With the inflation and economic uncertainty in the world at the moment, trying to set up some money goals might be quite hectic and daunting. However, your money goals should only seem farfetched when you don’t have a stable income to finance them.
As long as you have good cash flow, looking forward to achieving some money goals in 2024 is feasible.
I still can’t forget my experience when the covid-19 pandemic broke out initially in 2020. I was temporarily relieved of my duties at work due to the lockdown.
My kind of job wasn’t some digital stuff you could do remotely from home. This meant that I wouldn’t be earning money for a while, even though I had prepared some money goals for 2020.
Knowing that I had to achieve these goals because of how vital they were to me, I quickly looked for a way out of my dilemma. I started applying for remote jobs while at home, and fortunately, I got one after a month of sending multiple applications.
However, getting a job wasn’t the only thing I could do to reach my money goals. I also had to implement other brilliant strategies concerning using and managing my finance.
If you have been looking for a practical piece of information that will aid you in reaching your money goals for 2024, look no further. This post has comprehensively covered a 5-step process that anyone can use to accomplish this.
Importance Of Reaching Your Money Goals
Being able to reach your money goals successfully has some benefits. It doesn’t matter how long it took you to achieve them or what you had to go through to achieve them; there are some merits you’d reap afterward.
Here are some reasons why it’s important to reach your money goals:
- It Boosts Your Confidence
Typically, when a person achieves something, their self-confidence would be higher because of the “I did it” feeling. That’s the same thing that happens when you reach your money goals. You won’t just be excited about the success; you would be so confident, believing that you could still do it again if you want to.
- It Shows You’re Responsible
Sometimes, responsibility is one’s ability to handle situational problems without being prompted by someone else to do this.
Reaching your money goals all by yourself shows you are responsible and have what it takes to handle a basic financial crisis. Unlike people who constantly rope themselves in debt and financial difficulties, you would stand out and have some bragging right.
- Saves You From Debt
It’s almost impossible to live your entire life without being in debt, especially when you don’t have direct access to wealth.
Buying a car, renting a good apartment, or even attending college could prompt you to take loans. If one of your smart money goals is to pay off your debt, that’s a commendable move. This means that once you reach this goal, you become debt-free.
- Helps You To Be Financially Organized
You can have an organized financial life when you reach your long-term or short-term money goals. Imagine paying off your debt, settling your rent, and repaying your mortgage. You would have a clear picture of your financial status and be well organized.
If you want to take loans at this point, your lenders won’t be hesitant to give you the money because they know you can pay off the debt.
Does Reaching Your Money Goals Help You Build A Sustainable Financial Life?
Reaching your money goals shows you have the basic skills to sustain your income. Some people earn over $10,000 every month and they are still faced with financial crises, and the reason for this is that they don’t know how to set up little financial goals and achieve them.
The moment you get used to reaching some money goals, you will instinctively understand how your income should be managed for sustainability. In fact, this is a vital self-taught skill that can help you thrive financially, whether you are a high-income earner or not.
How To Reach Your Money Goals Successfully
Successfully reaching certain money goals can be determined by one question – how do you set goals for money?
Once you know how to set goals for money, you won’t find it hard to reach your money goals. First, you need to determine how important these goals are to your life to get started. If they don’t carry any importance, there’s no way you would be committed to making sure they are achieved.
For instance, if your goal is to pay off debt, you would take that seriously because you are fully aware of the consequences of defaulting.
There are other money goals examples, such as paying for a car or paying off student loans, that would compel you to do everything within your ability to achieve them.
So to reach your money goals successfully, you need first to itemize those goals that are pretty important to you; goals without which your life won’t progress. That’s how to get started with this.
5 Steps To Reach Your Money Goals In 2024
Here are five major steps to help you reach your money goals for 2024. It doesn’t matter whether you’re vast at setting money goals or not. The guide below is what you need to pull this off successfully.
1. Examine Your Finances Clearly
Getting a clear view of your finances is the first step you must take. This means you have to examine your finances to determine how financially stable you are to reach your money goals. To do this, you need to list your savings, debts, and assets (if you have any).
Once you realize that you have too much debt to pay off, you must adjust your savings. You could stop saving as much money as you used, so you can have extra cash to transfer to the fund for your money goal. Also, if your assets seem promising, that’s a good sign for you to pursue and reach your money goals.
Once you have a comprehensive picture of your finances, you can decide what to focus on for the year.
