You’ll hear me talk about it all the time. Well, you won’t likely hear me at all, but read me write about it just doesn’t sound right. 😉 If you want to succeed at your personal finance goals and your personal life goals, you need to continually work towards them. (Make some if you haven’t already)
And working towards your goals sometimes doesn’t get the required dedication that it deserves. If you’ve set goals for your personal finance, but have never met one on time, you probably suffer from a low level of PF dedication. If, however, you always meet your goals on time or early, you not only likely have a high level of PF dedication, you also need to set higher goals! 😉
In the course of my day to day life (and yours, I’d bet) I’m constantly tempted with things that I would like to have or places I would like to go. And to get those things or go to those places costs money. Money that might not be in the budget. The temptation can sometimes be strong to put aside a budget item for this month so that you can have that “want” now. Time for a self check.
It’s at times like that, that I try to remind myself of the goals that I have set. That $50 gadget could be a $50 payment towards the next debt item in the debt snowball/avalanche/snowflake. It could go towards retirement, or towards college savings, or towards down payment savings, or… You get the idea. Often, that little reminder is enough to keep me on track.
But it’s only because I’ve decided to have a very high level of dedication to my personal finance goals that it works. If I had a much lower PF dedication level, it might not be so easy to turn down that gadget. And I’d be that many more months behind schedule on paying off my debt.
What is your PF dedication level? Do an inventory of the goals that you have set and decide now how much dedication you want to have towards those goals. I’ll let you in on a little secret. If you set a goal, you want it to be a 100% dedication item. Maybe you don’t realize that, but (consciously, or sub-consciously) you created that goal with the intention of giving it 100% dedication. And if you aren’t giving it the dedication that you intended for it, you’re letting yourself down. And maybe it’s time to rethink your goals and set new ones.
Whatever the case may be, your dedication level to your goals is the deciding factor in meeting those goals.
image credit: Duchessa
I started this blog to share what I know and what I was learning about personal finance. Along the way I’ve met and found many blogging friends. Please feel free to connect with me on the Beating Broke accounts: Twitter and Facebook.
You can also connect with me personally at Novelnaut, Thatedeguy, Shane Ede, and my personal Twitter.
It can definitely be tough to stay motivated. But how much you want those goals that you’re working to achieve will determine your intensity. I like what you have to say.
My dedication level is more long term focused. Since I have paid off my big loans, other than my mortgage, I am more focused on the next hurdle I set for myself, which right now is my liberty fund. Anything I can do to get closer to $30,000 is a priority right now.
I keep my goals pretty high level. There are a couple of micro-goals I set along the way that I work hard to achieve, but all in all it’s kind of moving forward on all directions. Keep the assets going up and the debt going down.
I always wonder what will happen to my dedication level once I reach my goals. For example, once I’ve paid off all of my student loans, will my lifestyle inflate with that extra $500 a month?
Eric, a liberty fund sounds awesome. I think that I need to make myself a nice short to long-term goal list, and see what the next hurdle is…
We’ve had lots of practice on this one! So our level is very high – sometimes too high maybe!
Great visiting with you at FinCon12!