Are your money goals impossible?

When you’re just getting started, getting from where you are today to your ideal lifestyle and financially independence seems like a mammoth undertaking. But I’ve found that when you know the rules and break down your goals, they become much easier to reach.

If you don’t get your strategy right, it can seem like you’re making no progress at all. You can feel like you’re  never going to get to where you want to be. You can feel like you’re spinning your wheels. This frustration often has the compounding effect of making the wrong short term decisions with your money.

This is so common. It’s really common to put off getting started because your targets seem so huge. But there is hope…

I’ve recently been working with a client (Dan and Lily) that were making one of the biggest mistakes possible when it comes to money. We’ve now solved the problem for these guys, and I wanted to share this in the hope I can help you avoid the same issue.

When we met, Dan and Lily were doing ok with money. They were getting ahead, but were getting frustrated because their targets for their money and lifestyle seemed so big and far away. This frustration had lead to them making some poor money choices around spending, which had really slowed down their progress.

They really wanted to buy a their dream home, a three bedroom place they could raise a family in, not too far from the city in Sydney. If you know the Sydney property market, you’ll know they aren’t going to be able to get this cheap!

Because this seemed like such a huge goal, Dan and Lily were overwhelmed. They didn’t know how to get started and it all seemed so far away, and they’d run into a patch of inertia.

This inertia is really common when you don’t know what your next step is and when it’s possible, and is normally coupled with a lack of focus which slows you down.

And this is the mistake that I see too often, a really easy one to solve, and one that provides big benefits. These guys hadn’t taken the time to plot out a clear plan from where they were to where they wanted to get to.

If you don’t set up a clear money plan showing your path from where you are today to what you want, your targets seem far off and almost impossible to reach.

Most people underestimate the power that comes from having a clear and easy to follow strategy showing how and when you can get what you want. Whether it’s your next holiday, a new car, your first property, or dream home, a clear plan will help you get there faster. I know, because I’ve taken people through this process, and each time I’m told how powerful this is.

When you set up a plan, strategy, or path where you can clearly see how to get from where you are now to the things you really want, the impossible becomes simple.

For Dan and Lily, once we showed them what their options were and the different paths they could take to get what they wanted, they settled on the strategy they were most comfortable with. Dan and Lily were stoked because they could see what they needed to do, and had a clear timeline for when they could get the family home they wanted.

We then set clear short term targets so they knew what needed to be done straight away to get and stay on track. As soon as we did this, Dan and Lily said they felt much more confident in what they were doing.

They’ve since been smashing their targets and now are well ahead of their plan and the timeline we set.

Let’s face it, spending is way more fun than saving money, but when you can see your really big goals on paper what you need to do to get them becomes clear. Whether it’s an epic holiday, a property, or saving enough to launch your own business, your job becomes so much easier. You’re now not just saving, you’re working toward that thing you really want.

Don’t underestimate the power of seeing your plan laid out on paper and the motivation you’ll get from setting short term targets to get to your bigger goals. Get focussed and you’ll reap the benefits, and get what you want faster!