On the other hand, you could take this more seriously by tracking your monthly cash flow with a spreadsheet or an app to help you answer questions about all your expenses for the month.
You need to identify every single thing you spend money on. Having done this, you can decide to cut down on your expenses if they appear to be affecting your monthly cash flow.
Lastly, you need to set your priorities right when looking at your finances. Don’t always be in a rush to spend money. Know the right things you should spend money on and the things you should completely avoid.
2. Take Baby Steps With Your Emergency Fund
Every wise spender builds emergency funds. It’s a perfect way to secure your finance whenever emergency expenses arise.
Building emergency funds is important, but that doesn’t imply that you forget your smart money goals. Instead, you have to simultaneously learn how to build emergency funds and save for money goals. To do this, you have to reduce the amount of money transferred to your emergency fund.
So, for instance, if you usually save $400 in your emergency fund every month, you could reduce it to $150 monthly. Don’t see this as a terrible idea. The reason you should do this is to create room for your money goals because if you exhaust all your extra cash on emergency funds, there’s no way you can save for other purposes.
Once you reach your money goals, you can return to your regular saving routine for your emergency fund.
3. Automate Savings For Longer-Term
If you are planning for long-term money goals, you must automate deposits into a separate savings account. The deposits have to be automated because you might not be able to constantly remind yourself to transfer money into your money goal fund. But if the deposits are automated, you don’t need to move a finger.
As soon as you receive your paycheck, a particular amount of money will be withdrawn and sent to the savings account. You must have agreed with your bank concerning the specific amount to be transferred.
Also, you must understand that these automated long-term savings should not be combined with your typical funds. Remember, it’s for a different purpose. You have to create a savings account exclusively for receiving deposits for your money goals.
Make sure you do this with a reputable financial institution that would offer a reasonable interest rate for your savings. By the time you have saved this fund for up to a year, you would realize some extra cash.
Nevertheless, don’t do this to the detriment of other vital expenses. That is, make sure your income is enough to pay for your monthly expenses even after you must have transferred money to the savings account.
4. Pay Off The Debt With The Lowest Balances
If you have a couple of debts to settle, make sure you first pay off the debt with the lowest balances. According to finance experts, this is called the debt snowball method. It’s a simple strategy that enables you to pay off your debt without feeling pressured and anxious.
It’s easier to pay off the debt with the littlest balances, after which you’d have the motivation to pay off the larger debt. Now, as you focus on settling the smaller debts, you would have extra income to save for your money goals.
Conversely, do not accumulate more debt as you pay off the current ones. It would disrupt your saving money goals.
Over the years, studies have shown that it’s almost impossible to grow your income when you buy debt, except the debt is used to create assets. Otherwise, you are simply going against your finance and putting yourself in debt traps.
If you find it difficult to live without buying debt, you should consult with a financial advisor for guidance; so that even if you have to buy debt eventually, it would be favorable for your finance.
5. Build A Budget
Building a budget is one of the most brilliant steps to take as you work towards your money goals for 2024. A good budget would help you to determine how much money goes out of your possession, as well as how much money remains with you by the time you have covered your stipulated expenses.
You should set up a monthly budget to guide how you spend your income for the month. But most importantly, build a budget that allows you to save money and reach your money goals.
However, making a budget sounds like hard work because it often involves a deep level of commitment and discipline to see that one’s income is appropriately managed and spent.
To make a budget, you should first examine your take-home pay for the month. The next thing is to itemize your key expenses, including debt payments, conventional savings, and your money goals as well.
Once you have a clear view of all your expenses, subtract them from your income and see how much you have left. If you have some extra cash left, that’s a good sign. But if your expenses are beyond your cash flow, you have some work to do.
You would have to cut down on your expenses by mainly spending money on what truly matters.
Having built your budget, don’t forget to monitor your progress. Constantly check your expenses and avoid defaulting on your savings.
Final Thoughts On Reaching Your Money Goals
Before trying to reach any goal that requires money, you need first to ask yourself this; what are some money goals going to do for me after investing my money in them? It will help if you think about this honestly because it’s not every money goal that should reduce your cash flow. You could embark on money goals that can make you richer.
For example, saving money for an investment purpose is a great move to improve your financial life. Moreover, having known that you would benefit significantly from reaching money goals like this, you won’t be reluctant to put in efforts to make the goal a success.
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