Surprising at it may seem, Q4 is at your doorstep, knocking and asking for attention. What’s more, it’s that time of year when everything starts getting busy: kids go back to school, football starts, then the holidays are just up ahead. During this time, you might also be hearing “cha-ching, cha-ching” as what lies ahead can be financially challenging. Consider a few ways to frame this and strategies to set up goals as you bring the year to a close.
Map out the big picture. While all the things in your immediate future might be in the forefront of your mind, take a step back. What’s your five-year vision? Where are you with your big life goals? Do they include saving for a downpayment for a house, a dream vacay or setting up a college fund for your kids? Decide on completion dates and work backwards. What needs to happen for these things to become realities?
Focus on the next 90 days. Now you can get a bit more granular. What’s looming in the future, before the year ends? What are your holiday plans? Usually this involves expenses (travel and food). Brainstorm about how to economize. Can you cost share with family and friends? (Thinking here about your five-year vision.) What about your home and cars? Do they need work and what might you spend? Do you have an emergency fund to help with all this? If you don’t, start one! Keep all of these things in mind as you make your way toward next year and beyond.
Set up a tracker. It can be an excel spreadsheet, a notebook or a white board – whatever works for you. Color code different milestones and then brainstorm (yes, again) to see how you can reach these goals. Do you need to cut expenses in some areas? Pick up a side hustle? Purge your closet (house, too), and sell some things? To get started, here are a few tracker templates to kick things off.
Create SMART goals. You might have heard of this acronym, but it stands for:
- Specific: Needs to be concrete, not vague.
- Measurable: Must be specific dollar amounts.
- Attainable: Within your budget but still challenging.
- Relevant: Aligned with your five-year goals, your future dreams.
- Time-bound: Hard deadlines.
Separate your goals into buckets. Those would be long, medium and short-term.
Long-term: This is 5-plus years. Early retirement by XX-years-old with a specific amount of money in the bank. Paying off your house by a certain date. Having a certain amount of cash saved for your kiddos after you’re gone.
Medium-term: This is 1-5 years. The usual suspects include paying off your car, student loans, consumer debt or even building up a (dollar amount goes here) reserve for a down payment on a house or second property.
Short-term goals and quarterly goals: This is less than 1 year – hot items you cannot ignore. Starting, or adding to, your emergency fund that will equal, let’s say, $5,000. Or for instance, saving $8,000 for a family vacation. You can also look at these small goals as subsets of larger goals: paying off X% of your house or car note by a certain date.
In sum, all of the above are simple ways to wrap your head around how to navigate Q4 financial goals – and beyond – by carving them up into smaller, digestible steps. If you can get organized, take on the last half of the year with intention and make some real progress, there’s nothing in the (fiscal) world you can’t accomplish if you set your mind to it.
Sources
https://www.heliodorpress.com/articles/fourth-quarter-financial-goals
