Writing down and reevaluating your top financial priorities can increase your chances of achieving financial success. If you haven't planned for your big-picture goals in a while, check out these tips and worksheets for creating your personal finance road map.
Most of us know the importance of budgeting and tracking our everyday spending and savings, but personal finance blog Get Rich Slowly reminds us to also step back and remind ourselves why we're working towards a goal. Focusing on the big picture — what you want to do with your money in the short and long term — can help you keep on track financially.
Use your big-picture goals, the things you're dreaming about, to prioritize your spending and savings. For example, if your big picture goal is to buy a house some day but you're living paycheck-to-paycheck, your financial priorities would include getting on track with your rent payments and daily essentials, building up your emergency fund, and paying off your credit cards, so you can get to a place where you can then save for that down payment.
One of the key tips from Get Rich Slowly is that you should reevaluate and reestablish your personal finance goals whenever your life changes in a big way: you get married or get divorced, move somewhere or buy a house, start school or send your kid to school, get a new job or lose a job, have a child, etc. There will be lots of times a financial priorities review will be in order, and your goals will depend on where you are in your life now.
For help planning your financial priorities, check out the free financial worksheets offered by Money Management International as part of Financial Literacy Month. The financial goal worksheet is a simple form to set up short-term (under 2 years), mid-term (2 to 5 years), and long term (more than 5 years) goals. Enter the target date, cost estimate, and amount you've saved already and the printable form will calculate your monthly amount needed.
The other financial worksheets and tools on the Financial Literacy Month site may also be helpful. They include income, net worth, debt load, expense tracking, and financial wants and needs ranking worksheets.
Naturally, planning on pen and paper or another method works too. The most important thing is just getting your goals down and remembering to refresh your plan as needed.
Do you have a personal finance road map? Let's talk about our big picture goals in the comments. Photo by hockadilly
Establish Your Financial Priorities - Get Rich Slowly | Financial Goal Worksheet - Money Management International