What is your ultimate goal? Your “Klondike Bar”, so to speak. What would you do to accomplish that goal?
No matter what your ultimate goal is, more than likely you need to plan for it! Are you planning for this goal that you want to achieve? Are you working toward it as I’m typing this? If not, then how do you ever expect to achieve it?
Planning out your life usually gets you just as excited as doing your taxes, but is just as necessary (don’t want the government coming after you, do you?) because it not only maps out what you need to do, but gives you a sense of purpose to work toward for your future. Basically, you can’t reach your destination if you don’t have a map to go by. So, what are some ways to plan for the future?
First, you need to brainstorm. What is your goal? What credentials or money do you need to achieve your goal (college, or capital to get started?)? Is the place you live in a good place to work toward that goal, or is there another place better suited to the goal (i.e., marine biologists shouldn’t live in the desert). What type of friend and family network do you need to make this goal a reality? If your goal is for a certain career, are you sure that the career is suited to your personality (i.e. if you don’t like paying attention to details, accounting is probably not a good career path for you). If your goal is to retire wealthy, have you written out a budget and figured out what percentage of your income you need to save in order to do so (the money isn’t just going to appear, and social security, if it’s still around, definitely won’t let you live “comfortably”).
Once you have brainstormed and figured out all the things necessary to achieve the goal, then you put them in chronological order or order of necessity, whichever seems to make more sense for your particular needs. Now, you have a map. Start at the top of the list and work at it, one item at a time. For example, if the first thing you need is an education, then that is where you start. Use the same process of identifying how to achieve each item on your list, as you did to make the list, and you not only have a plan/map to achieve your ultimate goal, but it should be easier to achieve it, because you aren’t scrambling to figure things out on the fly.
Don’t know what you want to do, or what your ultimate goal is in your life? That’s ok. Take time to figure it out. If you bounce around for a few years longer than your friends, it’s OK. It doesn’t make you inferior, it just means that your interests are too varied to settle on one thing at that point in your life. However, once you do figure out your passion, take these steps to get a plan in action!
Tags: Family, Financial planning, Marriage
