Who among us has never dreamed of something? Agree, it's nice to imagine something like that… Positive emotions are a very useful part of our life, but if you limit yourself only to dreams, you won't achieve anything. In order for a dream to become a reality, it, like a butterfly, must first go through several transformations, and one of the stages will definitely be financial. Let's consider how to turn your dream into reality with a specific financial plan, informs Ukr.Media.
Step 1. When a dream becomes a goal
The moment of the first transformation is very easy to catch: it comes when, from a vague wish “it would be nice…”, you begin to look for an answer to the question “how?” and move from the realm of emotions to assessments, calculations, and planning.
For example: “I would like to take a walk in the forest, breathe in the fresh air and enjoy the sunset on the riverbank” is a dream. If you want to find a magic door and through it get into a beautiful fairy-tale forest, then the dream will remain a dream. Do not forbid yourself to dream, but be realistic – magic doors are a rarity in our world.
But when your thoughts start to drift towards “should I go to a boarding house or buy a country house in a beautiful place?” these are signs that you are starting to imagine options for how to turn your dreams into life.
When you focus on a goal, you take the first step towards it. But on this path, you will have to climb a few more steps.
Step 2. “Specify it!”
We all know the saying “go there, you don't know where, bring that – you don't know what”. The same goes for goals: the more vaguely formulated the goal, the more difficult it is to achieve it. Therefore, if you want success, you need to ask yourself a lot of rather boring questions in order to reduce your desires to the simplest and clearest possible formula. Ideally, reduce everything to a few numbers.
For example, you decide: in order to walk in the forest and enjoy sunsets, you need to buy a country house. Great, but still a bit vague. “You need to buy a country house in a suitable location” is already a better developed option. Refine it by studying the market: “The country houses I need cost about 200 thousand hryvnias and are sold here and there.”
Now it all comes down to a specific and clearly measurable indicator: you need 200 thousand hryvnias for your dream and it is desirable to do this before the start of the warm season. This is the right financial goal: simple, focused and calculable. You can already build a path to it, and the steps and how successful your progress towards the goal is also easy to check.
Step 3. Calculations and planning
Once you have a clear financial goal, it’s time to make calculations. The more accurately and in detail you examine all your options, the easier it will be to build a path to your goal.
To achieve the goal, it is worth assessing:
- Monthly income and expenses;
- Availability of assets (savings, valuables);
- Opportunities for obtaining and repaying loans.
The main thing you should be interested in is how much you can allocate to achieve your financial goal. “Hryvnia per month” will be an indicator of the speed of movement towards the intended result. If the speed is too slow, then evaluate the option with credit, review the structure of your personal finances, etc. Perhaps it is high time for you to ask for a salary increase or a person with your qualifications has long been awaited in another company with a higher income.
All your plans should be recorded on paper or in a computer spreadsheet. This will help you visualize your goals and create an effective tool for tracking your progress. At the same time, it will be easier to analyze and record your achievements.
Personal finance experts recommend making plans with two “increments.” On one side, there are big steps and big goals. On the other side, there is a detailed breakdown of each big step into small, specific, achievable actions. This way, you won't lose your overall direction and won't be “scared” by large-scale tasks, because each time you will have a small and fairly easily solved piece of the overall plan in front of you.
Step 4. Go ahead, towards your dream!
When everything is decided and planned, you need to immediately set off. As practice shows, most plans fail not because they are imperfect, but because their implementation has been constantly postponed. Here are a few principles that will help you on this path:
Your plans are not set in stone: be sure to set aside time to analyze what you have achieved, check your progress against the schedule, and adjust the details if necessary. You can change your approaches, adjust your deadlines, and improve your tactics. You can't give up and give up on your dream.
An important point: when setting clear goals and choosing a path, do not overdo it. You are on the path, not in hard labor. Therefore, you cannot set yourself benchmarks like “I am switching to bread and water, I am saving all my money for the goal.” This way you can ruin your life and, most likely, not achieve the goal, because you will fall out of love with your dream. As already mentioned above: be realistic and do not choose an impossible option in advance.
Don't chase two birds with one stone, concentrate all your efforts on one direction, prioritize. If you have several goals, plan so that achieving one helps bring the others closer (it's not easy, but if you learn to do it this way, your efficiency will increase many times over).
Remember the children's song: “normal heroes always take a detour.” Consider alternative ways to shorten your path to your chosen financial goal: you may have valuable skills that people need, and they are willing to pay you for your work. You may have savings that you can invest, and this money will work for you and step by step bring you closer to your goal. Finally, you may have some idle assets that can bring money if you sell them. Do not hesitate and do not stop, combine different options and constantly look for new opportunities, so your “journey” will be much faster and more exciting.
Travel wisely
Once you have embarked on a path, it is important to follow it to the end. Otherwise, if you turn aside halfway, you will achieve nothing but a waste of resources and time.
As experience shows, the most reliable goals are achieved not by rapid impulses, but by systematic and persistent movement. Make a schedule for yourself to move towards your chosen goal and regularly cross off the boxes in your checklist. This, on the one hand, will stimulate and discipline you, and on the other hand, each small result achieved will become a small celebration for you and will support you morally on the long journey.
And then, when you achieve the desired result, you can look back and say, “What a journey it was!”
