Long Term Goals Money Lesson 10
I hope you are feeling motivated more and more every day as you progress toward your goals.
I am going to skip the part of talking about medium term goals. Just for information purposes, medium term goals are the steps towards you reaching your ‘Long Term’ goals. They are the goals you aim to reach in one to five years.
But your long term goals are the BIG ones as I like to call them. So what are the big ones? How do you decide what the big ones are?
I invite you to take some time for daydreaming. Find some quiet time, light a scented candle, lay back someplace comfy rolled up in a fluffy blanket and pop on the relaxing music. Imagine in your minds eye that you are watching a video of your life in 10 years time.
What do you see? A new home? A new sofa? Endless holidays as you are now semi retired and financially independent? Whatever you see, this is where you want your life to lead you. This is the path you want to lead your life to. Always remember you are the leader of your own life.
YES! Rubbish things CAN and Do happen that are way out of our control but it is how you master these unexpected events and navigate around them that is the important aspect.
So my next piece of advice is, whatever you are imagining in the mind recording of your future life, scale it down. Sorry did I hear a WHAT? What I mean by this is, when setting long term goals they need to be realistically based.
Yes I am saying that it is highly unlikely we all shall claim the reins of becoming multi millionaires or have investments of 5 million by only investing 100euro a month. Yes this might happen to the odd and rear human on this earth but not us all.
Long-term financial goals are easy to lose track off. Most of us feel that 10years from now is a lifetime away when we are struggling with the weeks shopping bill. But it is something I encourage you to set yearly and re-evaluate yearly. Use the medium term goals as our stepping stones to reaching the long term goals.
Here are two of my long term goals that I have continued to work towards.
- Become Mortgage Free
- Buy a Retirement Home in France.
These goals have not changed in the guts of 10 years. However, factors around them have changed. The fact that I have 4 children to help financially through college to aged 22, means that my original aim to have these by aged 40 now has been moved to aged 50.
I need a new car. Plan and simple my car is not going to last as long as I hoped. So my goal of buying a new car in 10 years has become an important big purchase of 2022 rather than 2023.
Covid happened and we got locked down for so long, I feel some of my years of enjoying things with my children have been taken away from me. This lead me to wanting to ‘spend’ more money on special experiences before they have flown the nest.
You see life throws things at us and although these 2 goals have remained consistent, the timeframe and the road of how I am going to get there has changed.
When I say realistic goals, I know buying a villa in the south of France with a swimming pool and six bedrooms will never be within my reach. Unless I won the lotto which I do not play. My reality is a 60k to 80k do-a-upper with space to run a small café or a glamping site. Allowing me to fund some of the costs of reaching my goal. That is my reality. This is a reality I am more than happy to accept and more than grateful to have the opportunity to receive.
How do I make the medium term goals to reach this reality. Well I pay my current mortgage off as fast as I possibly can! This allows me to free up capital going towards mortgage payments and also giving me borrowing power as I will have no other debts.
My two financial goals keep me focused. They stop me wasting money on stupid things. They encourage me to work hard at the things I do especially keeping myself financially accountable.
I am always encouraging people to look at the bigger picture. We often get bogged down in the picture right in front of us such as the rising costs etc. But having bigger goals can make you manage your current situation so much better. If like me this year, life through family commitments or a situation where you finances did not benefit, you can still hold these dreams in your mind to get throw. A pause in progress does not mean a full stop. Once they are attainable and realistic, you will often be surprised at how you may actually be living that reality one day. You may even exceed these goals on more levels than one.
If you find yourself procrastinating, you are not alone. Procrastination is a problem for everyone. Procrastination usually comes from fear, not laziness. You might be avoiding taking control of your finances because you are afraid you’ll fail and disappoint everyone. Or perhaps you are afraid of succeeding, because of the responsibility money entails.
Quick Top Tip:
Fear of success is often one of the very much overlooked aspects of reaching financial goals. In fact it is one I carried for a long time. What if I become so financially secure, that I can no longer relate to the people around me. Many people do not think of this as a block to achieving goals but it is.
Only when we truly know and discover all aspects of who we are can we reach success in our financial life. After all, finances are mostly emotional. An aspect that is being examined more and more and the reason financial psychology is becoming more prevalent in the world of business.
Overcoming these fears is crucial. That’s because if you are afraid to face your financial future, you’ll spend your way from day to day. Get started now, and you can create financial security for yourself and your family.
