WWYD: Sharing Your Financial Goals
‘œGoals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement.’ ‘“ Brian Tracy
Many of us have set 2008 financial goals these past few weeks. If you haven’t done this and need help, here’s a good place to start. One system of goal setting is to use the SMART method: by making sure the goal is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.
Once our goals are set, experts suggest getting a money buddy to share these goals with as a way to stay accountable and boost our odds of success. Erin Burt at Kiplinger’s writes:
Friends, family members or spouses make great money buddies because they want you to succeed. You might find it helpful to team up with someone who shares a similar goal — say, your best friend and you working together to conquer credit card addiction this year. The key is to find someone you’re comfortable talking with openly about your finances — the successes and the failures.
So how do we decide on the person or people to share these goals with? Believe it or not, many people aren’t comfortable baring their financial souls to those closest to them. Perhaps, this is why anonymous blogging has become so popular… especially for those trying to get out of debt. But what about other financial goals?
Jeffrey Strain at SavingAdvice.com suggests that we should tell the world:
Tell anyone and everyone your goal. Shout it out if you have to. The more people that know, the more likely you are to stick with it. Reaching your financial goals is much like finding a specific place hundred miles away. If you start heading in the general direction, there is a chance that you’ll eventually reach where you want to go, but if you have a detailed map of how to get there, you’re much more likely to get there and in a lot less time. The more detailed the map, the better the chance of reaching your destination in the least amount of time. The same is true with a step by step ‘œmap’ to your financial goals.
I told the world once and found that sometimes the greater world doesn’t want you to be successful. Remember a few years ago when I did my first fix and flip in real estate. Seventy-five comments later including:
You are screwed. I don’t feel sorry for you. You are a greedy flipper and will get burned.
Well, you get the idea. Perhaps some goals are better left private since open discussion about money can make people squirm or not like us. Or at times, it’s even considered impolite conversation. Note the comments in this post: Revealing How Much Money You Make.
So in today’s What Would You Do series, when is okay to share and when is it best to keep financial goals to ourselves? Looking forward to what you have to say below.
I tend to share my goals. If people want to use that against me, so what. At least I’ve got goals, and I’m making an effort to meet them.
Man. I blinked when I saw that comment someone had left you. A bit scathing, aye?
I do not see a problem sharing my overall financial GOALS with anyone and everyone like so many bloggers do and I agree that it might just make you stick to it. What I am not sure about is sharing my PROGRESS towards that goal (again as some bloggers do). For example, I wouldn’t mind saying that my goal is to have an emergency fund of $10,000 or networth of $1,000,000, however I would think twice before posting my current networth of say $555,000 (I wish…) as some bloggers do. The way I see it, this may increase the chances that you would get targeted by “bad” people since they know for sure you do have plenty of money. I wouldn’t mind sharing it with close friends or family thou.
As far as setting goals in general goes, I really liked the “101 goals in 1001 days” approach. The basic idea is that a year might not be enough time to reach that particular goal you are setting for yourself. This I believe to be especially true for many serious financial goals (ie NOT something along the lines of saving $200 for this or 300 for that). For example, one of my goals is to save $10,000 in emergency fund. I do not think I could do it in a year, but ~ two and a half years seem a lot more reasonable (1001 days).
Plonkee: Well-said!
Vixen: I learned quickly that when you blog, you open yourself up to criticism. Many of the mean comments were anonymous… makes you wonder if they would say those things if it had a way of circling back to them. Probably not.
Dima: I hadn’t heard of the 101 goals in 1001 days approach. I looked it up and linked it for readers so they can get started. Great stuff!
I do not see a problem sharing my overall financial GOALS with anyone and everyone… What I am not sure about is sharing my PROGRESS towards that goal.
Yes! What dima said. Exactly. And there are always going to be people who judge. Even if I don’t share my progress, if I say my goal is to pay off my credit cards, people will look at that differently than if I said I had a goal of, say, buying a second house.