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Don’t Just Dream, Execute By Setting Goals

Too many people have millionaire dreams but no millionaire plans. Well, you can’t become a millionaire just by dreaming, wanting or wishing for wealth. You have to lay out a plan, and you have to execute in order to fulfill the goals within that plan. As you’re developing the framework for your millionaire’s budget, now is a good time to think about planning for the future and reaching some of your bigger goals. We all have goals, whether or not we realize it.

So many times we get caught up in the tasks and activities required just to make it day-to-day that we forget about setting substantive goals for the future. But it’s absolutely crucial to establish and write out your short, medium and long-range goals. Some of you may not have thought about your own goals much lately. Perhaps your life has been consumed by your children’s world; their needs and wants always come first, and you constantly put your desires on the back burner. Well, it’s a mistake to do that. Financially speaking, you can get yourself so wrapped up in another person – whether that individual is your child, partner or parent – that you neglect yourself and fail to engage in smart, practical financial planning for yourself. You don’t want to look up 20 years from now and think: “I should’ve managed my money better when I was younger.”

To start handling your finances better today, and to make a giant leap toward becoming a millionaire, one of the most important things you can do is to write out your personal goals. This one act alone will help you build a foundation for a lifetime of wealth. If you are married, or in a committed relationship, I suggest you do this exercise with your partner. Write your goals first, and then share your goals with the other person. At the end of the day, we are all individuals with out own unique dreams and ambitions. Yet, for those of use involved with significant others, it’s crucial that you make a habit of setting – and reaching – your goals together.

I want you to think of your goals in the context of how long it will be before these goals can be realized. Short-term goals should be something that you can accomplish in a relatively brief period of time, say in one to two years, at most. Medium-term goals can be classified as those that require two to 10 years to accomplish. Long-range goals are those that require 10 years or more to fulfill. To jumpstart your thinking, I’ve included a laundry list of goals below. Some of these may be relevant to you; others may hold no significance for you. The idea, however, is to give yourself permission to focus on the things you want to accomplish in the future, goals you may never have acknowledged to yourself, let alone written down or verbalized to someone else.

Among the goals you might pursue are:

·Eliminating credit card debt
·Buying a new home
·Saving for a college education
·Investing for retirement
· Starting a business
·Establishing a cash cushion
· Paying for a wedding
·Saving for a new baby
·Purchasing a vacation home
·Traveling around the world
·Buying a boat
·Paying off student loans
·Making a large contribution to church, synagogue, etc.
·Buying a new car or a second

Excerpt from The Money Coach’s Guide To Your First Million

How can I complete school if I run out of financial aid?

Author: The Money Coach

Q: How can I complete school if I run out of financial aid? Should I get a private loan?

A: Well, the answer to this question is somewhat of a complex one and for those of you who don’t know, I have written a whole book about student loans and essentially how to pay them off. It is called “Zero Debt for College Grads: From Student Loans to Financial Freedom.”

When I went to graduate school, I came out of school with about $40, 000 in student loan debt, so I know what’s it like to have to get loans in order to finance your college education.

But to answer the question directly, no, I don’t think that running out of aid in and of itself is a pure obstacle to you completing school. I think a lot of times people haven’t considered all of the alternatives to loans when it comes to paying for their college cost, and there are five alternatives to loans.

One certainly is scholarships, two is grants, three is paid internships, four is work study programs and then five is whatever family resources you can marshal up.

By family resources, if it is not your own money, maybe mom and dad can kick in some money, maybe grandma, uncle Joe, whoever might be willing to throw some dollars your way to help pay for books, tuition, fees, computer, supplies, room and board, tuition, whatever it is that you have run short of in terms of having the money to pay.

On the scholarships and grants front, far too few people really aggressively seek out scholarships. I tell students that you should put in three to four weeks worth of search effort; 20 to 30, maybe even as much as 40 hours over the course of those three or four weeks.

I know it sounds like a full time job, but trust me, you are going to get a great payoff down the road. And the payoff is, you won’t have to borrow so much in student loans and you will save yourself potentially as much 15 years worth of repaying that college debt. And 15 years by the way is in fact the average repayment period right now for student loans according to the College Board.

A great resource is FastWeb.com, which is a search engine that will let you seek out the billions and billions of dollars in scholarships that are out there that are available for students. You enter some information about yourself, your background, your educational interests, your academic pursuits, etc., and it will match you up for scholarships for which you qualified.

The scholarships are based on a whole host of things, everything from, again, how well you have done in school and your grade point average to your ethnicity or background, your gender, perhaps your parents’ job, where you live, your career interests, etc, a whole host of criteria. But do aggressively seek out those scholarships and grants.

Regarding your question about the private loans, I always tell people to seek out federal student loans first. And, of course President Barack Obama earlier in 2010 signed Student Loan Reform as part of the Healthcare Reform Bill. Essentially, it means that a lot of people are going to go direct to the government to borrow for college as opposed to going to private lenders.

The reason I suggest federal loans first before private loans is that federal loans typically have lower interest rates. You will be able to get one right now for maybe 6.5 percent or less as opposed to some private loans, which might be 8, 10, 12 percent or so depending on your credit and whether or not you have a co-signer.

Federal loans also have lower fees. They have better loan forgiveness options, better forbearance options, and better deferment options if down the road when you are supposed to be in repayment, you need to put off those student loan payments.

If after you have pursued federal student loans and you have maxed out those federal loans and then you still need to get loans, then that’s the time that you should go ahead and seek out those private loans.

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Will Entering a Debt Management Program Hurt My Credit Score

Author: The Money Coach

Q: Will Entering a Debt Management Program Hurt My Credit Score

A: If you’re having trouble paying your bills on your own, yes, a debt management company can help. And contrary to popular opinion, simply enrolling in a debt management plan does not impact your credit score. Read this article on the differences between debt management and debt settlement companies, and learn why I strongly recommend debt management firms. (Read More).

Ask The Money Coach

Posts Tagged ‘Financial Services’

Don’t Just Dream, Execute By Setting Goals

Related Questions:

How can I complete school if I run out of financial aid?

Related Questions:

Will Entering a Debt Management Program Hurt My Credit Score

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