Budgeting Goals

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setting short and long term savings goals

Budget Goals are how to get the Good Things in Life

After you start budgeting and get your finances in order, the next step is setting goals. Goals help you to focus on short and long-term desires. They create a purpose. Goals are best well defined like getting a new vehicle but they can also be just a value in order to create some savings. Defined goals will have a target value and time frame while a non-defined goal merely has a monthly target but no time-frame. A non-defined goal could be a sum to buy a new family computer and a new bike for mom at some point.

Of all the benefits from learning how to budget, meeting your goals and dreams are the most rewarding outcome.

Five Most Important Goals

Before setting some Goals, make sure you are paying down your Debt. If, you're not in debt, congratulations. You can actually save fro something at the same time but make sure that reducing debt is the prime concern, 

  • First Goal:  Your first mission is to create an Emergency Fund. A fancy way to say that savings are needed to cover unpredictable situations.
  • Second Goal: Try to set a small, short-term goal or two. This will help create a good habit and get a quicker result. Maybe a new computer or big screen tv or paying down a credit card.
  • Third Goal: Aim for something mid-range, maybe a vehicle or a trip.
  • Fourth Goal: A long-term goal like a home downpayment or some Educational Funds for the kids. These take more planning as they have subcategories added to the actual goal. An example is a home. There will likely be added costs like legal fees, moving costs, job relocation/new job, and renovations.
  • Fifth Goal: The least desired goal. doesn't strike one as something you have to plan for especially if you're young. Starting early though will ensure the creation of a fund and some savings that can eventually be invested for the long term. This goal will benefit over the longer-term. +++link to "Retirement" in blogs+++

If you are new to budgeting there's one major side effect of setting goals - it really teaches you how to save money!

How to Save for all Things you Want.

Setting Goals

What's important to you? What do you want or need?

One way to start is to define goals. Be reasonable and realistic. Then, choose what you need. Let's say,"Buy a newer car".

Define the model, the price, and the time-frame to achieve the goal.

Trade-in your existing car and buy a mid-range ($20,000+/-) current year model. Give it a time frame of 36 months.

A second method is to simply start saving as much as you can each month. As savings build up, items are added to a list to get.

A third method is to start a Family Profile. A Family Profile is an overall long-term planner indicating all of the various financial situations a family might encounter. +++add link to Family Planner" in 

Instead of starting with a bunch of goals that you think are important to you start by figuring out what kind of family you want. Then plan by using that idea.

  • If you want kids then you have to start with a plan for having children: how to care for babies, children in school, toys and more toys, what teenagers do and cost, how much will it cost for further education.
  • Adults will require places to live, vehicles to get around, jobs to go to, activities and hobbies for fun.

These plans will all need savings to get them started and keep them going.

About Planning

Organization is key to making your plan work. Start by writing out a dream list of goals you'd like to meet, at first don't worry too much about being realistic, some of the ideas will be attainable while others will not. Then separate out those that are realistic. Use a set of planners (guides to help you cover off most of the issues) to facilitate your budgeting skills and inspire you to achieve your goals.

Keeping track of all your goals

After doing all the work of planning some goals, it will become apparent that it is cumbersome keeping track of all of the ideas, the amount needed to save for, and the time-lines of saving. The only way to save for multiple goals is to plan well ahead. After making a list of all of the goals and some idea how to save for each goal it is necessary to have a tracking method to follow the progress of the savings and know how close you are to attaining your goal. The best way to do that is in a budget. That means that having a budget with good savings categories would be very helpful.

Curious? Want to Start some goals now?

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