With the start of a new year comes new goals. But how do you know your goals are realistic and achievable? Especially when it comes to goals that involve saving money. When money is involved, it’s often easy to overestimate and not reach your goal amount. The CGS Team has come up with a few pointers for assessing your savings goals.
Assessing your savings goals will allow you to see if they are attainable. If your goals aren’t realistic, you may get discouraged when you don’t reach them. We are trying to prevent that! We want you to see reasonable goals and reach all of them!
Check Your Timeframes
Are you giving yourself enough time to reach your goal? It’s so easy to say “I want to save $10,000 by the end of the year”, but how realistic is that for your situation? If you make $35,000 a year (after taxes) and your monthly expenses are $2,500, you will only save $5,000.
That number doesn’t include any unexpected expenses or additional spending. A more reasonable timeframe to save $10,000 would be 2-3 years, and that’s on a very strict budget. Make sure you set realistic timeframes when it comes to goals that require saving money.
Identify Your Next Steps
When you set a goal, it’s an absolute necessity to include your steps to reaching the goal. When assessing your savings goals, make sure you have included action plans to reach the goals. How are you going to save $5,000? Are you going to adjust your budget to cut back on dinners out?
Your budget should already be written out, but when you are adjusting it to your new goals, write out exactly why you are cutting back. “Reduce dinners out by $250 a month, to save an additional $3,000 each year.” Write down your next steps. When it’s on paper, it’s real. You have to look at it and you should be more inclined to complete the steps.
Address The Why
Why do you want to reach your financial goals? As we mentioned earlier, it’s easy to say “I want to save $10,000 by the end of the year”, but why? Why do you want to save that money? When you have a reason behind your goal, it automatically motivates you to want to achieve the goal. If you save $10,000 just to save, does it matter if you don’t save it?
There was no real reason to save it anyways, right? Understand the why to each of your savings goals and write them down. Even if it’s as simple as “I want to save $500 because I never have before”. Addressing the why will make your goal have meaning, in turn giving you reason to reach it.
Review Past Goals
Was there a goal in the past that you reached too easily? Was there a goal in the past that you gave up on because it was too hard to reach? Reviewing your past successes and mishaps can help you understand what’s easily reached and what requires major focus. Knowing how you function will make it easier for you to set goals that can be attained, or adjust the goals you have to make them more attainable.
If your past failed goals show you have a problem saving a set amount each month, try saving weekly. The amount will be smaller, so it won’t feel like a huge hit. Also, doing it weekly will help you form a habit. There won’t be too much time in between savings, so you’re likely to keep up with it.
Related: The Best Way to Set Your Money Goals for the New Year
Don’t be afraid to give good thought to your goals! Review them, adjust them and never forget to write down your steps for achieving them. It’s not meant to be easy, so remember why you are working so hard to reach your goals! We know you can do it!
What are some of your savings goals for the New Year? Have you created action plans and next steps for achieving those goals? How do you keep yourself inspired? Share your thoughts with the community. The CGS Team would love to hear what works for you when it comes to reaching goals! Leave a comment below to share.
3 thoughts on “Assessing Your Savings Goals”
Hey girls! @rmswanson @egueye @carlita92 @lillycools @bcheller Have you seen the new “Assessing Your Savings Goals” article? We share how to assess your finance goals to make sure they are realistic and achievable. It’s a great read, so check it out and let us know your thoughts!
This article was very helpful for me! I always set savings goals that are too out of reach. Whether it’s not feasible to save every dime or I underestimate bill amounts. Great read for getting my goals on track.
Hey Ladies! @youngnable @mslasarah18 @nickia1 @ilovesurles How has the saving been going? Check out the “Assessing Your Savings Goals” article to see where your financial goals stand! Also, check out the major changes to the CGS website!