Creating Family Financial Goals
Steps to creating powerful momentum for your family.
The more family members that are working toward a common
goal the faster you will achieve results. What's more,
when the entire family unit is working toward financial
goals it can be a bonding experience that everyone will
appreciate.
Working toward family financial goals brings families
closer together. You will find that your family will begin
to operate as one unit in order to reach those financial
goals. Many top business organizations, sports teams,
charities and sororities share common financial goals that
bring everyone involved closer together. It works for them
so let the power of family financial goals work for you.
What family goals to set.
Family goals should be set for all areas of your life
including: health, personal development, spiritual/
religious and life goals. This article will focus on
family financial goals; however you can easily adopt the
techniques to cover the remaining areas of your life. Once
more, each individual person in the family should set their
own personal goals and have full support from the family.
By setting family financial goals and working as a family
to achieve financial freedom everyone involved gets a sense
of purpose and something positive to work toward.
Children, parents and other extended members of the family
will all benefit from the support of working toward family
goals.
How to set family financial goals.
Setting family financial goals begins with identifying
objectives that your family wants to accomplish. Take some
time to figure out what motivates everyone. Maybe one
family member wants a vacation home at the beach, another
person wants to retire next year and another member wants
to have enough financial security to take a month off each
year on family vacations. Find out what everyone dreams
about because this will help you understand each others
goals and you'll become closer because of it.
Once you have an understanding of what each family member
wants it time to align your goals. Maybe you want to learn
more about making investments, want to increase your 401k
savings, would like that new car, or just want to have more
money for a rainy day. The bottom line is that everyone in
the family has to do their part. When everyone works
together with a common goal of achieving financial freedom
then everyone's life improves. The ability to set family
financial goals and achieve family goals will improve every
aspect of you personally and your family as a whole.
Family Financial Goals That Work.
There are effective goal setting techniques available that
will allow your family to maximize the effectiveness of
your financial goals. One helpful technique to aid in
accomplishing your goals is to set them using the S.M.A.R.T
method.
- S ' Significant & Specific. The more detailed you are
able to make your family goals the closer you are to
achieving them. This gives you a clear target to shoot for
and when you see what you're aiming at you have a much
better chance at hitting the bull's-eye.
Be sure to make your family financial goals significant.
They must mean something to your family so that they are
motivated to reach them. Setting a goal of saving for a
gallon of gas probably won't motivate people but if it was
to save gas for a weekend trip now that's another story.
Remember kids, teens and young adults are motivated by
lifestyle not money. So be sure to relate money to being
able to afford the type of lifestyle your family wants to
live.
- M - Motivational & Measurable. Family goals need to be
measurable so you can celebrate together once you achieve
them. This makes goal setting fun and a true bonding
experience.
Family financial goals should also motivate each member to
attain them. Design goals that motivate and encourage each
family member to do their part.
- A - Attainable. Dream huge and be realistic. You can be
a multi-millionaire, president or a famous celebrity but
having wings so you can fly probably won't happen.
- R - Results-oriented, Reasons & Related. One way to
maximize the effectiveness of your family financial goals
is to phrase your goals in the positive. Using
results-oriented words like "I accomplished," "I received,"
or "I have", will direct your mind to focus on the outcome.
Focusing on the outcome is one of the key steps to
becoming financially free.
Your family financial goals should include the reasons too
' would you like money for college, a nice vacation, etc.
The reasons are what motivate us to take control of our
finances. Money doesn't matter it's what money brings us
that matters.
Family financial goals must relate to each other so the
family works as a single unit. Setting powerful family
financial goals starts with making sure everyone's goals
are heading in the same direction and not contradicting
each other. For instance, if one family member's goal is
taking a family trip to the beach next weekend and another
goal is to work that weekend to save more money ' those
contradict each other.
- T -Time. Your family financial goals should have a
deadline. Decide on a specific time so you push each other
to accomplish them by a certain date.
Take an evening and sit down together for dinner with no
interruptions. Get everyone's dreams, goals and
aspirations out. Find a way to align your goals to create
a dynamic family that accomplishes goals together. Every
goal you set out and accomplish together will bring
everyone closer.
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Vince Shorb, the leading young adult financial literacy
expert, prepares young adults for the financial real world.
His course 'Financially Free by 30' is the first
interactive, multi-media curriculum designed specifically
for high school and college-age clients. Get your free copy
of his latest book and instructional videos at
