Whether we like it or not, we're on the back half of 2014. While it seems like only yesterday that we were celebrating the Holidays and colder weather, we are now staring down the descent into the end of the year. When time seems to pass you by or you’ve been terribly busy it can be easy to lose sight of what your financial goals were at the beginning of the year. Whether you call them New Year’s Resolutions or simply goals you want to reach there is still time to finish your financial year off right if you’ve got the right attitude.
Revisit Your Goals
The first step to determining what you’re going to do to finish off the year should be to revisit what your goals were at the beginning of the year. Mind boggling, I know but still very true.
I say to revisit your goals because a lot of time has passed since you likely set them. You should focus on how they have changed, if you have met them or if they should be scrapped altogether. While we may hate scrapping a goal we’ve set, it’s a fact of life. Maybe something unexpected happened or you went in another direction; the point is to see where you stand and then begin to focus on the ones you want to reach by the end of the year.
Cut the Fat
Now that you’ve gone over what goals you really want to focus on it is time to start cutting the fat. Ask yourself why you haven’t reached a specific goal, assuming it’s one you’re still working on and find ways to streamline what you’re doing.
This same idea also works with regards to expenses. What expenses are you choosing to throw money at but getting no value out of? Those are the ones you should look at cutting first. You could start with one and see if you miss it. Assuming you don’t then you can take the axe to the rest of those fatty expenses. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather get rid of that fatty expense and reach my goal as opposed to the other way around. This isn’t to say to deprive yourself, but to cut things that are providing you no value.
Establish an Actionable Plan
If you want to finish your financial year off right the key is to set yourself up with an actionable plan. I’m a visionary at heart and if I don’t have a plan then I’m much less likely to reach whatever the specific goal is.
At its heart, you want this plan to fit your personal situation and not someone else’s. Simply put, it needs to be something you can own and one that motivates you, convicts you and gets you moving towards reaching it. If you need help with that then you also might want to consider finding accountability with the given goal. Share it with a friend, co-worker, spouse, etc. so you have someone that will ask you pointedly how your progress is going. Amazingly having a goal made public can be a great motivator. 🙂
The end of the year is quickly approaching, but there is still time to reach your goal(s), you just need to have a plan to reach them.
What is one goal you want to accomplish before the end of the year? What has been holding you back and what have you seen success in?
Image by Dafne Cholet / Flickr
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