form below.

Save money

Let’s say you want to start saving more money. “Save more money” is not yet a SMART goal, but with this template, you can easily turn it into one. You could save for a laptop, a down-payment, or an emergency fund. As you can see, being specific is important. By using the SMART goal template below, your goal transforms from “Save money” to “Save $100 a month for 5 months to buy a new laptop to help me with my assignments.”

Now that is an actionable goal! And, most importantly, you know WHY you want to achieve it. This will give you the drive to make the tough decisions necessary to save that extra $100 each month in order to purchase the laptop within 5 months. Plus, by putting specific numbers to your goal (i.e. $500 total, $100 per month, and 5 months) you’ve gained a lot of clarity on what exactly needs to be done in order to achieve the goal.

Start a business or side hustle

Are you looking for a new way to make money? You could use this template to channel your entrepreneurial spirit! If you are planning to start a small business, this template can help you keep your goals SMART.

For example, you could decide to start a blog. You will know you’ve reached this goal when you have a website, a logo, and 10 posts published. You do think this is possible, but you think you might need an educational resource to help you learn how to blog. You plan to try an online blogging course you’ve heard about. This goal is important to you because you want to create a business that will give you the money and location freedom to travel the world. You set a timeline to achieve the goal by the end of the year, December 31st.

Start investing

Starting to invest is a huge, scary goal. But you can break it down into smaller parts that will make it much more achievable.You should set a specific goal to invest a certain amount in a certain type of account.

This is where SMART goal setting really comes in clutch. You’ll be able to specify that you want to invest in your company’s 401k. Then, you would decide you want to invest 10% of your income, which would turn out to be $5,000 (if you had a $50,000 salary, pre-tax). Since your company would match the first 5% of your salary that you choose to contribute, you will actually have 15% of your salary in the 401k, which is $7,500.

You do the math within your budget, and you see that it is totally achievable for you to contribute that much of your salary and still have enough left over for rent and groceries at the end of each month. To see whether it is relevant to you, you think about your long term financial goals. At this stage, you may even consider increasing the percentage of your salary that you invest! Finally, you ask your HR department to find out how the 401k contributions work. They tell you that your contributions are taken out of your paycheck every month, and that 5% is matched every month. And the contribution limit resets every year. So you will set up automatic contributions of 10% each paycheck, and the end of your timeframe for this investment is the end of the year.

At the end of the year, you would want to re-evaluate your investment goal and see if you want to change it, increase it, or perhaps divert your money elsewhere.

Earn more money at work

Maybe you own your own business, or maybe you work for a paycheck. Regardless, SMARTgoal setting is very vital in every company. It is the most critical step in the process of planning and executing against any key objective, initiative or campaign designed to accomplish measurable results. And here’s a hint: you can treat your career like a business. Because guess what? It is one.

Don’t have a business? You can still set a goal to make more money in your life. Especially since you are the CFO of your life! Try this: place the CFO (chief financial officer) hat on your head and think about your income as revenue and your expenses as overhead.

Get out of debt

Just like starting to invest, getting out of debt is a huge, scary goal that seems almost impossible if you don’t make it smaller and more manageable. Luckily, the SMART goal framework is well suited to this breakdown into smaller pieces.

First, you’d have to figure out if you are currently paying the minimum payment for all debts. If you are, you can focus on one debt at a time, and get rid of that specifically before moving on to the next. If not, your first SMART goal may be to free up the cashflow, and reduce expenses such that you would be able to cover the monthly minimum payments of all your debts. This plan could even include making additional income through a business or side hustle (see above).

In the case that you are current on all your debts, you have to decide which debt to focus on first. To do that, decide what debt is most pressing, or would be the biggest psychological relief to get rid of. Then, set a specific goal to get rid of that debt. You could write out different SMART goals for each type of debt you have, and place them on timelines that would follow one another.

This is actually a very efficient way to get out of debt. If you were to pay off a debt that cost you $100 a month, then you would have an additional $100 a month to put towards your next debt, on top of the minimum payments. You could keep rolling that money into your debts until they are gone.

Get in shape

Whoa whoa whoa. How is this a financial goal? Well, health insurance and medical care areexpensive.Seriously expensive. So set a goal or two to keep yourself in good health and get in shape. Your physical health is linked to success in all areas of your life, including your financial health (and your happiness too!). What would happen if you fell ill and couldn’t go in to work?

I think it’s important that we look at our financial health and our overall health as equally important in our lives. In my personal ideal lifestyle, my physical health is of the utmost importance as well as my financial health. This is a reminder that not everything is about money, but everything can cost you money.

Therefore, I’d recommend setting a health goal. For example, set a goal to run your first half marathon.

What will your goals be?

If you weren’t sure what financial goals you should be setting, these 6 ideas should have provided some clarity. You can pursue these goals in any order that makes the most sense to you and your current financial situation. If you haven’t already, resolve to save money, start a business or side hustle, start investing, earn more money at work, get out of debt, or get in shape. Just be sure to set SMART goals so you have all of the information you need to be successful and achieve your goals!